Why does America lack respect for life? I’m not talking about the unborn child and the when does life start debate. I mean, taking a life because of violence. Violence in America is growing, and in the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting, I am looking for the answer to why. Gun violence has increased by 17 percent since 2008, going from 10.21 per 100,000 in 2009 to 11,96 per 100,000 in 2016. The data shows a clear increase in gun deaths following the 2008 Supreme Court ruling, with a pattern linked to gun ownership and state-level gun regulations. States with the highest rate of gun ownership and the weakest gun violence protection laws had the highest death rates, such as Alaska at 23.86 per 100,000, Alabama with a rate of 21.51 per 100,000, and Louisiana with a rate of 21.08 per 100,000. States with the strongest violence laws and lower gun ownership had the lowest rates, like Massachusetts at 3.55 per 100,000 and New York at 4.56 per 100,000. Utah had a rate of 14.8 per 100,000 in 2023, and between 2014 and 2023, it experienced an approximate 19 percent increase. You can say that it isn’t the guns, but the data says otherwise.

I have been paying close attention to the Charlie Kirk murder, and it is a prime example of what is wrong with violence in America. There is an ancient saying that violence just breeds more violence. If you look at all the political rhetoric following the shooting, it is very easy to figure out why violence breeds more violence. Trump gave a speech to the nation from Mar-a-Lago following the shooting. It was billed as a speech to heal the Nation, and it was also framed as a call for unity. It was anything but. It very quickly pivoted into unsubstantiated blame directed at the political left. Trump stated, “This was not random. This was political. The radical left has blood on its hands.” He also said, “ They’ve spent years demonizing patriots like Charlie. Now they’re celebrating his death.” He also said, “This is what happens when you let animals run the country.” He called for mass arrests of the “Radical Left”. This was our President offering no evidence linking the shooter to any political group.  No suspect had been publicly identified at the time. Law enforcement had not released any motive. The deliberate framing of this as an ideological assassination from the left was very reckless and inflammatory. What Trump did was weaponize the tragedy to try to justify sweeping accusations and punitive actions against political opponents. I am on six social media platforms, and I did not see a single post celebrating the killing, not a one.

Following the shooting, the misinformation was flying. The identity of the shooter is a Black man, a transgender woman, and a Latino man. All were false. There was the conspiracy theory that claimed “signal men” cued the shooter. There was Media manipulation, sharing fake headlines from supposedly real media. There was, of course, the political blame, declaring the shooter was a registered Democrat, even though at the time, the shooter had not been identified. Laura Loomer said, “More people will be murdered if the left isn’t crushed .” Elon Musk said that the “left is the party of murder.” Pictures were posted of people they claimed were the shooter, all of which were false. Being an independent, I can tell you that it is not the Democrats who are posting the false and misleading information. It was the Republicans.

Trump is making a statement about the radical left. He explicitly denounced the “radical left political violence. Republican Representative Nancy Mace told reporters, “ Democrats are responsible for what transpired today”. She doubled down when challenged by the press, repeatedly saying that the Democratic rhetoric caused the shooting. Representative Luna yelled across the House floor at Democrats, “You caused this.” She later posted on social media, blaming the so-called left, the media, and “fascist” accusations from the left for Kirk's shooting. Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden warned that “Left winged pollical violence” was responsible for the shooting. Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene said that the left was responsible and called on her followers to “rise up and end this”. First, they were talking without knowing any facts. Second, they were trying to take political advantage of this tragedy. I can’t help but feel like they were intentionally inciting violence against Democrats. They were deliberately demonizing a segment of America that is just as American as they are. We have seen this before in history, but if we point it out, we are portrayed as the bad guys. We have seen that too in history.

The biggest politically violent event I have seen in my lifetime was the attack on our Capitol, trying to prevent the Congress from performing its constitutional duty to certify the election. That day, Donald Trump and other Republicans assembled a crowd and then encouraged them to march on the Capitol. As the violence unfolded, Donald Trump could have stopped the mob of domestic terrorists. For three hours, he didn’t do anything even though the crowd was chanting to hang Vice President Mike Pence. He finally asked the mob to go home and that he loved them. Make no mistake, the people who stormed the Capitol were criminals. Many turned our American flag into a weapon of hate as they beat the police with it. Around one hundred and fifty police officers were injured. 1800 people were convicted of crimes, and Donald Trump pardoned them all. I am 72 years old and have seen many political protests, but that was the first time I saw a group trying to burn our Constitution.

When a sitting President blames an entire political party without any proof, he is just legitimizing retaliation and deepening the rift that is tearing America apart. After the Charlie Kirk shooting, I think Donald Trump owes the entire country an apology. The shooter turned out to be a White, Christian, from a Trump-supporting family. In time, we may hear more about the shooter, but he is not anything that Trump, his administration, or the Republican party said that he was. In fact, now that the shooter is not some radical left person or an immigrant, the news of the shooter will probably be under-reported. The press will move on to the next story and work to continue to divide the nation further.

The same day, we had a school shooting in Colorado, and it hardly made the news.  They have already stopped talking about the Tennessee School shooting. When it comes to our children dying from guns, Trump stated that we must move on. Charlie Kirk in April of 2023 said, “It’s worth having the cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every year so we can have the Second Amendment to protect our God-given rights. When our children are killed in the classroom, they get 'thoughts and prayers.” Charlie Kirk gets shot, and the Right wants to round up the radical left, even though there was no proof of any political motive. I have stated many times that Bigotry, Racism, Hatred, and Threats of Violence are part of the Republican Party's platform. The Republicans' actions after the Kirk shooting just make me think more that I am right.