Talk:2016 Donald Trump Las Vegas rally incident

Template:US Presidential Assassination Attempts
Fellow editors, There's a discussion at Template talk:US Presidential Assassination Attempts concerning whether this article should be added to that Template. Please add your thoughts there. - Ryk72 talk 03:36, 7 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Personally I believe it should be added since the person arrested stated he wanted to kill Donald Trump. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nice Stories (talk • contribs) 22:15, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree with Nice Stories, this was an assassination attempt. Dimadick (talk) 23:26, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't disagree. I think the question is whether is was a " US Presidential assassination attempt". - Ryk72 talk 23:46, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * This was not an attempt to kill the President of the United States. There's no disputing this fact. -- Zim Zala Bim talk 01:33, 24 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't disagree. - Ryk72 talk 04:04, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

Categorization problem
There have been a couple attempts recently to place this article in Category:Failed assassination attempts or its subcategory, Category:Failed assassination attempts in the United States. This runs into a problem that this page as seen repeatedly, as discussed in above - we're talking about a named, living, not-otherwise-public person who has not been charged with, much less convicted off, attempted assassination. This makes attaching such a crime here to be a WP:BLP issue. I am deleting the category out of WP:BLPCRIME concern. --Nat Gertler (talk) 05:50, 21 January 2021 (UTC)


 * I would note that Category:Failed assassination attempts and its subcategories include many incidents concerning people who were never convicted of "assassination", which is a very specific crime, or of murder etc. (Even John Hinckley Jr. was technically found not guilty!) I don't disagree with omitting this article from the category but the approach should be consistent across all articles concerning incidents of this sort. McPhail (talk) 09:31, 21 January 2021 (UTC)


 * That is a reasonable point, and WP:BLPCRIME is more of a "should" than a "must" statement, giving some room for discussion. However, in my reduction of spending time on Wikipedia, I'm not about to go head up a full discussion and figure where the line is to be drawn and see how it applies to a bunch of other pages. I will note that if there is some line where ignoring the concerns of that guideline are valid, this instance (where not only was the LP not charged with anything near that level, and not only did he not shoot, he didn't even have a weapon) is much farther from crossing that line that Mr. Hinckley. --Nat Gertler (talk) 13:47, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

"Attempted assassination of Donald J Trump"
attempted to move the page to. In addition to the word "assassination" appearing zero times in the article (prior to it being added to the infobox by the same editor, shortly before the reverted move), there's the matter of whether our sources support that title/description of the incident. I think "attempted assassination" is a stretch given the circumstances. Should we open a proper WP:RM? —Locke Cole • t • c 04:19, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
 * This was thoroughly discussed at the AfD and subsequent move to the current title. Nothing's changed, so no need to spend time on restoring the deprecated title at this time. SPECIFICO talk 17:07, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 18 December 2023

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Per consensus. (closed by non-admin page mover) – robertsky (talk) 01:30, 26 December 2023 (UTC)

2016 Donald Trump Las Vegas rally incident → 2016 Donald Trump Las Vegas Rally Assassination Attempt – This clearly meets both the dictionary definition and commonly understood definition of an assassination attempt: an attempted murder of a prominent person usually for political reasons in a sneak attack. It has been noted as an assassination attempt in both the Washington Post and Politico. The perpetrator stated that he intended to kill Donald Trump to prevent him from becoming president and was found guilty of the crime. This was a premeditated attack, as Michael Steven Sandford told a Secret Service agent after his arrest that he had traveled to Las Vegas on Friday from California and then gone to a Las Vegas shooting range on Saturday to learn how to shoot a gun. There is no ongoing public debate if this qualifies as an assassination attempt. Sources: https://www.npr.org/2016/06/20/482859841/man-arrested-at-rally-wanted-to-shoot-and-kill-trump-court-documents-show https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/assassinate https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assassinate https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/21/why-isnt-the-assassination-attempt-on-donald-trump-bigger-news/ https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-assassination-attempt-las-vegas-224643 Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 20:07, 18 December 2023 (UTC)


