Speeches on safety at Republican National Convention fail to address assassination attempt

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WTAJ) — “Make America safe again” was the theme Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee.

It comes only days after the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler which once again brought the topic of gun violence and gun control to the forefront of political rhetoric.

Prominent Republican figures and candidates from across the country presented a unified message — that violence is on the rise in the United States as a result of an influx of immigrants at the southern border.

“Drugs have poured across Biden, Harris and Casey’s wide-open borders, killing 100,000 Americans, including 4,000 Pennsylvanians last year alone,” Dave McCormick, Pennsylvania’s Republican U.S. senatorial candidate, said in his RNC address.

On Saturday, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, using an AR-15 style rifle legally owned by his father, fired shots towards Trump at his rally in Butler, Pa. Bullets grazed the former president, killed one attendee and injured two others.

McCormick was front-row at the event.

“What a sad and frightening day for the families of those injured or lost and for our great country. We all thank God that President Trump is okay,” McCormick said.

While safety was the theme of the night only three days following the shooting, there was one safety concern that did not arise during the night’s speeches — gun control.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) considers gun violence to be a serious public health problem that killed over 43,000 Americans last year at an average of 118 people per day.

While Pennsylvania gun laws allow for the legal ownership of assault rifles, in an interview this week, McCormick said the assassination attempt did not change his stance on gun rights in the Commonwealth. He sees the conversation surrounding it as “political rhetoric” and a deflection from other issues.

“Well, I think, the fact that you’re going to gun control right now, I don’t really understand that. So here we are, within 24 hours of the president being shot. And, and if you think about what we shouldn’t do, it’s that we shouldn’t sort of try to hijack this issue and politicize it and make it about something it’s not,” McCormick said in the interview.

In addition to the rifle, investigators said the shooter also had bomb-making materials in his car and at home.

The RNC continues Wednesday night with the theme “Make America Strong Again” focusing on foreign affairs and the ongoing war in the Middle East.

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