by Amy Swearer
A 20-year-old man with a rifle, perched atop a nearby roof, fired several rounds July 13 at Donald Trump as the former president spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and wounding at least two others.
As we know now, one round nicked Trump’s right ear and he avoided a serious wound or death with a fortuitous head turn that moved him out of the bullet’s path at the last second.
Almost immediately, some gun control activists saw the attempted assassination as an opportunity to call for their wish list of more restrictions on the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Talk about missing the point.
If the government can’t protect the former (and possibly future) president of the United States from a single, highly motivated amateur bent on violence, it certainly can’t protect ordinary Americans from every potential threat at all times and in all places. Nor should we want to live in a police state that is remotely capable of offering such assurances of our physical safety.
Highlighting the fact that no one—not even Donald Trump—is ever truly safe from violent threats to life, liberty, and property doesn’t simultaneously highlight a need for more gun control.
Arguably, for those of us without professional security details, it underscores the importance of the Second Amendment’s fundamental purpose—not hunting or sport shooting, but the unalienable right to self-defense.
Ordinary, peaceable Americans rely on their right to keep and bear arms to protect themselves and their loved ones from criminals and crime far more often than many others realize.
Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.
For this reason, The Daily Signal publishes a monthly article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accounts here from past years.)
The 12 examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in June. You may explore more using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.
- June 1, Ormond Beach, Florida: When a couple parked at a gas station were getting out of their car to use the restrooms, a woman pushed the driver out of the way, got into the driver’s seat, and tried to steal the car, police said. An armed bystander saw what was happening and intervened, drawing his gun on the woman and prompting her to stop. Police arrested the woman, who was held without bond.
- June 2, Stanton, California: An armed ride-share driver was dropping off a passenger when he saw a naked man violently assaulting a much older woman, police said. The driver quickly tried to intervene by firing a warning shot, but the naked assailant charged at the car and “hit the glass repeatedly.” The driver shot the assailant, critically wounding him.
- June 5, Lufkin, Texas: Within an hour of being released from jail after an arrest for domestic violence, a man tried to steal a truck in which a mother and young child were sitting, police said. The woman’s husband, who owns the truck, drew his weapon on the man but tried to de-escalate the situation by offering him a different vehicle. The man instead began to fight the truck owner, who fatally shot him.
- June 9, Plainfield, Illinois: When a woman’s ex-boyfriend broke into her home, two juveniles inside tried to barricade themselves in a bedroom, police said. The intruder followed them and kicked down the bedroom door, prompting one of the minors to get a firearm and hold the intruder at gunpoint until police arrived. The suspect faced numerous charges, including possession of a controlled substance after investigators said he dropped a bag of cocaine while breaking in.
- June 12, Henderson, Nevada: Police said a man in a Walmart parking lot fatally shot an armed assailant in self-defense after the assailant approached his vehicle “with a firearm in a confrontational manner.”
- June 15, Plainfield, Michigan: Police said a homeowner awoke to screams from his daughter’s bedroom and found an intoxicated intruder—sans pants—stabbing his daughter’s 11-year-old friend, who was there for a sleepover. The homeowner held the intruder at gunpoint until police arrived and arrested him. The intruder later told officers that he planned to kill everyone there and have sex with the body of the 11-year-old.
- June 17, Uniontown, Pennsylvania: An assailant with an illegally possessed gun shot and wounded someone. The victim, also armed, returned fire in self-defense, hitting the assailant once in the leg. Police said the victim wouldn’t be charged with a crime.
- June 20, D’Iberville, Mississippi: An armed resident fatally shot a man who drove to his home and threatened him with a gun. The dead man had a history of threatening the resident, police said. Investigators said they believe that on the way to the resident’s home, he shot at another driver. Neither the resident nor the victim of the road rage shooting was hurt.
- June 23, East Klamath County, Oregon: A local sheriff’s office publicly thanked an armed citizen for helping to detain one of two suspected car thieves who fled in the car after deputies interrupted them as they committed a burglary. “Often it is the eyes, ears, and actions of neighbors that make the difference, especially in rural areas,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release. “While the sheriff’s office would never request someone put themselves in harm’s way, in this case, the citizen’s efforts are greatly appreciated.” The arrested suspect faced a slew of criminal charges.
- June 26, Alliance, Nebraska: An armed homeowner fatally shot an intruder who local police say had a history of burglary. Police determined that the evidence at the scene was consistent with the homeowner’s account and didn’t recommend charges against him.
- June 29, Louisville, Kentucky: Two armed men tried to rob a gaming store at gunpoint but were thwarted by an armed customer who was walking by, saw the robbery in progress, and shot both robbers—one fatally. Neither of two employees in the store was hurt, nor was the armed customer, apparently. The manager of a nearby business told reporters that this was at least the fourth time that robbers had targeted the gaming store.
- June 30, Martinsburg, West Virginia: Police said a woman watched as her godson was physically assaulted and then threatened with a gun by two individuals while he was taking out the trash. She grabbed her gun and went to the door, at which point one of the two began shooting at her. The woman returned fire in self-defense, police said. Unfortunately, she was fighting an eviction notice even though the rental office agreed she acted in self-defense and the sheriff’s department publicly announced that her actions “likely prevented injury, loss of life, or further damage.”
As these stories demonstrate, the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms isn’t some dangerous and outdated relic that undermines public safety.
It is, rather, one of the best tools ordinary Americans have when faced with violent threats to their unalienable rights.
The attempted assassination of Trump should cause the nation to reevaluate plenty of things and give many an opportunity to pause for a moment of self-reflection.
But in no world should it lead us to reevaluate the Second Amendment.
And in no way ought that self-reflection lead us to hamstring our right to an armed defense.
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Amy Swearer is a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
Photo “Gun Range” by Dylan Hunter.
