Saturday morning’s shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh left 11 worshipers dead and six wounded, including four police officers. It didn’t take a New York minute for the media to put the blame of the synagogue shooting on Trump for his inflammatory rhetoric.
President Trump is being blamed for fomenting the toxic divisiveness that now permeates our country. According to the media, Trump’s bombastic speeches have not only energized his base, but they have also energized white supremacists. In addition to the synagogue shooting, the shooting of blacks in a Kentucky Kroger supermarket on Wednesday and the pipe bomb mailings are cited as examples.
Trump was also criticized for continuing to go on the campaign trail during a period of mourning.
As can be expected, the synagogue shooting has also reenergized the debate on gun control. The anti-gunners are once more calling for a ban on AR-15 and other military style rifles. The pro-gunners are chiming in with “if only one of those worshipers had been armed.”
A ban on military-style rifles will not prevent mass shootings. The nutjobs will merely use pistols instead of rifles. And as a former FBI agent said about one of the worshipers being armed, they are “not combat trained” and are likely to shoot themselves or others rather than the shooter.
Robert Bowers, the synagogue shooter, has a long history of making anti-Semitic statements on social media. He is a Holocaust denier. Bowers also slammed Trump for doing nothing to stop an “infestation” of the United States by Jews.
Police sources said Bowers walked into the synagogue and yelled “All Jews must die.” According to an FBI affidavit, when captured, Bowers told a SWAT officer, “They’re committing genocide to my people. I just want to kill Jews.”
Trump’s rhetoric may well be inflaming the divisiveness and hatred that has always existed in this country. But not so fast there! The anti-Trump rhetoric by Democrats like Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Maxine Waters and now Barack Obama are just as inflammatory as Trump’s bombastic speeches.
There is plenty of blame to go around. But the shootings by white supremacists cannot be blamed on either Trump or his Democratic antagonists. Nor can they be blamed on the Trump-hating media.
Blame for the atrocities that occurred at the Kroger supermarket and the Pittsburgh synagogue rests solely on the shoulders of the white supremacists who committed the shootings and on no one else. And what about those pipe bombs? Just because they were mailed by a pro-Trump nutjob, the President cannot be blamed for that either.
Update
Now, in the wake of the synagogue shooting, Trump is even being accused of anti-Semitism because he calls out George Soreass by name on the campaign trail.
Soreass, the anti-Israel billionaire, has been contributing millions and millions of dollars to Democratic candidates, to the left-wing opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and to far-left organizations. He makes no secret of his disdain for Trump and is doing everything he can to give the Democrats control of both houses of congress.
I’m Jewish and have been a vocal critic of Soreass for years. Does that make me anti-Semitic? Does slamming one of his enemies who happens to be Jewish make Trump anti-Semitic? It does in the minds of the anti-Trumpers.
Jeff Larson says
“And as a former FBI agent said about one of the worshipers being armed, they are “not combat trained” and are likely to shoot themselves or others rather than the shooter.”
Good article, but I have to take exception to this one sentence, which strikes me as a former FBI agent trying to justify why only those approved by the state should have guns.
The factual record is that EVERY time a citizen has provided an armed response to an active shooter incident, no bystanders were shot by the citizen responder and the citizen responder was either shot by the active shooter, or not shot at all. In nearly every example of this situation, either the citizen ended the active shooter incident, or at least provided a distraction that tied up the active shooter and allowed innocent bystanders to escape…even in situations where the active shooter eventually shot and killed the citizen responder.
This doesn’t mean that I think churches or any other institution should pass out guns at the door, just that citizen responders who provide their own firearms (usually concealed) do not necessarily need “combat training” to be effective. And yes, I do recommend that anyone who wants to legally carry a firearm get professional training. I just don’t believe that exercise of a right should depend on completing some goverment-mandated course of instruction.
Warren Fawcett says
I’m tired of law enforcement officers saying citizens shouldn’t defend or protect themselves.
Gail Stanart says
Thnaks for setting the record straight, for bringing facts to the rhetoric, and for doing it with civility!
Bob Walsh says
To a large segment of the U. S. media there is absolutely NOTHING that Trump can do right and absolutely NOTHING that he can not be blamed for. He could announce correctly that he had just come up with a cure for cancer and was going to pay to distribute it to everyone on the U. S. on his own dime and they would call for him to be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license and restraint of trade.