What a week.
For the first time this century, the American public has witnessed an attempt to kill a president. On Saturday, less than 48 hours before the start of the Republican National Convention, a 20-year-old man wielding an AR-style rifle tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. In doing so, the shooter killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, a longtime volunteer firefighter who died shielding his family from gunfire, and hospitalized two other Pennsylvanians, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74. The shooter was killed at the scene. Trump’s ear appeared to be wounded during the attack, but it has not been officially confirmed that the injury was caused by a bullet. The following day, he flew to the convention in Milwaukee, where guns are allowed just outside the venue and Republicans, including a Trump campaign official, have insisted that their stances on the Second Amendment are unchanged.
The Secret Service is under multiple investigations for massive security failures at the rally shooting. The shooter’s motive remains unclear. Investigators haven’t found evidence that he expressed particularly partisan views; FBI officials said he used his cell phone to search for images of an array of public figures, including Trump and President Joe Biden, as well as the dates of Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention. The shooter was a registered Republican, but federal finance records show that someone with the same name and zip code also donated $15 to a progressive political action committee in 2021.
There are many, many questions remaining, and the absence of answers has enabled the proliferation of conspiracy theories, unsubstantiated claims, and dangerous partisan rhetoric. Fact check: Trump and security personnel did not smile after the shooting, as digitally altered images suggested; the attack was not a “false flag”; and claims that “Biden sent the orders” and that Democrats “tried to murder President Trump” are baseless. And although many Trump supporters have tried to blame the rally shooting on Democrats, most fatal political violence is perpetrated in service of far-right ideologies. The most violent rhetoric comes from the right; researchers have found that Trump himself has increased his use of violent vocabulary over time, and his use is higher than that of any politician in a democratic country.
Threat assessment leaders say the heated atmosphere could lead to more violence — the FBI and Department of Homeland Security quickly issued a bulletin this week noting their concern “about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory” attacks. But experts had warned of political violence around the 2024 election, and researchers have found that a startling number of Americans believe violence is justified to advance political objectives. “The warning bells” for the attempted assassination of Trump, counterterrorism expert Seamus Hughes wrote in Lawfare, “were sounding at a decibel level that should have been audible from the cosmos.” The United States has a long history of violence, and the country is currently in the most sustained period of political violence in half a century: Threats against public officials at all levels of government have surged in the runup to the election.
Rachel Kleinfeld, an expert on political violence and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sees a way out of this environment. That way out, Kleinfeld told Politico, hinges on the American public: “A majority of Americans unequivocally condemn violence,” Kleinfeld said. “What we really need to happen in America … is for that broad swath of center left to center right to stand up and say, ‘We want a different kind of politician, and we want a different kind of political society.’”
Our team is chasing down stories about the attack at the Trump rally and its fallout, along with others about the broader issue of political gun violence in the United States. But we want to ensure that our coverage is useful to you. What do you want to know about the assassination attempt and political violence in America? What are you feeling about the state of the nation, and its gun violence, going into this election? What would you like to see from media coverage? Let us know via the form linked here.
From The Trace
The latest from our team.
Guns Are Allowed Outside the RNC. This State Law Is the Reason Why.
Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are among the more than 40 states that bar cities from enacting their own gun rules.
AR-15s Are Used in America’s Deadliest Shootings. Why Is It So Hard for Police to Defend Against Them?
The officer who retreated after spotting the Trump rally shooter underscores the perceived threat that assault weapons pose to law enforcement.
How the Trump Rally Shooting Fits Into America’s Gun Violence Crisis
The Trace’s reporters have covered AR-style weapons, preemption gun laws, and concealed carry laws for years. Here are five stories to help understand how we got here.
In Chicago, ShotSpotter Sparks a Political Power Struggle
The fight over the gunshot detection technology has escalated between the mayor and a group of alderpeople, who have tried to block its removal.
How Police Guns End Up in the Hands of Criminals
In a new episode of “Reveal,” The Trace’s Alain Stephens reports on how law enforcement agencies routinely resell their used guns to buy new ones.
What to Know This Week
Former President Donald Trump announced Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate in his bid to retake the White House. Vance has a record of opposing gun regulations: In June, after the Supreme Court struck down what was effectively a ban on bump stocks, he called a Democrat-led effort to legislate a ban on the devices “a huge distraction.” The senator has also described extreme risk protection order laws as “a slippery slope” and expressed support for eliminating the ATF. [Salon]
Out-of-state police officers helping with security at the Republican National Convention shot and killed an unhoused man, identified by a loved one as 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe Jr., while they were in a parking lot blocks away from the event’s “soft” perimeter. Community members described Sharpe as a “beautiful person” who was well known in the neighborhood. Some said the shooting would not have happened if local police had responded. [USA TODAY/WISN]
Massachusetts lawmakers said they have reached a deal to pass a long-awaited reform bill to overhaul the state’s firearm laws. The measure would regulate ghost guns for the first time in the state and expand who is allowed to request an order to remove guns from people deemed a risk to themselves or others. [The Boston Globe]
For years, lawmakers and advocates in New York have sought to make lockdown drills less traumatic for students. This week, they celebrated a win: State education officials adopted new rules that require schools to notify parents at least a week in advance of a planned drill, and that the drills be conducted in “a trauma-informed, developmentally and age-appropriate manner.” [Chalkbeat New York]
In Memoriam
Tykeedra Henderson, 22, was a fighter: She started working at age 16, and though the Type 1 diabetes she was born with sometimes interfered in her life, she never let it slow her down, her mother told The Kansas City Star. Henderson was shot and killed at a gas station in Kansas City on the Fourth of July. Loved ones described her as vibrant and bubbly, with a smile that could light up a room — she was “a spitfire,” her mom said. According to her aunt, Henderson had plans to attend school in the fall to become a radiology technician. She wanted a career that would help people. “She was definitely a light to all she came in contact with,” her aunt said. “She touched so many lives in her short time that she spent here on this earth. And we know that there was so much more in store for her in the future.”
We Recommend
I Grew Up Where Trump Was Shot. It’s Long Been a Magnet for American Politics.
“On Saturday, just outside Butler, Pennsylvania, gunshots rang out, thrusting the small town into the international spotlight. This is my hometown.” [Detroit Free Press]
Pull Quote
“Our Milwaukee police officers know about this camp and know about the people staging there and understand the issues that go along with experiencing homelessness. He didn’t have to be shot … by an officer who wasn’t from here.”
— Shelly Sarasin, who is part of Street Angels, a Milwaukee outreach group that provides materials for unhoused people, on out-of-state police officers killing of Samuel Sharpe Jr., to USA TODAY
