(LifeSiteNews) — A gender-confused man was arrested Friday for allegedly expressing a desire to shoot former President Donald Trump and making comments about the difficulty of getting a firearm through security ahead of one of the Republican nominee’s rallies.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that 74-year-old Paul Gavenonis, a registered Democrat and gun owner who refers to himself as female, was purchasing a parking pass at the transportation office of Penn State University, where Trump had been speaking. He was heard commenting that “I hate Donald Trump” and “I’d like to shoot that guy,” while lamenting that “you can’t take a gun in or the students will see it.” He also allegedly made a hand motion of racking a gun.
When interviewed by university police and U.S. Secret Service, Gavenonis reportedly admitted that he “probably” indicated that he would have shot the former president if able to, and said “frankly, I hope somebody would get him.” He has been charged with misdemeanor counts of making terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.
The news follows two attempts on the candidate’s life since summer: a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally in July that grazed Trump’s ear and killed attendee Corey Comperatore; and a man who was apprehended brandishing a weapon at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.
The first perpetrator, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed on the scene, but the incident raised grave questions about the competence of the Secret Service detail. The second offender, Ryan Routh, was identified and apprehended well before getting near Trump, and described himself as having voted for Trump in 2016 but since souring on him over. “I will be glad when you gone” [sic], Routh wrote on his since-deleted X account.
Despite spending years framing their political opponents as “violent extremists,” Democrat leaders and left-wing activists have largely refused to consider whether their own heated rhetoric about Trump being a “racist,” “rapist,” and “fascist” who would “end democracy” might provoke extremists to violence.
Nor is Trump the only Republican to face left-wing hate turning to violence. Last month, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett discussed the emotional toll of her son learning she had to wear a bulletproof vest to work, following a wave of hostile protests that included a man who was arrested after planning to kill one of her colleagues, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.