Letters to the Editor: Readers react to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump

As people respond to the assassination attempt on former President Trump, many are pondering what has gotten us here.

What can we expect for the future of our country? Readers speculate about a possible change of heart from GOP leaders when it comes to gun reform. They want to know if we are going to continue to see elected officials refuse to take accountability for manifesting a culture where violence seems not only acceptable but encouraged. Or, as the furor dies down, will we continue to live in a country where an assassination attempt on a former president is not really as shocking as it should be?

Regardless of party affiliation, there is one thing readers agree on — the United States should not condone political violence.

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To the editor: This presidential election cycle has caused many of us to feel stressed and overwhelmed as the political environment has challenged our ability to cope. In a time when so many struggle with their mental health, the political discourse seems to add fuel to the fire. We wake up, read the headlines and reporting and feel overwhelmed, anxious and vulnerable.

When I learned that an assassination attempt was made on former President Trump, I felt a range of emotions. I realized that we live in a world where fear has transformed people on both sides so they feel contempt and dehumanize others who do not think as they do.

That’s why I took heart when I learned President Biden spoke with Trump. Biden set aside their ideological differences and demeaning name-calling and recognized the sanctity of their common humanity. In these turbulent times, I want this exchange to be an example of character and humanity at its best. I have hope.

Jeanne Ortiz, Long Beach

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To the editor: Some of us are old enough to remember the assassination of presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy 55 years ago. A few weeks before that assassination, I remember RFK coming to Mass at our parish and parishioners were swarming him asking for autographs, with no security detail at all to protect him. I also remember the morning after the assassination that the Irish nuns, our teachers at the parochial school, were crying over this great loss. I, of course, recalled the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. just a year earlier, and I remembered six years earlier those nuns leading us to church to pray for God to save the life of President Kennedy when we first heard the news that he was shot.

There are some who have said that God protected President Trump and I am grateful that he was spared any serious injury. However, those bullets that narrowly missed Trump killed a loving husband and father, and critically injured two others. That was not God’s doing.

Whenever these shootings occur, there are renewed calls for reasonable gun control, but in the end nothing changes. If we do nothing, we cannot expect that God will protect us from ourselves.

Steve Mills, Glendale

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To the editor: Those of us who are Trumpists support the man because of the fist raised defiantly in the air mere seconds after nearly giving his life for his country. He is a fighter, we want a fighter.

Opponents can spread lies and calumnies all they like about him being Stalin, Hitler or Satan. The left has tried to destroy him now for eight years. They have come close, but have not defeated the fighter.

Come November Trump will sweep Joe Biden into the dustbin of history and he and we will begin to Make America Great Again.

Michael Murphy, San Pedro

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To the editor: “Shooting shocks …” notes the headline of Kevin Rector’s article on the attempt to kill former President Trump. Really? In my lifetime Martin Luther King Jr., John and Robert Kennedy were all assassinated along with attempts on Reagan and Ford. Shocking? Think about the mass shootings at schools in Columbine, Sandy Hook and Uvalde, as well as those at the Pulse nightclub in Florida and in Las Vegas. The only real shock is that every day there are more guns being manufactured and sold in this country.

The headline could have just as well have been “Ho hum, another shooting.”

Larry Harmell, Granada Hills

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To the editor: The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has shocked this nation. We wish him well as he resumes his campaign, grateful that the bullet only grazed his ear and that he will be at the Republican National Convention this week.

And we express condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, who died protecting his family from the gunshots.

Violence breeds violence — whether by a mob or by a single individual. We have images of marchers at Charlottesville and remember their racist chants. We cannot forget images of the mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 on a destructive drive through the building as legislators ran to safety and protection.

True, politicians should temper their rhetoric so as not to inflame the opposition’s anger and retaliation. But that’s not enough. Gun owners should assess their need to own and to bear arms. Parents should consider the hazard of having guns in their home, accessible to their family members. And all of us, now nervous in public venues and at political rallies, should continue supporting gun control so that individuals and mobs will be restrained from violent action.

How to make America safe from gun violence should be part of campaign platforms and political speeches, with the pledge that preventing gun violence will serve the common good and save lives.

