Violence as a Political Statement

Violence As a Political Statement

by Thomas Coffin

Using violence as some sort of political messaging not only doesn’t work, it backfires. It cancels whatever point a person is attempting to make and dooms the cause that is the rotten root of the fruit spawning the crop.

Let me explain further. Some wacko just murdered a very bright individual who happened to be a supporter of conservative ideological causes.  

The victim of the murder was exercising his rights under our democracy to speak on behalf of his political beliefs without interference from anyone else, including our government.

Here, the victim was murdered because he was exercising that right.  This was not just an act of violence against the victim, but also against our democracy.  The assassin is not just a murderer, but a traitor to all of us who live, vote, and thrive under our Constitution and its freedoms and cherished rights.

End of discussion.  There is no defense, nor excuse, to such an action. 

Yet some misguided people will hesitate to condemn the murder, or even applaud it. They are horribly mistaken.  All of us without exception should speak out against this violent act in one loud and firm voice.

But that’s not enough. It’s only a beginning. We need to address the not just the cause of the violence in our political disagreements but also eliminate the tools of violence being used by those who turn to violence to tip the scales in their favor.

That brings us to the subject of firearms.  They have a place in our society, as do automobiles and a variety of other tools like hammers and nails, or chainsaws, or explosives.  But firearms are not sacred implements, locked up in a cathedral tabernacle. They are deadly instruments which are designed to kill their targets.

Common sense tells us firearms must be used carefully and safely because of their lethality.

The Second Amendment is not a license which grants the user of a firearm freedom from reasonable restrictions in its usage.  In our system, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) monitors and regulates firearms as part of its responsibilities. For example, a convicted felon can not legally possess or purchase a firearm.

We are drowning in the blood of victims of gun violence in our nation.  Children are among the highest group of victims from gun violence. They aren’t safe even in their schools. Now we are increasingly seeing elected officials and political activists gunned down, ostensibly for their partisan perspectives. This is frankly a disease —a deadly disease for which we have no vaccination. 

We must address this illness with all of our tools, not the least of which is the flood of firearms into our society with little oversight on those who can buy or possess a firearm.  We must stop the carnage inflicted by our gun disease and exacerbated by our divisive political climate before we have sacrificed

our democracy to violence.

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Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020 and at Politics and Pie in October, 2022.  He is a retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and a former professor at the UO Law School. Thomas retired in 2016 after 24 years on the bench, prior to which he had a career as a federal prosecutor spanning 21 years. He is married with 7 children.  The Blackberry Pie Society is pleased to include a collection of his essays on our website.  We will post them as they become available.

posted 9.12.2025