POLITICAL VIOLENCEA Call to Protect Democracy from Political Violence
As the nation reels from the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, experts at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions say we must be clear about the threat of guns in a heated election.
After heavy scrutiny, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stepped down from her post last week. Congress and many others are still demanding answers for the security failings in protecting former President Donald Trump from an attempted assassination. And while finding an answer to that question is very important, there are equally important questions to contemplate: How is it so easy for those who want to commit political violence to acquire firearms? And what are we going to do about it?
For many years, we have been arguing that there are two converging trends eroding the foundation of our democracy. First, there has been a well-organized effort to falsely incorporate an individual right to take up arms against the government into the Second Amendment. As the leaders of this effort like to say, “the Second Amendment is not about duck hunting.” In their world, armed political violence can be justified in settling partisan disagreement. The armed takeover of the Michigan Capitol Building in 2021 and the foiled plot of armed paramilitary group members to kidnap Michigan’s governor the year before are just two recent examples. This dangerous ideology has moved from the fringes to include many elected officials, creating a permission structure for extremist ideas to become actions. It’s important to recognize that the attempted assassination is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a troubling trend of normalizing political violence.
The second troubling trend is the increasing accessibility of guns and the lack of laws to regulate them, allowing people to act on their dangerous beliefs. Without comprehensive federal action on guns, states across the nation have diverged on gun policy, with some doubling down on strengthening regulation as others weaken life-saving measures. Though regulations on guns are not going to stop every shooting, this patchwork means many states don’t have the tools to even try. Pennsylvania, where the assassination attempt took place and where Trump returned Wednesday, is one example. Despite spirited efforts by gun violence prevention advocates in the state, people under 21 can legally purchase and possess long guns like the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting. In this case, the shooter purchased the rifle from his father, who had acquired it legally.
Reports indicate that the shooter’s family had expressed concerns about his behavior shortly before the incident, but even if they’d called police earlier, there is no legal mechanism in place in the state to temporarily prevent
