The Associated Press (AP), if you’re not familiar with them, is one of the major “news feed” organizations or “wire services” in America, meaning that most news outlets like CNN, MSNow, FoxNews and others get much of what they report from them (the other big one is Reuters), and once you know that, it’s no surprise that their articles are much more likely to lean politically left (sometimes blatantly) than right.
So, for example, I would never expect the AP to run a positive story about Charlie Kirk even when they were covering his murder. Did they have a story speaking well of him? I don’t know. I haven’t kept up with the AP‘s every article, but I’ve seen numerous ones with a left-leaning perspective.
That’s why it was such a surprise to see an AP article telling the truth about where political violence in America comes from. Michael R. Sisak and Hannah Schoenbaum write,
Kirk’s killing was a watershed moment during a wave of political violence in the United States. President Donald Trump has survived multiple assassination attempts in the past three years, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was gunned down in 2024 and a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were killed at their home in 2025.
Now, as you notice the examples that they gave of political violence in America, what stood out to you? That it is all coming from the political left, and none of it is coming from the political right (yes, there were initially stories about the last one that claimed that the shooter was a Republican, but further reports contradicted that, and that shooting happened after the Minnesota lawmaker voted against a piece of legislation favored by the political left).
The fact of the matter is that those on the political right or libertarians (and most legal gun owners are in those two groups) have no interest in initiating violence against people that they disagree with. Reality shows that political violence is nearly always initiated against these groups even though politicians and the legacy mainstream propagandists media provide cover by trying to gaslight people by blaiming political violence on the people who are the victims of the violence.
Which brings us to why you should train to proficiency with your firearm, train to maintain proficiency, and carry your firearm daily: To protect yourself and your family from criminals… including those who initiate political violence.