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In a carefully planned attack last week, Elias Rodriguez, 31, gunned down Yaron Lischinsky and Sara Milgrim, staffers at Israel’s embassy in Washington. Rodriguez killed the pair then reloaded and shot them again, what police call “overkill.” The shooter then yelled “Free Palestine!” certifying his motive. Though widely condemned, the double murder escaped the left’s default designation of “gun violence.”

This familiar deception implies that firearms somehow operate apart from human agency. “Gun violence” detracts attention from the shooter, his motive, and the nature of the crime. In the wake of Memorial Day, recall the events of November 5, 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas.

Maj. Nidal Hasan, a self-proclaimed “soldier of Allah,” yelling “Allahu Akbar” as he fired, gunned down 13 American soldiers including PFC Francheska Velez, who was pregnant. The composite character president Obama failed to name or condemn the shooter and called the mass murder “workplace violence,” not terrorism or even gun violence.

Vice president Joe Biden also failed to condemn the shooter, named not a single victim, and expressed sympathy for the families of those “who fell” in what was a “senseless tragedy.” No word of terrorism or “gun violence” from the Delaware Democrat. Consider also the events of December 2, 2015, in San Bernardino, California.

Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik gunned down Robert Adams, Isaac Amianos, Bennetta Betbadal, Harry Bowman, Sierra Clayborn, Juan Espinoza, Aurora Godoy, Shannon Johnson, Larry Daniel Kaufman, Damien Meins, Tin Nguyen, Nicholas Thalasinos, Yvette Velasco, and Michael Wetzel. In a December 17 statement, California attorney general Kamal Harris mentioned “those who lost their lives,” but failed to name a single victim or condemn the terrorists.

In a statement one year later, Harris recalled “those who lost their lives and the loved ones they left behind,” but again named not a single victim. The dead and wounded included blacks, Hispanics, Asians and immigrants but Harris failed to call the mass murder a hate crime or even “gun violence.” That pattern was not limited to Islamic terrorists.

On March 27, 2023, in the run-up to the “Trans Day of Vengeance,” Audrey Hale, a woman who thought she was a man, gunned down Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, Mike Hill, 61, William Kinney, 9, Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Hallie Scruggs, nine years old and the daughter of Covenant Presbyterian pastor Chad Scruggs. The victims died of multiple gunshot wounds and Hale applied blunt force trauma to William Kinney and Katherine Koonce. The Biden White house named not a single victim and failed to call the mass murder gun violence, adding “our hearts go out to the trans community which is under attack right now.”

On October 7, 2023, Islamic terrorists operating from Gaza perpetrated the worst mass atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust. In the wake of 10/7, anti-Semitic mobs deployed in force on university campuses across America, particularly the Ivy League. In May of 2025, Elias Rodriguez shot dead Yaron Lischinsky and Sara Milgrim but the double murder escapes the default description of “gun violence.” Word is out that judge Jeanine Pirro will seek the death penalty. That recalls realities about the Fort Hood massacre that people might not know.

Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013 but 12 years later the jihadist remains alive cheering on the Taliban. “We have won! All praises be to all-mighty Allah,” Hasan proclaimed in 2021, after Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In addition to Lt. Col. Warman and PFC Velez, Nidal Hasan murdered Michael Grant Cahill, Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, Justin Michael DeCrow, John Paul Gaffaney, Frederick Greene, Jason Dean Hunt, Amy Sue Krueger, Aaron Thomas Nemelka, Michael Scott Pearson, Russell Gilbert Seager, and Kham See Xiong. Their families and friends can be forgiven for believing that Hasan should have been executed long ago. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should carry out the sentence, but there’s more to the story.

In 2022, Biden renamed Fort Hood after the late Gen. Richard Cavazos, who served in Korea and Vietnam. A better candidate would be Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, the highest-ranking casualty of the 11/5 attack. “Lt. Col. Warman did not lose her life to enemy fire,” explained Arlington National Cemetery, in a post since taken down. “Instead, she was one of 13 people murdered at Fort Hood, allegedly at the hands of fellow U.S. Army officer Major Nidal Hasan.” (emphasis added)

Maj. Hasan wore an American uniform but the soldier of Allah served as an ally of the Taliban. So Lt. Col. Warman and the 13 others did lose their lives to enemy fire, and there was nothing “alleged” about it. Secretary Hegseth should change Fort Cavazos to Fort Warman. American soldiers who die from enemy fire on American soil should not be disrespected in death.