August 6th, 2024 

On July 30, 2024, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate stated that the agency still doesn’t know how Donald Trump’s would-be assassin got his rifle onto the roof on which he attempted his attack from. 

Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) grilled Abbate if the FBI had any knowledge about how Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman, was able to get onto the roof armed with a rifle. Abbate responded with the following, “We don’t have definitive evidence yet as to how he got the rifle up there. Based on everything that’s been collected thus far — photos, video, eyewitness accounts — we do believe he likely had it in the backpack.”

Abbate added, “We’re still assessing that. Our laboratory has taken, looked at the rifle itself and measured that against the backpack itself and, if placed in the backpack, it would extend outside, it would have been visible. The FBI Deputy Director noted that no witness has come forward to reveal that a rifle was sticking out of the Crooks’ backpack. 

Abbate posited, “It’s possible that he broke the rifle down, although we don’t have conclusive evidence of that, and took it out of the bag on the roof in those moments before and reassembled it there, that’s one of the theories we’re looking at and working on right now.”

On July 13th 2024, Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He fired multiple shots, with one shot piercing Trump’s right ear. The assassination attempts unfortunately resulted in the tragic death of volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore, who leaped in front of his family to prevent them from being struck by gunfire. Two other individuals were wounded by Crooks’ botched assassination attempt.

This incident has raised many concerns about security at mass public events and the potential role the corporate media played in inciting a deranged individual like Crooks to carry out such a heinous act.

Naturally, many conspiracy theories have emerged to try to explain this tragic set of events. While many of these theories are far out and often just stroke the ego of self-proclaimed “influencers” who are looking to generate clicks. There are many questions that have yet to be answered.

For one, how was Crooks able to climb onto a manufacturing plant roughly 130 yards from where Trump was delivering his speech? There were rally participants who recounted seeing Crooks visibly carrying a rifle as he made his way to the top of the building. Some of these individuals desperately tried to flag down authorities to act on this situation. It was from this elevated vantage point that Crooks was able to fire multiple shots. 

Since Trump’s assassination attempt, several elected officials have exploited this incident to try to push for gun control measures. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently called on both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to push for a so-called “assault weapons” ban, while President Joe Biden himself has called for a prohibition on AR-15s when it came to light that Crooks used an AR-15 style rifle to carry out his attack. There are still many elected officials who believe that passing gun control legislation will magically solve gun violence issues 

Clearly, these politicians are abiding by former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s axiom of never letting a crisis go to waste. However, none of these measures do much to address the elephant in the room that is the absolute security collapse that occurred on that fateful day of July 13. If we had a serious political class, that would be the issue to focusing all our attention on. Talking about gun control is a dangerous side quest at best. 

After the failed assassination attempt, the Congressional Oversight Committee held a hearing on July 22, where then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was put on the spot about the Secret Service’s failure to stop the assassination attempt. Cheattle eventually resigned from her position on July 23 after it became clear that the answers she gave to elected officials were unsatisfactory. 

Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered about the events of July 13. Grassroots voters will have to continue holding their politicians accountable and demand a clear response to what unfolded on that fateful day. 

One thing is certain, however: Passing gun control measures will do nothing to prevent politically motivated shootings and other actions committed by unhinged individuals with an ideological ax to grind. 

We must come to grips with the idea that the US has a competency crisis where the government is increasingly incapable of providing basic public security services. By disarming people and not addressing the country’s competency crisis, the US’s political class is not only putting public officials at risk of being assassinated, but also average rally attendees of being massacred in potential terrorist attacks. 

Civilian disarmament is simply not an answer to the US’s heightened degree of political polarization.