52 Years: From Bremer to Crooks
Making history?
It’s been 52 years since a presidential candidate was wounded by a would-be assassin--George Wallace was shot at close range by Arthur Bremer, age 22, at a campaign rally in Maryland in 1972.
Bremer and Thomas Crooks, the failed Trump assassin, share similar trajectories. Bremer was raised in a troubled and dysfunctional home while Crooks’ home life was odd with one source describing the house as being hoarder-like. The Crooks family appeared to live in isolation having little contact with neighbors.
A troubled early life scoops up many American assassins including John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Guiteau who killed James Garfield and Leon Czolgosz who killed President William McKinley. The early deaths or loss of parents and excessive drinking are invariably in play. Emotional instability and chaos at home is a given.
Bremer was shunned at school while the description of Crooks’ school life is varied though it seems he often kept to himself. It’s reported that Crooks had done a web search for “depression.” Involuntary social isolation is a known cause of depression. (Both of Crooks’ parents are licensed professional counselors.)
Bremer and Crooks, both white, male and in their early twenties worked food-service jobs and were under the radar, outwardly quiet and inwardly turbulent.
Their choices were of the “opportunity” variety. Bremer chose Democrat George Wallace when he was unable to get sufficiently close to then Republican President Richard Nixon. Crooks shot at Trump but searched for images and schedules of other politicians, including Democrats. Trump’s event was also close to his home.
The conclusion regarding Bremer is that he wanted fame and notoriety while Crooks’ motivation seems to be up in the air. One law enforcement official has stated that Crooks is the “school shooter type.” His choice to shoot at a presidential candidate would seem to suggest a desire to be noticed.
Bremer chose Wallace because there was a chance he could get close enough. Crooks had no such issue since he had an assault rifle. He will probably hold the infamous distinction of the longest shot for a presidential assassination attempt at just under 500 feet. Lee Harvey Oswald struck Kennedy at half that distance.
The motivation for shooters will often be a mystery but one aspect is not. As Harold Schwartz wrote in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law,
rates of gun deaths are not associated with rates of mental illness, whereas gun deaths by suicide, homicide, and mass murder are associated with per-capita gun ownership.
More guns means more mayhem.
