On July 13, a 20-year-old white male was able to get his hands on a legally purchased semiautomatic AR-type rifle and nearly succeed in assassinating a United States presidential candidate. This tragedy is a call to action that includes all of us and especially those of us over 65. Our experience and our perspective are critical to a reasoned and compassionate response. Before the event gets silted over with sound bites and sensationalism, before we resume our busy and distracted lives, let’s contact councilors, commissioners and legislators urging them to restrict access to these types of guns.
At the national level, organizations working toward gun safety would welcome our help. The list reads like the lament it is: Giffords, Sandyhook Promise, Brady, Everytown, Moms Demand Action. Were he to become the next president, maybe Trump would now agree that accessibility of automatic weapons is something to regulate, despite dubbing himself the “best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House” at the National Rifle Association earlier this year. The more stringent the gun laws, the fewer that die by gun violence. It’s that simple. In 2023, California had the strongest gun safety laws in the country and 8.7 deaths annually per 100,000. Wyoming—the weakest laws and 20.6 deaths per 100,000.
There’s another weapon being recklessly brandished, one that also results in mayhem and death. In this case, thanks to our Constitution, regulation isn’t an option, nor should it be. Oversight is entrusted to us as individuals. The judicious use of this potent munition is up to you and me. What am I talking about? Words. See any political spin put on this attempted assassination for what it is: at best a distraction from the real issues behind the tragedy, at worst the premeditated use of language as an assault weapon. Language misused, like guns, is powerful and dangerous. The effect is subtle, stealthy. Before we know it, conspiracy theories, distrust, fear and paranoia are worms in our brain. MAGA’s strategically executed campaigns have wielded an arsenal of violent and incendiary rhetoric, including name-calling, insults and unfounded accusations.
Words can be like bullets, yes, but they can also be powerful instruments of conciliation and forgiveness. Examples abounded after the shooting. It was so uplifting to hear expressions of compassion and concern from government and business leaders, citizens and celebrities… a joining of hands, a united team America. Pleas for calm, calls to heal the nation came from President Biden, Gabby Giffords, Nancy Pelosi, and Trump himself who said, “This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together.”
I want to believe him. I want to believe him even though this is the same man who used insulting and inflammatory language to describe immigrants, his opponents and women; joked about a life-threatening attack on the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; incited the attack on the Capitol in 2021; denies women their reproductive rights; lies; and sees himself above the law. I want to believe him, but I just don’t.
In 3 1/2 months we will have a new president. The Republican National Convention shed some light on what a Trump presidency will look like. What’s your takeaway? Will he surround himself with independent thinkers, the best in their fields? Not compromised by nepotism and cronyism? Will they be peacemakers or provocateurs? Do they embrace policies and values you identify with? How do they compare with President Biden’s cabinet in view of their accomplishments over the past three years? If, like the rest of us, the president is defined by the company he keeps and is only as good as his word(s), what’ll it be?
Meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder, if reports about how he was treated at school are true, what could Thomas Matthew Crooks have told us about the effect bullying had on his self-image and reclusive social behavior. And whether growing up in a house with 20 guns in it shaped his suicidal cry for help.
—Poet and author Ellen Waterston is a woman of a certain age who resides in Bend. “The Third Act” is a series of columns on ageing and ageism.
This article appears in Source Weekly July 25, 2024.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Ellen Waterston’s column contains the problems she complains of. The age and sex off the shooter add drama, but are irrelevant. Likewise, someone got a gun legally “getting his hands on it.” The AR-style, a matter of looks, not function, is the sort of demonizing she denounces in the rest of the piece. It is not relevant to the issue of regulating guns except on the basis of cosmetics. Then she immediately moves to conflating semiautomatic weapons with automatic weapons. Rifle vs. machine guns, which have not been legal for a very long time. A piece of scary propaganda or a reflection of ignorance on the subject. Neither leading to shared, reasoned solutions.
Ms. Waterston seems to engage in demonizing one style of rifle – AR15s. Estimates are there are over 300 million guns in the US. Probably at least 4-5 million are AR-style. In the latest year for which I found numbers, 3% of all murders were committed with a rifle of any kind. According to FBI statistics, the number of people killed with long guns of all types: shotguns, rifles of all styles; is fewer than people killed with fists, knives and clubs.
I cannot defend the behavior and language of Donald Trump. But inflammatory language is widespread and not limited to him or his supporters. Hillary Clinton described those who opposed her as “a basket of deplorables.” A minister friend of mine refers to members of the NRA as “murderers.” Certainly not conducive to reconciliation and coming together.
Escalating violence correlates to promotion of victimhood, and divisiveness, shouting down opponents, blackmailing corporations, hate-labelling the opposition and other facets style tactics by more extreme elements on the left. Cancel culture elements in Portland gained elimination of gang and gun crime units, claiming undue focus on people of color. Those communities are now demanding action, following ballooning of victimization among people color.
The behavior of Progressives, and Waterston’s own writings, should not be exempt from examination, or accusations of playing blame and shame, because they view themselves as being on the side of the angels.