What I’ve witnessed the last couple days after the assassination attempt on Trump is a torrent of “partisan differences are destroying the country” and very few, if at all, discussions about the proliferation of dangerous military-grade weapons in the hands of lunatics and how destructive this has been to Americans. The FBI hasn’t uncovered any evidence that the shooter was particularly radicalized politically, if at all, in fact they haven’t been able to determine just which side he favored.

What we do know is a creepy kid somehow got past a massive security perimeter and shot at a former and maybe future President of the USA. Even Trump, with immense security surrounding him, was vulnerable to a lunatic with a gun. Of course, many Americans who’ve been victims of mass shootings already knew this, but weren’t protected by a legion of armed cops and snipers on rooftops. Need I list all these horrible incidents just in the last decade? But all we see are the usual blatherings, political bickering and finger-pointing, trying to assign blame to the other side or “the press,” without any factual basis, instead just flinging unfounded accusations and wild conspiracy theories.

Firstly, let me state this: I love free speech. People have the right to express themselves openly and with great gusto, regardless if I agree with what they’re expressing or not. Truths, lies, tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories, insults, vulgarities, wild accusations, whatever. Free speech is beautiful. You don’t like it, don’t read or listen to it, but you damn sure better not try to suppress it with laws. Of course there are the yelling “fire” in a theater exceptions, or physical or terroristic threats; obviously there are limits already laid down by law. But free speech itself at its essence? Too many outstanding Americans have sworn to defend our Constitution and died or were severely wounded in that defense. Honor them and our Constitution. Protect free speech at all costs. I think people openly expressing their political differences, and loudly so, even acrimoniously, obnoxiously– maybe especially this–and no matter how repugnant to others, is a sign of a healthy democracy.

Secondly, I’m not advocating gun control or banning guns. It’s a little too late for that, America. I’m just saying, we live by the sword, we die by it too. Even our highest citizens, like our Presidents, serving and former, are vulnerable to our country’s appalling gun violence. What hope do common people have?

I also live in Spain. Know how many mass shootings there have been? Just guess. The answer is 4, with 9 fatalities and 9 wounded, since 2000, the highest number of victims killed is 4, in Olot in 2010 amid a financial dispute, while one of these in 2015 was by a psychotic kid under 14 with a crossbow at his school. In the USA since 2000, 151 mass shootings, with 1153 dead, 1639 wounded (the worst: 58 dead, 546 wounded in Las Vegas in 2017). That’s just mass shootings of 4 or more victims, killed or wounded. More than 300,000 were killed by non-suicide gun violence altogether. That doesn’t sound like a healthy, or particularly free, country to me. I love America. I lament the violence by guns.

I live in two cities: In Valencia, guess how many gun murders there have been the last decade? In Philly, 3,339 souls have been murdered by guns to be exact in the last decade, in a city with a population of 1.57 million,, compared to about 10,000 in the entire EU (447 million people) in the same period, and pay mind to the fact many of these happened in EU countries in the former Yugoslavia like Albania and Montenegro, with poor enforcement and high crime rates. Spain, France, Germany, UK, Scandinavia…not so many. From 2015-2023, 144,223 Americans were the killed by gun violence, which excludes suicides. That’s out of 330+ million Americans. So in Philly from 2015-2024, 2.3% of all gun murders in the USA happened here. CRAZY.

Are Europeans less free without guns, America? Ask them. Ask my friends in Valencia if they have to worry about getting shot at night while walking its streets. I do in Philly, every goddamn night. Or if I’m at a mall, church, school, public square, music festival, political rally, wherever, anywhere in America, red state, blue state, city, rural areas, it happens in all these places. I can show you the stats.

It’s like a creepy Shirley Jackson story, the “randomly get shot by a creep with an assault rifle” lottery. Former President Trump and three bystanders at his rally in Butler, PA, were the latest victims. I personally admire Trump for standing up and pumping his fist amid the hail of bullets he just survived. I ask him, if elected, what will you do about this rampant gun violence you too faced, Mr. President?