Bullets whizzin’ at a former U.S. president

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Jocularity abounds until the bullets start flying, then we have the tendency to sober up quickly. Jocularity? You know, late night comedians poking fun at presidential candidates, others staging mock beheadings and so forth.

The Germans preferred Zyklon B for its efficiency. The French used the guillotine. During the French Revolution, the intellectuals were standing around pondering how long consciousness lasted after one’s head was severed. 

Scientist Antoine Lavoisier, facing the guillotine, proposed an experiment. He said, after the “separation” he would blink his eyes for as long as possible. His friends watched, and he did so for about 40 seconds. A scientist to the end.

Until July 13, we heard lots of unkind comments about the participants in the presidential race. While slung at both sides, the invectives tossed at President Trump have seemed to be particularly bitter. President Biden and Vice President Harris have received their share, too, but these have not seemed quite so filled with rage.

Toward the end of the Civil War, cartridges style projectiles were introduced. However, the derringer used by John Wilkes Booth to slay President Lincoln was only a one-shot muzzle loading gun. One doesn’t necessarily need an AR-15. 

Guns are favored by single objective assassins. They are so portable when compared to Zyklon B and guillotines (Pardon me, sir, would you mind stepping over here to my guillotine?).

People are talking about the miracle that saved President Trump. I believe in miracles, and I believe in this one.

One hundred ten years ago, June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia, plunging the world into World War I and subsequently starting World War II, sometimes called the second chapter of World War I. This shooting was made possible only by the Archduke’s automobile making a wrong turn. Was this mistake divine as well? I don’t know, but it sure changed the world.

Assassinations and attempts at assassinations happen from time to time. They are consequential.

There have been many statements made since Saturday about cooling down the rhetoric. I doubt that will happen. In fact, as of this writing, one can see it ramping up again, and, yes, particularly on the Left, where it has been largely resident for a long time, a long time before there was a President Trump.

In fact, one of my remembrances of such admonishments came years before Trump came on the scene and was from candidate Barack Obama on June 13, 2008: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”  

Thomas Matthew Crooks was only 4 years old then and likely would not have comprehended this statement, but he had plenty of time to develop his rage and learn his craft before Saturday.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.