Representative Jared Golden’s reversal on assault weapons took courage
Representative Jared Golden of Maine should be welcomed into the fold of the converted — even if it took a horrific act of violence in his own backyard to get him there.
After 18 people were killed last week in two mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, Golden, a Marine veteran and Democrat, suddenly reversed his position on assault rifles, saying one had been used in that deadly attack. As Representative Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, a fellow Democrat, Marine veteran, and friend who supports a ban on assault weapons put it: “He went home, he saw his district, and he responded with integrity.”
Golden’s change of heart shocked gun safety and gun rights activists and could jeopardize his reelection in a district that twice voted for Donald Trump. It also raised questions about why it took the deaths of constituents to do it. Why, for example, wasn’t he moved by the slaughter of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022?
In response to that query, he told the Bangor Daily News, “I think the simple answer is, it’s easy to feel shielded from that happening in your own life and in your own community, and it’s easy to go on justifying your own personal positions or even your own possession of these firearms under the assumption of, well, I’m going to protect my people. But when something like this happens, that kind of humility I talked about is a pretty harsh lesson.”
In a Substack posting, Golden also said he has been accused of “trying to capitalize on a tragedy to push a liberal agenda.” But as he wrote: “I am almost jealous of their ignorance — I hope they don’t have to learn the hard way how wrong they are as I have learned about myself this week.”
Good for Golden. Not learning is the norm for gun rights advocates in Congress, no matter who is harmed. In 2017, for example, Representative Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, was shot and seriously wounded at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., by an attacker using an assault-style weapon. Afterward, Scalise said that being on the wrong side of that weapon strengthened his resolve to support gun rights.
After the Lewiston shootings, new House Speaker Mike Johnson also served up the usual Second Amendment blather. The problem, Johnson told Fox News host Sean Hannity, is not guns but “the human heart” — as if a person’s heart alone could slay 18 people. For sure, there are plenty of questions about how Maine law enforcement agencies responded to an “attempt to locate” alert that went out in September, after Robert Card made threats against his US Army Reserve base in Saco, Maine. But it was not Card’s heart — it was the weapon in his hands that allowed him to commit the carnage.
Meanwhile, even as the tragedy in Lewiston led Golden to change his mind, both Maine Senators — Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, a Democrat-leaning independent, “remained skeptical about banning military-style rifles,” The New York Times reported. Collins and King said they support a ban on bump stocks and high-capacity magazines that make weapons more lethal — but not a ban on assault weapons. What happened in their backyard has not yet given them reason to rethink that opposition.
However, King did say it “took a lot of courage” for Golden to do what he did. And that remains the main takeaway from all of these mass shootings. It takes courage to speak out against the misguided belief that Americans have the right to own weapons of war. It takes courage to speak up for the victims and the loved ones who mourn them. That kind of courage can get you voted out of office.
Golden understands the political risk. “There are certain times in life when you have to say, this is so much bigger than any consideration that it’s not even worth giving much thought to,” he told the Bangor Daily News. “And this was one of those moments for me.”
Auchincloss, who is Golden’s Washington roommate, said he counts him as one of his best friends in Congress. He said they talk all the time about family, policy, and politics and have always had a respectful back and forth on the issue of guns. He said Golden looks at every issue through the lens of his district and what is best for it. Now, when Golden says he doesn’t care about the political fallout from this decision, “I believe him,” said Auchincloss. “His metric has always been, can I go back home and explain that to my constituents?”
Golden’s change of heart may have come only after tragedy hit close to home. That doesn’t diminish it. Given the political stakes, it was not an easy choice, but he made it.
Golden’s change of heart may have come only after tragedy hit close to home. That doesn’t diminish it.