Hopefully, this country has witnessed its last assassination attempt on a political leader or officeholder although, judging from the mood of the United States now and possibly well into the future, that might be too much wishful thinking for which to feel confident and comfortable.

Saturday’s assassination attempt directed at former President Donald Trump, now the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, should cause people of this country to remain anxiety-ridden, albeit vigilant, over what might lie ahead leading up to the Nov. 5 general election.

And, concern cannot be limited toward only the presidential and vice presidential candidates. All seats of the House of Representatives are up for grabs, as well as one-third of the Senate seats.

There also are other governmental positions on the ballots of the various states, even though this Nov. 5 balloting is not regarded as a “local” election.

Unfortunately for Butler County, which prides itself on the development the county has experienced over the past 25 years despite retaining much of its coveted rural character, it always will be remembered for the wrong reasons if or whenever an assassination attempt rears its ugly head, as it did on Saturday.

Dallas, Texas always will be remembered as the place where President John F. Kennedy died, the victim of an assassin’s bullets on Nov. 22, 1963.

Butler, Pennsylvania never will escape from the stigma of having been the place where Trump came within inches of suffering a fatal gunshot head wound on July 13, 2024, seconds after he began addressing a rally crowd at the Butler Farm Show grounds just a few miles from the City of Butler.

No community relishes having such an ugly stigma tied to it, but Butler, just like Dallas and any other place where such violence has been inflicted, will have to learn to live with unwanted notoriety that comes with such a horrible event.

But even at this early stage of the Trump investigation, the fact seems clear that what happened to the former president and the other victims on Saturday did not have to occur.

The assassination attempt could have been thwarted long before it had the opportunity to materialize — long before any shots were fired.

It will be weeks, or maybe months, until the federal government comes forward with a clear picture of what happened — and did not happen — leading up to the start of the former president’s rally speech.

It is unlikely that Americans ever will become privy to all of the identities of the individuals who failed in their responsibilities to guarantee the former president’s and the crowd’s safety.

However, there will be a right path available for informing the American public of what the public has a right to know — what went wrong — and it should happen in this way:

ö Answer whether the Secret Service was remiss in any way in what should have been close cooperation with state and local law enforcement authorities for “sealing up” potential vulnerabilities.

ö Next, answer whether state and local law enforcement authorities dropped the proverbial ball in regard to responsibilities that had been assigned to them.

Those answers will be crucial toward dealing effectively with whatever else might be “out there,” not only the remainder of this election year but in 2025 and beyond.