First: As conservatives love bible quotes: Hosea 8,7: “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” Boy, did Trump sow wind everywhere. And Thomas Crooks simply was the whirlwind this time.

Second: Each and every year, about 50,000 people in the US die from guns, and politics f-ing does not care. Because they love the money from arms manufaturers and votes from the gun nuts more than the mostly innocent people who die. But once the wrong asshole gets his ear nicked by a bullet, they suddenly fall over themselves condemning violence.

You’re intentionally conflating suicides–which account for about 2/3 of gunshot deaths annually–and the violence that Trump has repeatedly called for. Both are concerning, but they’re not the same, and should not be considered as such. “Simply” banning the tools of suicide does nothing to reduce the misery.

But gun prevalence increases suicide rates. People who would otherwise not commit suicide end up doing so because a quick and relatively easy way out is available. Should those guns not be so easily accessible, some percentage of those suicides wouldn’t happen.

Those gun deaths are a problem regardless of whether they’re suicide or homicide. And the gun lobby is perfectly happy with all that death as long as they get their sales. They don’t need to be the same for it to be relevant.