OPINION: The Secret Service or guns, what is really to blame?

Photo credit: Anthony Quintano/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Olliver Hunt, a Freshman studying Journalism, argues that the most recent assassination attempt of former President Trump is not the fault of the Secret Service, but American gun policies.

The recent findings of a man positioned at former President Donald Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, raised questions nationwide on the effectiveness of our current Secret Service.  While these questions may be important, they take away from the greater question of the entire situation: why are we allowing people with these motivations to own guns?  

While it is true that Trump receives significantly less security detail now that he isn’t the incumbent president, whether he needs more detail is the answer to a small portion of the bigger problem. Gun control needs to be a top priority. This situation, while not mismanaged, could have been avoided, or even eradicated, had the United States had stricter gun laws. Instead, officials and citizens alike intend to keep finding a different part of the problem to blame; this time, it was the Secret Service. 

The problem is not the Secret Service. While it’s old news that the Secret Service has been struggling with staffing for a decade now, it came to light recently following the second assassination attempt. Gun violence has been rampant for years. We have lost children, teens and adults to different gun-related incidents. Yet, every time this happens, citizens wonder why it happened again. This past event happened because we didn’t have the laws and restrictions needed to prevent it. America doesn’t care. While the Second Amendment is an important amendment to uphold, there are ways to honor it and still have policies in place that keep Americans safe from gun violence.  

What is especially damning is the fact that President Biden, when asked about the situation, didn’t speak on the fact that people wishing to kill a former president have such easy access to guns.  Instead, he spoke about the Secret Service's budget and how it “needs more help.” 

We need gun laws. As a political leader, Biden should be thinking critically enough to know that the Secret Service is not to blame for the blatant lapse in gun regulations that led to the acquisition of the firearm. Biden, in his final stretch as president, seeing as he stepped down for reelection, should be talking about the need for law changes. Americans have seen too much bloodshed of innocent lives due to guns, we don’t need any more. Americans are tired. Politicians need to stand up and work together to fix this.  

Furthermore, delegating the problem to a Secret Service problem is not the move. Yes, the Secret Service is understaffed. Yes, the former president may need more detail following two assassination attempts. No, this is not the blame. It’s disgusting to see actual lawmakers blaming another government agency when they have been avoiding the real problem for years.  

In the first and only vice presidential debate, Tim Walz brought up a great point regarding the stigma surrounding gun violence. He said, “...just because you have a mental health issue doesn't mean you're violent. And I think what we end up doing is start looking for a scapegoat. Sometimes it just is the guns. It's just the guns.”

He makes a good point during this part of the debate. He speaks about the notion that many Americans hold that it’s not the gun but the mentally ill people being the gun. While this is true and a lot of different pieces of legislation and resources need to go into ending gun violence, Walz cemented the need to still put the regulations on guns because it’s not simply just because of mental health.  This is yet another scapegoat that politicians and Americans alike use for the gun violence issue to blame anything other than guns.  

Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.