Dems Rush To Make CEO’s Murder About Grabbing Guns

A man — a husband, a dad — is dead.

Brian Thompson, 50, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was murdered outside his hotel in New York City, just before dawn Dec. 4, on a public sidewalk. The Thompson family held his funeral Monday, and while their mourning will continue, the nation that has become fixated on his death.

Video of the murder shows a hooded man shooting Thompson in the back. It has run countless times on television and on social media.

Suspect Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested in Altoona, Penn., on Monday. It was the same day as Thompson’s funeral and six days after the shooting. Mangione was arrested with a 3D printed gun, a police criminal complaint said.

Democrats and legacy media are already using the death for political messaging, primarily concerning so-called “ghost guns.”

Count how many times this week you hear the words “ghost guns.” Second Amendment advocates bristle at the left’s nickname for kit guns and 3D printed guns. Sold as parts and fully built by the consumer, the parts do not have a serial number and are tough to track.

In a 2022 executive order, President Joe Biden required serial numbers on gun parts sold in kits. This has been challenged in the Supreme Court as an infringement of Second Amendment rights. In a September executive order, Biden called for a report assessing the risk of 3D printed firearms.

By Monday evening, reporters jumped on the ghost guns angle, making sure to engage in plenty of scaremongering.

“UnitedHealthcare CEO was likely killed with a ghost gun that can be made at home,” the Associated Press headline reads. CBS went with “3D-printed ‘ghost guns’ raise concerns amid legal, safety debates,” NBC’s headline was similar, “What to know about ‘ghost guns,’ the weapon allegedly tied to the CEO shooting,” and USA Today, “’Ghost gun’ tied to NYC murder of health care CEO adds fuel to debate on homemade guns.”

All Eyes on Pennsylvania

To announce Mangione’s arrest, Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Penn., led a press conference Monday evening. Police often handle such press conferences on their own, but it would have been impossible for Shapiro to resist such an opportunity. Political watchers consider Shapiro a likely future Democrat presidential candidate.

Shapiro led a similar press conference, sharing the national spotlight with state police, after the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler on July 13.

Shapiro mentioned two political flashpoints in Monday’s comments: ghost guns and health insurance.

“Some attention in this case, especially online, has been deeply disturbing, as some have looked to celebrate instead of condemning this killer. Brian Thompson was a father to two, he was a husband, and he was a friend to many, and yes, he was the CEO of a health insurance company,” Shapiro said. “In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint. I understand people have real frustration with our health care system, and I have worked to address that throughout my career, but I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most. In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilante justice. In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero.”

Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s former attorney general, has been fighting for years to ban the sale of so-called ghost guns.

There has been a major push by Pennsylvania Democrats to make the sale of gun parts without serial numbers illegal. Such a measure passed in the Pennsylvania House this year and was stalled in the Republican-led Senate.  

Numerous heinous social media posts have celebrated the murder because Thompson worked in the health insurance industry and reportedly earned a large salary. Disgruntled customers and total nutjobs of all stripes wished him dead and, in some cases, called for more such murders.   

The Fast Food Arrest

Mangione was spotted at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona on Monday at 9:14 a.m. According to the police criminal complaint, he was sitting at a table wearing a blue medical mask and a beanie, looking at a laptop computer, when someone called police to report a sighting of the suspect who had been on television. He had a backpack on the floor.

Police asked him to pull down his mask, and he did as they asked. One of the officers immediately recognized him, according to the complaint.

They asked if he had identification, and he first gave them a false ID card with the wrong name. Police asked if he had recently been in New York. He “became quiet and started to shake,” the complaint said.

Once they sorted out his identity, he was handcuffed and searched on the scene. Police asked why he lied about his identity.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.