The blame game persists after Trump escapes shooting.

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania was a terrifying event in the history of a nation that has experienced numerous such shootings.

Of course, we are all grateful for the Secret Service agents who protected the former president and ensured he was not wounded more seriously.

President Biden, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and many other Democrats have come together to condemn political violence and wish Trump well, while also praying for his health and immediately setting aside partisanship.

Trump's instinct to pump his fist several times to reassure his supporters despite the blood on his face is a part of the story.

The 20-year-old, who was killed by bullets, also brought forth some ugliness that must be confronted.

The cynical attempts to use horrific shootings for political gain by blaming the left, right, or public figures who had no involvement have become tiresome.

One person in the Pittsburgh-area crowd was killed while Trump was grazed by a bullet.

Ignore those who spread the "blood on his hands" theories, especially in places like X, even if it generates clicks and ratings. The media should avoid taking the bait and engaging in the blame game, which is corrosive and irrelevant.

I hope that the same interlude of honesty and humanity would occur if the target was Biden or Vice President Harris, even though many who dislike Trump also opposed the attempt to assassinate him.

The person responsible for a mass shooting or targeted attack is the one who pulled the trigger. Our country has lost four presidents to assassins: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and JFK. Additionally, two other presidents have been injured by would-be assassins, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

The individuals who committed or attempted to commit murder were insane. It is necessary to be mentally ill to risk death or life imprisonment by shooting innocent people or heavily guarded leaders. Unless there is evidence of a larger conspiracy, these individuals acted independently.

I no longer use the names of those who are angry or disaffected in their inevitable profiles, as I don't want to inspire others to seek infamy.

The suspect, who possessed explosives in his vehicle, was a registered Republican, yet made a $15 donation to a liberal organization, leaving the motive unclear.

Trump stated after the shooting that we must "stand together" and "remain strong in our faith and unwavering in the face of evil." Biden condemned the violence as "wrong" and emphasized that "we cannot tolerate this," adding yesterday: "This is not the America we know and love." Speaker Mike Johnson urged for a decrease in the country's temperature and called for a change in the current climate.

Despite the positive words, Rep. Lauren Boebert and Sen. J.D. Vance still accused Biden of causing the shooting through his rhetoric.

The president could have seized the opportunity to emphasize his earlier call for gun control, while criticizing Trump for being influenced by the NRA, but some of Trump's supporters criticized Biden for using a political metaphor when he said he would put Trump in a "bullseye."

It's ironic that Trump, who has been accused of inciting violence with his harsh language, nearly became a victim.

Trump has been criticized by the media for nearly a decade, especially after January 6th, and has been labeled an authoritarian threat to democracy, with his image even being transformed into that of Hitler on a recent The New Republic cover.

The sentence could easily convince a mentally unbalanced person that the world would be better off without him if he were demonized.

Bill Clinton, after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, denounced "reckless speech" and said the airwaves are often used to keep people paranoid and upset with each other. In my front-page story, I reported that Rush Limbaugh was accusing liberals of trying to whip up a "national hysteria" against the conservative movement.

The 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan occurred outside the Washington Hilton by a man seeking to impress Jodie Foster. I had to search for a phone after rushing to the hospital, and later reported from paramedics that Reagan had lost significantly more blood than the White House had disclosed.

The 2011 shooting of Gabby Giffords in Tucson led to an unfounded accusation that Sarah Palin was responsible because her campaign had published a map with crosshairs indicating the Democratic districts to be targeted.

The New York Times was sued unsuccessfully by Sarah Palin after a careless editorial resurrected a baseless smear.

In 2017, a gunman targeted a Republican baseball practice in Virginia, nearly killing House GOP Whip Steve Scalise. The shooter was a liberal and a fan of Rachel Maddow, prompting the right to launch a counterattack and the left to argue that ideology played no role in the incident.

The utter remorselessness and detachment from reality required to kill large numbers of strangers, including children, in a ballroom or classroom is evident in mass shootings such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, Buffalo, Uvalde, and many others.

The survival of Donald Trump during this week's Republican convention is a reminder that political warfare is being waged by real people.

As history has shown, the debates over finger-pointing and gun control will likely resume soon, leaving many to question why political violence persists as an unresolvable issue in our society.