On July 13, 2024 a gunman fired at Donald Trump during a speech he was giving in Bethel Park, PA. This attempt came very close, Trump was struck in the ear, and a fire fighter was killed. An attempt on a current or former U.S. president’s life is not something you hear about very often. Maybe that was why I was so shocked when I turned the news on and saw this story. But the more I learned about what happened, the more I asked myself how this happened. This is something that could have and should have been avoided.
When I first learned who the gunman was I was even more disturbed on how this happened. This gunman, who was shot and killed during the attempt, was a 20 year old local kid from that area. He was not a professional hit-man. Someone this young and in-experienced should have never been able to get that close to the former president with a rifle. In my opinion, Donald Trump got very lucky, this could have been much worse. If this man was a trained assassin a shot from that distance would have been a direct hit. Unfortunately an innocent person lost their life and the more I learned about this the more I don’t understand what happened.
The Secret Service still doesn’t have a motive on why this kid tried to assassinate Donald Trump. If I had to guess, this was some dumb kid who probably thought he was doing this country this favor. He probably saw himself as a hero. From what has been reported the shooter, Thomas Crooks, was a loner and had no accomplices. He wasn’t a political fanatic and didn’t seem to have a strong political affiliation. So why do I think that is the reason? All you have to do is look at some of the statements that have been made.
The Democrats will tell you they are fighting for democracy and for the soul of this nation. Donald Trump and all of his “MAGA Supporters” have been called domestic terrorists. Robert De Niro yelled at a crowd of people that everyone needs to be terrified if Trump is elected during his New York trial. We are constantly being told that he will be a dictator and once in office he will lock up his enemies and never leave office. January 6 is a topic that is constantly being discussed stemming up why people should be afraid. He is a Nazi, sexist, and a racist and this country will be over if he is elected. During the 2020 campaign the Democrats always said how dangerous Trump’s rhetoric could be, maybe it’s time they listened to their own advice.
Do you still need to ask why I think it is so far fetched this dumb kid was probably thinking he was being a hero? The Democratic party has ran their campaign by putting fear in American’s if Joe Biden is not re-elected. With all the wars that are going on, the foreign nation issues we are involved in, I really think there are people out there who are really afraid. When you are someone who is a position that holds that much power and makes such powerful comments, why wouldn’t a person who didn’t know any better be afraid.
That still doesn’t answer the question of how this was allowed to happen and why so many mistakes were made. In my opinion, this is only going to add to people starting with conspiracy theories. I don’t believe there was anything purposefully done wrong and that anyone wanted this to happen. Hopefully now they will understand how powerful their words are. I do think that the Secret Service didn’t think anything would happen so they didn’t bring their A game. The worst part about this whole situation, their were cops and agents in the building the gunman was on the roof of. This kid was noticed an hour before he took his first shot. These are things people hear about and feel embarrassed about our agents and their ability to protect.
So there are two big issues with what happened, the reason why he did it and the fact that he was able to do it. This one disaster should tell you that we are headed in the wrong direction in this country and there needs to be changed. Other nation leaders are already looking at us like we are a weak nation and the laughing stock of the world after the debate and after this, can you blame them. This shows that there are many problems in our government and that a major shakeup needs to happen. Obviously I don’t believe in a lot of these wild conspiracy theories but it doesn’t change the fact that this did happen and our former President was almost assassinated. An innocent fire fighter was killed and others were injured in a security fiasco.
It is hard to have pride in your country and claim to be the greatest nation on earth when things like this happen. President Biden’s many failures and apparent inability to perform his duties does not help the matter. Why he still refuses to drop out of the race when even the majority of people in his own party want him to only add to the bad look this country currently has. Hopefully this even will open the eyes of a lot of people and changes can start to happen. This can be and should be the greatest country on earth. We are country that is “for the people and by the people” and the people need to come together and demand the changes that need to be are done, many which are quite obvious.