# How come there are no political assassinations in this country anymore? Where are the militants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 9, 2018, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-there-are-no-political-assassinations-in-this-country-anymore-where-are-the-militants/822703 "2018-10-09T16:25:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-there-are-no-political-assassinations-in-this-country-anymore-where-are-the-militants/822703/41 "2018-10-21T14:39:22Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > It was “just” ground castor seeds that still needed processing to extract the ricin. It was enough to trigger the ricin detection. [The criminal charges](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pentagon-ricin/utah-man-charged-with-ricin-mail-threat-against-trump-mattis-idUSKCN1MF29O) are all related to making death threats not an attempt to kill. But an attempt to kill would carry charges of all its own. In the castor/ricin case I can see the lawyers might get the accused off on credibility issues. – “Sending ground castor beans was a political statement, not an actual murder attempt.” ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2018, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-there-are-no-political-assassinations-in-this-country-anymore-where-are-the-militants/822703/42 "2018-10-21T14:47:31Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > However, there are always people who don’t care about life imprisonment or dying in the process. That said, one thing that could be acting as a deterrent could be the fact the political climate is now so tense, even an attempted assassination could cause things to quickly spiral out of control. Not even the most militant anti-Trump radical wants to be another [Gavrilo Princip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrilo_Princip). That was kind of Black Hand’s intent, although they couldn’t have anticipated in making things so incredibly bad. Ferdinand was a relative liberal and had been making noises about granting Serbia some amount of self-government once he was in power. This might or might not have come to pass, but Black Hand was afraid even the rumors would cool the fires of complete independence they were trying to fan. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-there-are-no-political-assassinations-in-this-country-anymore-where-are-the-militants/822703/43 "2018-10-23T01:00:48Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > And think of poor Rand Paul. Not only was he shot at at that baseball game, he was also beaten and hospitalized by his neighbor. After getting out of the hospital he has been hounded out of public spaces by angry mobs, and he has received so many death threats that his wife says she has to sleep with a loaded handgun beside her. Why are people so mad at Rand Paul? Is the “hounding” in restaurants and such, as has been happening with other political figures? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-there-are-no-political-assassinations-in-this-country-anymore-where-are-the-militants/822703/44 "2018-10-24T16:45:18Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Had he not been there, it seems likely that we would have seen everyone in the dugout murdered. Hodgkins was walking toward the trapped and unarmed Republicans with his rifle at the ready when he was shot by the security guys. Do you have a cite for this? Because I don’t think you’ve accurately described the events. ETA: Specifically, do you have a cite that “Hodgkins was walking toward the trapped and unarmed Republicans with his rifle at the ready when he was shot by the security guys”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-there-are-no-political-assassinations-in-this-country-anymore-where-are-the-militants/822703.md?page=2)