ROUNDUP: Following Assassination Attempt of Former U.S. President, New Opinion Pieces Highlight Need to Address American Gun Culture

July 14, 2024

Washington, DC — Following the shooting of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on July 13, 2024, Guns Down America compiled a non-exhaustive list of opinions from major publications with calls to address the cultural dysfunction around gun violence.

Nicole Russell wrote in an op-ed for USA TODAY: “I am saddened and disappointed. This is not the America I know and love. This is not the America I want for my children. This is not an America we should accept.”

David French wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times: “I think of Yeats’s words often. By “center,” he’s referring not to some kind of moderate political middle but rather to the moral center of civilization. When the moral center gives way, nations fall.”

Helen Ubiñas wrote in an op-ed for The Philadelphia Inquirer: “There’s only one right response to the Trump shooting. It's not to make him a god or a GOAT: It is to declare, once and for all, that we will finally stop pledging our allegiance to guns more than to one another.”

Juliette Kayyem wrote in an op-ed for The Atlantic: “Political violence reveals deep cultural dysfunction, and that dysfunction is what our leaders must address.”

On July 13, 2024, Guns Down America released a statement responding to the Trump rally shooting. On behalf of the organization, Executive Director Hudson Munoz said: “Guns should have no place in our democracy, and political violence serves no purpose, other than to destroy faith in our political process.” You can read the full statement here.