Man drove from CA to Las Vegas Trump rally, grabbed for cop’s gun ‘to kill Trump’; *UPDATE* Here illegally…

Man drove from CA to Las Vegas Trump rally, grabbed for cop’s gun ‘to kill Trump’; *UPDATE* Here illegally…

[See update at bottom. – J.E.]

If you need a sign of the times we live in, look no further.

Police have now reported what they know about the young man who tried to grab an officer’s gun from its holster on Saturday in a Trump rally venue in Las Vegas.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

The miscreant, 19-year-old Michael Sandford, wanted to kill Donald Trump.

But there’s more to the story.  Sandford is a British citizen who’s been living in Hoboken, N.J. for the last 18 months.  It’s not clear yet why he was in California just before he turned up in Las Vegas this weekend.  But he told police he’s been wanting to kill Trump for the last year.

So he drove to Las Vegas late last week, and on Friday went to a gun range to learn how to shoot a pistol.  His training reportedly consisted of 20 rounds with a Glock.  He made no attempt to buy a gun, apparently, and police have given no indication that he had one with him.  His plan seems to have been to grab one at the Trump rally.

Sandford reportedly showed signs of continued determination, even after being apprehended.

According to the complaint, Sandford had targeted officer Ameel Jacob’s weapon because it was in an unlocked position and would be the easiest way to acquire a gun to shoot Trump.

The court papers read: ‘Sandford further stated that if he were on the street tomorrow, he would try this again.

‘Sandford claimed he had been planning to attempt to kill Trump for about a year but decided to act on this occasion because he finally felt confident to do it.’ …

Sandford also told investigators he had a ticket for a Trump rally in Phoenix, Arizona, for later on Saturday as a back-up.

According to police, Sandford’s interim destination in California, just before he headed for Las Vegas, was San Bernardino.  Since San Bernardino’s charms are not so great for casual tourists that Sandford was likely to be there just to see the sights, we are justified in wondering if there’s a connection to the main thing the world knows about the city today.

But until there is further concrete information about Sandford’s motive, there’s no point in groundless speculation.  CNN and other MSM outlets have picked the story up, so we can expect to hear more in the coming days.  Gateway Pundit has been on it from the beginning.

Sandford is being held without bail in Las Vegas.  Perhaps he’s just a random nut.  One’s thoughts do hark back, however, to the last assassination attempt by a foreigner against a presidential candidate: that of Sirhan Sirhan, the Jordanian from the West Bank who killed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in June 1968.  (Sirhan, raised as a Christian, had become a Rosicrucian prior to assassinating Kennedy.  In his writings from the year before the attack in the Ambassador Hotel, he showed an obsession with RFK which centered on Kennedy’s support for Israel in the Six-Day War of June 1967.)

It would be too pat, undoubtedly, to sum things up here by observing that in Obama’s political universe, it’s always 1968 – that uniquely chaotic, troubled year for the Cold War West.

But “1968” has long been a lodestone for Obama’s strongest political influences, its superannuated fixations with class, race, and “revolution” imprinted on their political DNA, and his.  Obama has been trying to redeem the unfinished business of “1968” since he entered the White House more than seven years ago.  Invoking the pointless, yapping spirit of the radical left’s “1968” as we build toward this summer’s conventions is by no means off the mark.

*UPDATE*: This is classic.  Courtesy of Gateway Pundit: turns out Michael Sandford is here illegally, having overstayed his visa.

The man who attempted to steal a police officer’s gun and “kill Donald Trump” at the Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, was in the US illegally, having overstayed his visa, a federal court found out during the arraignment.

Overstaying visas without consequence has become epidemic in recent years.

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer is a retired Naval Intelligence officer who lives in Southern California, blogging as The Optimistic Conservative for domestic tranquility and world peace. Her articles have appeared at Hot Air, Commentary’s Contentions, Patheos, The Daily Caller, The Jewish Press, and The Weekly Standard.

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