Letter to the editor: Melania illuminates Trump's indifference to school shootings

Letter reprinted from the Brunswick Beacon, 09.18.25

In yet another horrific school shooting, two children were killed and 18 injured as they prayed during Mass at a Minnesota Catholic school. The 23-year-old shooter had attended the school where his mother previously worked.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter “had a deranged obsession with previous mass shooters.” He admired neo-Nazi and white-supremacist mass-murderers and expressed hatred towards Blacks, Mexicans, Jews and Christians. An equal-opportunity hater, he targeted all sides of the political spectrum.

First Lady Melania Trump said: “The tragic mass killing in Minnesota illuminates the need for preemptive intervention in identifying potential school shooters. Early warning signs are often evident, with many individuals exhibiting concerning behaviors and making violent threats online prior to their actions.”

Even the shooter echoed Melania’s plea to identify and stop school shooters: “Should be harder for people like me to carry out these attacks,” he wrote. “I have been showing signs for a while; I need to be stopped! I don’t want to abandon my plan, but I really want to be stopped for the sake of my family.”

Melania’s husband doesn’t care. In June, right-wing terrorist Vance Boelter assassinated a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and shot two more on his “hit list” of 45 Minnesota officials, all Democrats. In July, Trump killed funding for Minnesota’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention program designed to identify potential mass shooters.

On Aug. 8, six Minnesota lawmakers implored Trump to reverse his decision, saying it “leaves our constituents and communities more vulnerable to violent attacks. Without this funding, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s capacity to protect Minnesotans from targeted violence and terrorism is significantly diminished. Given [the assassinations], along with targeted violence toward religious organizations and threats at schools, we implore you to immediately reinstate this vital grant.”

Trump ignored their request, the shooter wasn’t stopped, and on August 27, he murdered an 8-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.

Janine Sacramone

Leland