Letter To The Shooter

On July 13th, 2024, the news rang out around the country that former president Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. Then came the conspiracy theories that flew around the Internet and, especially social media, which were mixed with hatred against the shooter... because he missed. So many people - too many people - were just breaking Federal Law 18 U.S. Code § 871: "Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both." The Internet was full of memes, postings, blogs, and quibs from people who wished Trump had died (sometimes miserably and painfully) or how they wouldn't have missed or how Trump deserved to die, etc. There were many government workers and regular people who ended up getting fired from their jobs over posts they wrote about killing Trump. This whole assassination attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks was weird because he was not made into a villain. The gun advocates didn't jump on the fact that he used an AR style rifle and demand stricter gun laws. There was no talk about focusing more on mental health; no. The focus was mostly on the sadness of many people that Crooks missed. COVID already brought out a lot of weirdness in our culture, but Crooks brought out even more. Our culture is unique and we show it everyday. To me, it's all equally fascinating and surprising.