Jul 20, 2024 3 min read

For many people, the attempt on former President Trump’s life in Butler County last weekend stirred memories of the shooting of President Ronald Reagan in March 1981.

Reagan’s injuries were more serious than Trump’s, landing him in the hospital for almost two weeks. The shooting of Reagan by a mentally unstable 25-year-old drifter who wanted to impress the actress Jodie Foster came just three months after another mentally unstable 25-year-old shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon in New York. Both crimes were carried out using handguns that were purchased without much impediment. Lennon’s death and Reagan’s close call fueled calls to ban handguns or place additional restrictions on them.

“Handgun control must now be a primary legislative target,” was the headline on one letter to the editor in the April 17, 1981, edition of The New York Times.

Of course, efforts to make handguns harder to get eventually ran out of steam, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone actively beating the drum for that cause today. But, at the very least, the shootings of Reagan and Lennon served as catalysts for debate and some national soul-searching on the prevalence and easy availability of guns in America.

The attempted assassination of Trump, in contrast, has prompted few, if any, second thoughts about the country’s gun culture. In fact, it was reported this week that the delegates and officials attending this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee could enter a contest sponsored by one of the gathering’s vendors to win an AR-15 rifle just like the one that was used to fire on Trump last weekend.

The New York Times also reported this week that hardly any lawmakers have come forward in the days since to call for the reform of our gun laws. T. Christian Heyne, vice president of policy for the organization Brady: United Against Gun Violence, told the Times, “It’s deeply concerning that our leaders aren’t responding to this horrific act of political violence with urgent calls for prevention.”

Heyne also noted that the military-style rifle wielded by the would-be assassin was used “precisely as it was designed. Today’s muted response reflects a dangerous normalization of political violence and gun threats.”

You can hardly blame advocates for gun control for feeling discouraged. Horrific killings at schools, clubs, concerts, grocery stores and other public spaces by deranged gunmen using assault weapons haven’t roused lawmakers to action. But it’s not like a ban on assault rifles or semi-automatic weapons would be unpopular – 61% of those polled would support it, according to a 2023 Fox News survey.

As we have seen throughout our history, reform often takes years of hard, grinding effort, with many steps forward and steps back along the way. Maybe it will ultimately be left to the generations of students who have had to endure active-shooter drills at their schools to finally change our gun laws.