 * The person you are discussing was not found guilty of attempted assassination nor even attempted murder... he was not even charged with either of those crimes. The guidance at WP:BLPCRIME seems to apply well. (The sources you are putting up predate any ruling.The Politico piece is talking of accusations and allegations, the Post piece is an opinion piece, the NPR piece is saying that this is what documents say rather than making the statement in their own voice.) Additionally, I should note that even if it was decided to move the page, the capitalization you suggest is incorrect; the last three words should be lower-case. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 20:46, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Note that an assassination attempt is not wholly characterized by, nor predicated on the fact that the individual commiting the act be found guilty of the precise crime of assassination. Look at the larger list of presidential assassination attempts and you'll find many of these documented attempts have not had convictions yet are rightly considered as such- e. g. Hinckley was found not guilty, and Oswald was killed by a vigilante.
 * The guidance outlined in the wp:blpcrime link you shared seems entirely related to the treatment of an individual not yet convicted. This attacker pled and was found guilty of serious charges relating to this attempted attack. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 21:25, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * That he was convicted of something would be fine if you wanted this article to be titled "Disorderly conduct at Donald Trump rally" or somesuch. Conviction of something on charge X does not mean we can treat him as if he was guilty of Y. There have been periods when this article used the assassination terminology but did not include the individual's name, which might be acceptable under BLP terms, but such status has been rejected in the past. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 21:35, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * The idea that this is "Disorderly conduct" has already been addressed and dismissed. The attacker openly stated this was a premeditated attempt to kill Donald Trump so that he not be able to become president, and then took action to do so by going on stage and lunging to grab an officers weapon. That's the very definition of an assassination attempt.
 * How the attacker is named and how his charges appear precisely in the body of the article is another matter. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 21:46, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Comment Please review the talk page archive. This was carefully considered and rejected before. Thanks. SPECIFICO talk 21:21, 18 December 2023 (UTC)


 * Prior discussion in relation to the title was 3 years ago regarding a separate issue related to the title - the initial objection was that the attempt was labeled "Disorderly conduct", and the title was changed.
 * Afterwards, another seperate conversation argued if it should be considered a presidential assassination attempt (which it is not, as he was not a US president at the time). That is a seperate classification and discussion.
 * Most recently the question of if it should be moved to a page of assassination attempts on Donald Trump- and the response was 'this was already discussed'. However, the specific question of a title change reflecting the crime as an assassination attempt *was not thoroughly discussed*- the previous discussion centered on changing the verbage from 'disorderly conduct' specifically. I believe a re-examination is in order. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 21:40, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * At the most recent deletion discussion for this page, you will find considerable support for (and at times acceptance of) not including that specific descriptor in the title. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 21:53, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * This is simply circular logic pointing to largely your own(and SCORPIO's) prior comments. It doesn't satisfactorily address the claim at hand here.
 * Under your rationale, should the following article be classified as an assassination attempt/plot? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_assassination_plot_in_Denver
 * (Note, the people behind that were charged only for drugs and guns charges) Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 22:09, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * It's not just my own and SPECIFICO's prior comments. If you read that, you'll find support for avoiding the then-current assassination-invoking name from Captain Eek, ZimZalaBim, Tryptofish, Moriori, Cullen, llywrch, MelanieN alt, Levivich, and Feoffer, and acceptance of renaming from Jdcomix, and Kind Tennis Fan, with Ad Orientem suggesting addressing BLP concerns with removal of the individual's name. And all this discussion was after the convictions were secured. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 22:25, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * , the proper place to discuss that article is Talk: Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver. Cullen328 (talk) 22:20, 18 December 2023 (UTC)


