Given that violence has been commonplace in US history, punctuated as it has been by riots, rebellions and assassinations, former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump is fortunate in having survived two bids on his life, the first a shot that glanced his ear and a second bid in which no shot were fired by the intending assassin.
Curiously enough, it is not just the ubiquity of guns in America that is to be blamed for the new direction a few renegade and disaffected people are taking in aiming at a President of the United States. It is the atmosphere of caustic hate in the politics of the day that seems to have triggered all this.
It is fearful where this may head when someone close to the candidate and with more money than good sense like the world’s first trillionaire-to-be Elon Musk queries why no one is taking aim at the Democratic duo of President Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris.
Having taken an actual hit at the first attempt in July, Mr Trump had benefited enormously as an immediate sympathy wave furthered his lead over incumbent Mr Biden then. But such are the levels of apathy and helplessness over who the next trigger-happy finger may train its impulse on that American society, inured to mass shootings even in schools, may quickly move on.
Nothing can, however, be taken for granted by the Secret Service burdened with the task of protecting the candidates to the presidential poll of November 5 even if the sharp eye of one of its staff saw an AK-47 like rifle poking out of the bushes at the avid golfer Mr Trump’s home course in Florida and opened fire in the general direction.
The level of political violence is high enough in a fractured world now, but what makes America an easy prey to the deadly virus of the mind is gun ownership that is protected by the constitution. The politicians make it worse by blaming each other, with Mr Trump saying his opponents are dubbing him a danger to democracy and which is why the guns are being aimed at him.
Truth to tell, the current American political scene is being curated by the anger stirred by Mr Trump and against him.
