White House journalists’ gala ended like many US events do: with gun violence

Shooting reveals how political violence has become feature of American life on a night dedicated to press freedom Ahead of this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner, conversations centered on the role of the media and freedom of the press as journalists prepared to dine with the president. Instead of a speech stacked with heated barbs against the media, the event ended like many in the US do: with gun violence. A man was apprehended at the Washington Hilton – the same hotel where then president Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. The shooter was outside the ballroom that held the president and various cabinet officials, and thousands of members of the media. Donald Trump described him as a “lone” gunman, though details on the man and his motives aren’t yet clear. Trump has been the target of two prior assassination attempts, including one in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a man attending a Trump rally was killed. Charlie Kirk, a rightwing commentator, was killed while speaking at an event at a Utah university. Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed by a gunman at their Minnesota home in what has been called a political assassination. Elected