 * I understand that discussion regarding changing that articles content be discussed on the appropriate page.
 * However I am using the as an illustrative example to better understand the rationale being used here. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 22:23, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I am expending enough energy on this article; I am not beholden on looking into that one to discuss this one. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 22:28, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Expecting complete consistency between articles in a volunteer produced encyclopedia with 6,758,919 articles is not reasonable. Also, there are significant differences in the fact patterns of these two incidents. Cullen328 (talk) 22:32, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I will repeat a comment I made four years ago. ""Attempted assassination" is inaccurate and belittles actual attempted assassinations of presidents like Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Teddy Roosevelt, all of whom had guns fired in attempts to kill them, and several of whom were wounded. In conclusion, this was a notable incident but not an actual attempted assassination. Worth noting is that attempted assassination of the president is a specific crime. Lynette Fromme was convicted of this though she never fired a bullet, and served 34 years in prison. This guy was not charged with attempted assassination, served six months on lesser charges, and was deported." Cullen328 (talk) 22:43, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I understand the sentiment, but you are not the sole arbiter of what rises to the level of an assassination attempt. And apparently no one is: beyond actual conviction for attempted assassination there is no formal entity that dictates what is/isn't an 'actual' assassination attempt.
 * As such, because there is not formal body who issues what is/isn't an assassination attempt, categorizing this act is a matter of applying the formal definition of the word. You can clearly see from multiple sources that this adheres to the formalized, accepted dictionary definition of the term.
 * For some reason this article specifically has come under scrutiny far more than others in relation to past assassination attempts.
 * The rational thing would be to call it an assassination plot, just like the previously mentioned security incident with Obama. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 22:58, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * No, it would not be rational to call it an assassination plot, as a "plot" according to most of the dictionaries I quickly check (such as this one) requires multiple people to be planning, which does not appear to be the case here. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 23:06, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I see that definition and acknowledge that the label is not appropriate. Now, as the source you just used in your last argument defines, let's apply the correct label to this attack as well. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 23:31, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Well, this attack certainly wasn't an "assassination", as no one was killed. But just because you can find a word in a dictionary that would seem to apply, that doesn't mean we throw it in the title. We have plenty of articles about people whose parents weren't married, and yet a quick search doesn't find a one of 'em with "bastard" in their article title. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 23:46, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * The difference is that this is not a additional descriptive word inserted in the title to describe an event(like the 'bastard' example).
 * This is a plain description of an attack. Like other events, to properly title this incident you have to look at the definition of the act and determine if it matches. For example labeling something 'mass shooting'.
 * This clearly fits the definition.
 * The attack is listed elsewhere in Wikipedia in lists of assassination attempts. Multiple media sources have described the attack as such.
 * I will ask- under what circumstances would you feel comfortable labeling an assassination attempt as such? What criteria qualifies an attack as a assassination in your view? Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 01:48, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * This isn't about what situations I, personally, would be comfortable describing something as such in my personal writing, because my personal writing is quite different from Wikipedia. This disagreement is about whether the Wikipedia guidelines should apply. I have yet to see any imperative to ignore those guidelines in this case. This is a concern that has been voiced repeatedly by a fair number of Wikipedia editors in regard to this particular page. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 02:10, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * If you cannot define what you'd consider a valid assassination attempt at all- by what logic are you asserting this is not a valid assassination attempt?
 * You've provided essentially no actual rationale as to why it is not an assassination attempt. Again, the attack is listed elsewhere as an assassination attempt and numerous articles do as well. You're just saying 'it doesn't count' over and over. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 02:22, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * No, see me as saying WP:BLPCRIME, over an over. Perhaps you should listen to that this time. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 02:49, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Can you highlight what on that page disqualifies this event from being characterized as an assassination attempt? Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 02:54, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * "For individuals who are not public figures—that is, individuals not covered by § Public figures—editors must seriously consider not including material—in any article—that suggests the person has committed or is accused of having committed a crime, unless a conviction has been secured." There was no charge of attempted assassination or even attempted murder, much less a conviction on either of those fronts. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 04:06, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Again, someone need not be convicted of an assassination attempt for the assassination attempt to be categorized as such. For example, Oswald and Hinkley were not convicted but perpetrated assassination attempts. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 04:16, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * BLPCRIME says otherwise for our usage here on Wikipedia (although it would not apply to Oswald, who is not a LP.) You're not going to get me to ignore the guidelines because there's a certain word you'd like to use in describing the situation. So far, you are dealing here with people with a fair bit more Wikipedia editing than you have; we know that BLP concerns are not easily blown off -- Nat Gertler (talk) 04:27, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * You yourself said in January 2021 in relation to this article that "WP:BLPCRIME is more of a "should" than a "must" statement, giving some room for discussion" Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 04:35, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, but this does not seem to be a close to the edge case, because again, he is not even been charged. And just saying that other sources describe it as such is not a winning argument, because if we went solely by what those sources say. we would not need the BLPCRIME guideline, as we would be able to rule out any claims that such sources aren't making by our verifiability guidelines. I see nothing in your concerns that is anywhere near worth ignore the concerns reflected in BLPCRIME. -- Nat Gertler (talk) Nat Gertler (talk) 04:45, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Although to be clear, this was not the attempted assassination of the president, so that law would not apply in this case. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 22:59, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I never claimed to be the "sole arbiter" of anything. Quite a few other editors disagree with you. Wikipedia makes decisions based on consensus. Consensus can change, but so far, you are not making much progress in changing it. Cullen328 (talk) 23:17, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
 * In my view, an assassination attempt requires that the the person has control of a lethal weapon, and tries to use it to kill a famous person, usually a politician. Squeaky Fromme is a perfect example. This individual tried but failed to grab a weapon. Cullen328 (talk) 02:39, 19 December 2023 (UTC)


