Pittsfielder Amir Young summed up the feelings of millions Monday morning.
“I was like, well, damn, someone actually shot him," Young told WAMC. "That was crazy!”
Suspected shooter 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a registered Republican, killed a rally attendee, injured two others, and grazed Trump’s ear with a legally obtained firearm he fired from a rooftop before being gunned down by Secret Service agents.
As shocking as the moment was, Young tells WAMC the violence is of a piece with the general tenor of 2024.
“Everything is crazy," he said. "I’ve seen a lot of people getting guns, shooting up the place, smoking vapes- No, that got to stop, literally.”
Huckleberry Elling, another Pittsfielder who spoke with WAMC on North Street Monday morning, agrees.
“It felt surreal," she said. "It's hard to understand what happened or what motivated it or what's going to happen next. I don't know.”
WAMC asked Elling about her feelings on how the shooting would impact Trump’s bid for a second term against President Joe Biden.
“A malaise, a general sense of malaise, because the outcome doesn't look good any direction,” she sighed.
She says the country is totally polarized heading into November’s general election.
“A lot of us versus them, from the top down, and, yeah, that's the sense of malaise," said Elling. "It doesn't feel good, yeah.”
Her husband Jay P added his own two cents.
“The only thing I have to say is, is it too soon to talk about gun control?" he asked. "And that's about it.”
Tricia Farley-Bouvier is the Democratic State Representative for the 2nd Berkshire District. After over a dozen years representing Pittsfield on Beacon Hill, she says the attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania represents a new low.
“In American history, we've had very high-tension moments, but what has been happening since, I don't know, we go back to 2015 I guess, it just gets more and more divisive," the legislator told WAMC. "I don't know how many times a day we use the word unprecedented, right, because these things that have never happened before are happening again, are happening now and so, no, I have never experienced this myself.”
Farley-Bouvier echoed a call against political violence espoused by other members of her party after the shooting, including Biden.
“I unequivocally condemn any kind of political action, and certainly this very public, very violent act," said the state rep. This does not help anybody in trying to advance democracy and what we want for our country. It helps nobody. I think we really do need to take a deep breath, think about how we can put a real debate forward, as opposed to the very, very high-tension political drama that's happening now.”
She called on the Pittsfield community to embrace restraint, patience, and peace.
“I would say, make sure that you are checking to know that what you are sharing or hearing are facts," said Farley-Bouvier. "There's a lot of misinformation out there, and when we're having conversations with each other, to just take the temperature down. We are neighbors, our kids go to school together. We need to be able to have civil discourse, and that that mostly happens at the local level, right, and to not take this national tension and have it infect our own community- And I think each one of us can do that. It's going to take that individual responsibility to do that now.”
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Intergovernmental Affairs Juliette Kayyem was the first Massachusetts Undersecretary for Homeland Security. She told NPR Monday that the episode leaves the Secret Service with major questions to answer.
“Once you deploy your counter snipers, you've got to have some belief that there is a sniper threat," she said. "If that's the case, why aren't you either putting people on them or, as importantly, securing the building so that there's not access to them? What kind of sweeps were done? How are you going to stop someone from getting up there? So to me, they knew that there was a sniper threat because of the deployment of them.”
