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Trump was shot, but don't expect Republicans to talk about guns

As tragic as it is, the attempted assassination of Trump should spark conversations about how to solve and continue to reduce gun murders. We need to start talking about gun violence.

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In the United States, 327 people are shot every day. On July 13, former President Donald Trump was one of them.

The shooting at Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one person dead and two injured is a tragedy and a major failure of law enforcement. It is something we should all abhor, regardless of our political leanings.

We now know that the 20-year-old shooter even flew a drone over the rally site two hours before Trump's speech. The attempted assassination was such a major security lapse that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned.

The talks and hearings in Congress about the security failures began days after the shooting; some of the talks that were necessary.

And yet, I have seen very few elected officials actually talk about gun violence and the need for stronger legal measures, even though the weapon used at the Trump rally is a popular choice among mass murderers. You would think an assassination would force the country to take gun violence seriously. You would be wrong.

So I decided to talk to 24-year-old David Hogg, who has been fighting for better gun laws for six years after surviving one of the country's most notorious school shootings.

Why it is important to talk about gun violence

Hogg was a 12th grader at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when a former student killed 17 people on Valentine's Day 2018. He is a co-founder of March For Our Lives.

Because of his own experience with shootings and his lobbying work, Hogg quickly noticed how little was said about guns—neither for nor against—at the Republican convention following the assassination of Trump.

“It shows that they are running away from this issue in particular,” he told me.

During his acceptance speech at the RNC on July 18, the former president noted that he would likely never tell the story of the shooting again because it was “too painful.” Hogg compares that remark to his own experience, pointing to a campaign rally Trump held in January following a school shooting in Iowa. The day after that tragedy, the former president told Iowans that we “have to get over it.”

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“Despite his harrowing story and what he went through, he talked about how hard it is for him to talk about it,” Hogg said. “Imagine how hard it is for the kids in Parkland to talk about it. Imagine how hard it is for parents who fear for their children's lives. I'm grateful he survived, but I also hope he understands how insulting it is to tell people about it just to get over it.”

Despite the difficulties, it's important that people talk about it. As tragic as it is, the Trump assassination attempt will hopefully spark conversations about how to solve gun murders and bring them down further than the 16.4% that has dropped since 2021. We need to start talking about it.

Gun laws have worked in the past

Hogg points out that gun laws in Florida and across the country have changed since the shooting at his high school. He points to the state's “Red Flag Law,” which prevents the sale of firearms to people who may pose a threat to themselves or others. Since the law went into effect in his home state, it has been used more than 12,000 times.

In 2022, the federal government jointly passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Since its implementation, hundreds of illegal gun purchases have been stopped.

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“It's obviously important that we do everything we can to prevent this. Because if there's a shooter in a building, in a parking lot, in a classroom, it's too late,” Hogg said, “because someone will already die.”

Both parties have been willing to work across party lines in the past to prevent further gun deaths. When President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981, it led to the passage of the Brady Act. It was named after James Brady, Reagan's White House press secretary, who survived a gunshot wound to the head that day.

The Brady Handgun Violence and Prevention Act is perhaps the most consequential gun control law since its passage in 1993. Hopefully, we will see similar legal action in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt.

The NRA, for some reason, still has influence on American politics

Despite calls for better security for election officials and a desire to send a message of unity to the country, Republicans don't seem to be serious about gun violence prevention. It's hard to separate that from the amount of money they've taken from the National Rifle Association (NRA) over the years.

In the 2020 election cycle, the NRA donated more than $772,000 to Republican candidates and $13,800 to Democrats – and spent more than $5.4 million on lobbying.

Despite recent revelations about corruption within the organization, the NRA has already donated nearly $9,000 and spent $2.8 million on lobbying for the 2024 election.

After this attack on a former US president, I believe no candidate should accept money from the NRA or any other gun organization.

Both the attacker in Parkland and the gunman who shot Trump used legally purchased AR-style rifles. The right answer would be to ban assault rifles. That, in turn, requires reforming the filibuster so that it no longer requires a two-thirds majority to pass legislation that a majority of senators want.

Despite my beliefs, I don't have much hope that lawmakers will start taking the issue of gun violence seriously. Hogg doesn't have that hope either.

“The answer will probably just be more policing, as usual,” Hogg said, “which then leads to more gun sales, which then proves ineffective, and then we decide to spend more money on policing.”

The Democrats, on the other hand, are rolling out their gun safety plans. Recently, Vice President Kamala Harris called for new gun safety laws in a speech in Milwaukee that kicked off her presidential campaign. Shortly thereafter, March For Our Lives announced its support for Harris – a first for the organization.

“We will finally pass red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban,” Harris told the crowd.

This is a good step, but for something to actually happen, both sides need to talk about the issue.

If Republicans and Democrats are truly appalled by what we witnessed on July 13, they will do everything in their power to make our country safer by making it harder to obtain a weapon that nearly cost a former president his life.

Follow USA TODAY election columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno

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