 * I'll bring out the first actual oppose here, because this has been repeatedly discussed, and someone saying "I wanted to kill Trump" doesn't mean there was a carefully crafted assassination attempt, which the new title would imply.  Liliana UwU  (talk / contributions) 04:24, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * He didn't simply say 'I want to kill Trump'. He booked a flight from England to Las Vegas and purchased a ticket to the rally with the express purpose of killing Trump. He then rented guns to practice shooting for when the moment came. Ultimately he attended the rally, where he went up on stage and lunged for a gun with the intent to shoot and murder Trump. He told all this directly to authorities when questioned. This was a pre-meditated attempt to kill a prominent political figure for political ends. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 04:31, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I've argued a similar thing at Killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, but got told that moving the page to "Murder of..." needed a conviction. (The fact that the cops didn't get convicted is bullshit, but that's not the place to discuss it.) If Sandford was charged of attempting to assassinate Trump, that would be different.  Liliana UwU  (talk / contributions) 04:34, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Yeah that is the unfortunate scenario where police are just allowed to shoot at and kill us and are exempt from the normal burden of proof the rest of us have apparently.
 * Regardless, when you look at the lists here of assassination attempts, almost none are actually convicted of 'assassination' directly but for other charges. For example when neo Nazis tried to assassinate Obama (and it's apparently acceptable to correctly call that out on wikipedia as the assassination attempt it was) and they only got charged for drugs and guns. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 04:42, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Oppose WP:BLP policy does not permit an article title that states that a specific living person committed a crime that he was neither indicted for nor convicted of. As for the other article, express your concerns at Talk: Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver. Cullen328 (talk) 04:48, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Note: as per your assertion here that someone must be convicted of the specific charge of attempted assassination or actual assassination, the pages for the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt, every Obama attempt, the Teddy Roosevelt attempt, the JFK assassination itself, and many, many others are all incorrect and should be updated. Bringjustthefactsplease (talk) 05:19, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Oppoae - there is no reasonable reason to cast aside WP:BLPCRIME concerns here. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 06:19, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
 * oppose no policy rational given and nomination is wp:synth—blindlynx 16:23, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Oppose violates V NPOV BLP. SPECIFICO talk 18:33, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Oppose per nom. KevinNov3 (talk) 5:46, 21 December 2023 (UTC)