As the holiday season begins, thousands of active-duty members of the U.S. Military will travel home to spend Thanksgiving Day with their families. Two National Guardsmen, shot today in Washington D.C., will not have this privilege. As they walked a routine patrol just blocks from the White House, an Afghan national opened fire on their team from close range. Two guardsmen were hospitalized in critical condition; the suspected shooter was stopped by their fellow soldiers, who courageously and selflessly braved the gunman’s fire to protect the people of Washington.
At the current moment, not much information is known about the suspect. But barring a major revelation, it is less important who he is and more important what America does about him. After the attack on President Donald J. Trump in Butler and the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah, the NYYRC called on Democrats to fix the political violence problem within their ranks. And yet this did not prevent Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-CIA) from appearing on ABC Sunday and telling Americans that the military could open fire on them. Nor did it stop an MS NOW analyst from saying, after the shooting, that “some Americans might object” to National Guard deployments in their cities.
The New York Young Republican Club calls on the Department of Justice to adopt a national policy of deterrence on crime. It is not enough to simply prosecute crime; would-be shooters and criminals must be deterred by the punitive nature of America’s response. Today’s shooter must be convicted in court, yes, but life in prison is not sufficient to deter future conduct. Biblical justice mandates that “he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death” (Lev. 24:17). When this man opened fire on U.S. soldiers, he forfeited his right to remain among the living. The Department of Justice should fulfill his death wish and serve the punishment he sought for others: the death penalty should be pursued for his crimes.
The NYYRC is holding the victims of today’s shooting and their families in our prayers during this difficult time. May they recover swiftly and peacefully.