Monday, July 15, 2024
Regardless of what your politics may be, Saturday’s events in Butler, PA were a dark day for our country. This time, the all too familiar mass shooting unfolded—an AR-15 style rifle, a young and mentally tormented shooter who was also into bomb-making, and everyday American victims just going about their plans for the day (this time, a political rally).
This time was different. One of the individuals hit was former President Donald Trump at a political rally in farm country outside Pittsburgh. Grazed with an ear wound, Trump defiantly got up as Secret Service surrounded him, forming a human shield. Later that evening, he took to social media platform Truth Social, where he said: “I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
The incident was enough to make his wife, former First Lady Melania Trump, issue a statement of her own, part of which included the words: “A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion— his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” Melania Trump wrote. “The core facets of my husband’s life— his human side— were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”
Even President Joe Biden, who is fighting to keep his presidency versus Trump for the upcoming 2024 election, spoke out Sunday in a (rare for him) primetime address from the Oval Office. He stressed that while political passions can run high, we as a country must “never descend into political violence.” He continued to remind Americans that Republicans and Democrats can compete forcefully over differences in opinion, but it must be done in civil fashion. He said: “All of us now face a time of testing as the election approaches. There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”
As a millennial, we have seen lots of terrible events—The Columbine High School Massacre (and sadly, many more school shootings thereafter), 9/11, The Great Recession and more. One event we never thought we’d see again is an assassination attempt on a current or former president. Sure, we knew they happened when our parents were young—JFK in 1963, MLK, Jr. in April 1968 and RFK in June 1968. We learned about the attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in our American history classes. Now, we have our own historical moment: the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on a contentious former president and 2024 presidential candidate.
Butler, PA is about 40 miles north of where I grew up. The rally-goer victim who was shot in the head was a firefighter who was the father of a friend of a friend of my sister’s (Pittsburgh is very much a six degrees of separation city). We can all learn a thing or two about this weekend’s incident. It’s time we “lower the temperature” (as Biden said) on this fiery political climate. Listen to your political counterparts, you may learn something from each other. Listen to those in a different generation than you. Extend that hand across party lines and learn how we can make our country better together. Also, if Trump had moved his head just millimeters the other way, he likely would’ve died on that podium. That was a stark reminder that life is short, and it can change in a matter of seconds, whether you’re a former president of the U.S. or just an everyday American.
No matter what happens as we approach November’s election, we must remember that there is no place in America for this kind of violence, or any violence ever, as President Biden said. We cannot allow this to be a regular occurrence.
The AP’s Evan Vucci captured a photo that many agree will be a legendary picture in American history, no matter what your politics are. We included it as the feature photo in this story, and you can find more about how on-site photographers captured the assassination attempt here.