People trying to assassinate politicians isn’t exactly a new thing. We’ve seen it happen multiple times throughout just our own history, much less throughout the world. However, not many presidential candidates have had two people get as close as President Donald Trump has.
One came damn close to killing him before he got popped by law enforcement.
The other might not have gotten quite as close, but he was at least arrested and will stand trial.
In the meantime, though, the alleged would-be assassin’s former employee pleaded guilty to charges that she helped arm the convicted felon.
One of the two individuals arrested in April and accused by the Department of Justice of selling Routh the same Chinese-made weapon pleaded guilty to firearm trafficking on Monday.
Acting U.S. Attorney Randall Galyon of the Middle District of North Carolina alleged in a pair of court filings — one in May and another last week — that Tina Brown Cooper, who ultimately entered the guilty plea, agreed and conspired with Ronnie Jay Oxendine, her former employer, to “sell and dispose of a firearm to a prohibited person (Routh).”
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In a Sept. 22 interview with FBI agents, Oxendine allegedly indicated that he met Routh in the 1990s, when they both owned roofing companies, and that they periodically crossed paths at hardware supply stores. Cooper separately indicated that she had known Routh since approximately 1999 and had worked for his company, United Roofing.
Around mid-July 2024, Cooper asked her then-employer, Oxendine, whether he had any guns for sale, then later informed him in a July 27 text message that Routh was making his way to Greensboro, North Carolina, and wanted to meet, court documents said.
Cooper allegedly told federal agents that Routh called her in July 2024 and indicated he wanted to acquire the weapon for his son to use as protection. When Cooper supposedly suggested Routh just acquire one from a pawnshop, Routh indicated he was unable to do so because he was a convicted felon.
According to the court filing, Cooper asked Oxendine if he had an AK-47 for sale. Oxendine allegedly agreed to sell an SKS rifle, which, while chambered in 7.62x39mm, was not similarly fully automatic.
Cooper set up the deal knowing that Routh was a convicted felon and was prohibited from owning firearms, which is why she was charged.
This would seem to be a deal that got made after Routh failed to get an RPG from his Ukrainian contacts. An SKS is kind of a step down, to be sure, but he still gave it his best try despite having the worst weapon setup I’ve ever seen.
Still, Routh was the second one to take a swing at Trump and, to be honest, likely played a role in the man being set back to the White House.
However, in the wake of his attempt, there were numerous individuals claiming that Routh was only able to get armed because of weak gun laws, but let’s be real here. Everyone in this chain of events seemed to know that Routh was a convicted felon and couldn’t buy a firearm lawfully. They knew it and still sold him a gun anyway.
As such, there’s little to no evidence that any gun law that has a reasonable chance of passing would have prevented this from happening.
But really, I think a lot of those people knew it. They just thought another attempt on Trump’s life might make us abandon our principles, only to find out that it wouldn’t.
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