Lenore Navarro Dowling, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Now that it’s been learned that Trump’s would-be assassin used an AR-15 assault-style rifle, will the gun-loving MAGA crowd in the Senate, the House and the country at large finally agree that a ban on such horrific weapons is very much in order? Will legislation be enacted any time soon to prevent these rifles from falling into the hands of people who have no business possessing them? Based on decades of congressional inaction and kowtowing to America’s intractable gun lobby, I’m not holding my breath.

Tom Stapleton, Glendale

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To the editor: Of course, we should all condemn political violence (re: “Trump shooting points to growing threats of political violence”).

But let’s put this into perspective. We should condemn Trump for the way he’s stoked violence in this country since he began his run for the presidency in 2016. He’s spurred conflict and violence at his cultish rallies, public speeches, interviews and events for years.

He incited an assault on our nation’s Capitol in an attempt to subvert our electoral process and deny the will of the electorate. And he’s most responsible for undermining the rule of law in our country, assailing his prosecutions as illegitimate and promising to “weaponize” the Department of Justice and exact “retribution” if he regains the White House.

So we shouldn’t let an attempted assassination obscure the reality of Trump’s ongoing campaign of dividing the nation and openly fueling violence.

Take a stand once more against violence as a response to our political conflict. But don’t forget Trump has shown he will do anything to wreck our democracy and gain the boundless power of a despot ruling America with corruption, vengeance and an iron hand.

T.R. Jahns, Hemet

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To the editor: The attempted assassination Saturday of former President Trump makes it even more essential that President Biden immediately take himself out of the running in this year’s election.

Biden’s campaign point that “Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy” has been offered by some on the right as a likely motivating factor for the gunman.

President Biden would have to drop this basic messaging, because it will be forever associated with him no matter what. Democrats need a fresh candidate and a fresh message. Nobody ever persuaded anybody by trashing the guy that the person they’re trying to convince idolizes.

In my opinion that person should be a Democratic governor — most anyone but Gavin Newsom — who can bring both administrative experience and a new message to the race.

Trump may be unbeatable at this point no matter what, but without a new candidate, if nothing else changes, he is unbeatable for sure, and he will take many, many down-ballot Democrats with him.

David Van Iderstine, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I did not vote for Donald Trump and will not. Having said that, during my lifetime the following successful and attempted assassinations of public figures have occurred:

Harry Truman: 11/1/50
John F. Kennedy: 11/22/63
Malcolm X: 2/21/65
Martin Luther King Jr.: 4/4/68
Robert F. Kennedy: 6/5/68
George Wallace: 5/15/72
Gerald Ford: 9/5/75 and 9/22/75
Larry Flynt: 3/6/78
John Lennon: 12/8/80
Ronald Reagan: 3/30/81
Donald Trump: 7/13/24

Whether people agree or disagree with these leaders is not the point. Violence is no way to address an issue.

Robert Schoenburg, West Hills

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To the editor: “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence” was President Biden’s response to the attempted assassination of former President Trump.

Sounds like what you would expect from our political leaders during an act of extreme political turmoil, right? Well, not in today’s GOP.

In what could have been a rare and fleeting moment of political unity, MAGA Republicans chose instead to spew dangerous rhetoric that will only continue to polarize the nation.

Within minutes of the news, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) tweeted “Joe Biden sent the orders.” Then just minutes after that he posted again, “The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.”

The official X account from the House GOP Judiciary Committee, chaired by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), tweeted:

“Joe Biden: ‘It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.’ That Just Happened.”

And of course, I couldn’t forget Marjorie Taylor Greene, who posted on X, “Democrats wanted this to happen. They’ve wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen.”

Trump’s MAGA minions were so quick to blame their political rivals for an attempted assassination — for what? To capitalize on a powder keg of political turmoil that puts the very foundation of our democratic ideals at risk. Today’s GOP cares more about defeating Joe Biden and the “radical left” than they care about our democracy, our constitution, and the great people of this country.

The far right’s response to Sunday’s events should scare every American.

I am eternally grateful that President Trump is OK, but the immediate aftermath from this ordeal, largely perpetuated by his proteges, is why we need to mobilize against them in November. At the end of the day Donald Trump is still a threat to democracy — but we need to fight him with ballots, not bullets.

Jack Burchess, Gillette, Wyo.