Yahoo News Meet the Virginia voter on the frontline of gun violence: Trump’s administration ‘has gone off the rails’
Don Unger, or “Rescue Don”, as he’s better known throughout Virginia, is one of the longest-serving senior paramedic volunteers in the state – and he’s seen it all.
At 64 years old, he continues to ride in an ambulance once a week as part of his county’s emergency medical system. Unger has been in the paramedic game so long that he even appeared on Rescue 911, the Nineties docudrama about real-life emergencies hosted by none other than William Shatner.
Though he works as an investment adviser by day and manages company retirement plans, Unger considers the volunteer paramedic work his “fun job”.
However, over the last several decades, Unger has watched as gun violence and the opioid epidemic have ripped through Henrico, Virginia, causing irreparable harm to the community.
“When I first started and we would see people who were shot, they were shot with handguns – 22s, 38s and 45s – and [the wounds] were survivable,” he told The Independent. “But today when we see shootings, they’re often assault-rifle kind of weapons … you can get shot in the arm or leg and still die.”
Unger also said opiates and heroin have proven detrimental to his community in recent years, as an alarming number of people have dropped out of health insurance “because of things the [Trump] administration have done”.
Unger is an independent who didn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2016 – or Hillary Clinton. In fact, when we spoke, he couldn’t quite remember the name of the third-party candidate he cast his ballot for, but recalled they were endorsed by a local paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch. (It was Gary Johnson.)
This time around, he said he’s inclined to vote for a Democratic candidate against Trump, since the administration has “gone off the rails”.
“I would say the first year, year and a half of the Trump administration wasn’t my favourite, but the last year the train has gone off the rails,” he said. “Nobody, young or old, can ever remember anything like what we’ve experienced the last year. The adults have left the building. Anybody who had any kind of sway over the Twitter controls or impulse controls is no longer there, which is why we’re seeing what we’re seeing.
“I don’t anticipate it getting better any time soon,” he added.
We shouldn’t have to feel obligated to have people carry weapons in their house of worship… it shouldn’t have to be that way
Don Unger
But if a Democrat has a chance of getting his vote, he said they’re going to need to have sound policy ideas on at least two of his top three issues: gun control, healthcare, and college tuition fees.
“If the election were held today, I don’t see me voting for Mr Trump,” he said. “Some [of the Democrats] are a little more far-leaning to the left than I’m comfortable with, but if they have a reasonable plan to address healthcare costs and, more importantly, gun control reform, and they have a plan to manage the costs of college… then yes, I would vote for that Democratic candidate. Unless by some miracle an independent comes forward and is a viable option.”
For Unger, the issue of gun violence hits closer to home than he’d like. He’s been married for 38 years with two daughters, one of whom lives in the area and works as an administrator for a local Jewish community centre. He said his own local religious centre has armed guards, and his synagogue has been forced to begin paying for armed security amid an increase in hate crimes nationwide and several mass shootings targeting religious institutions.
He seems uncomfortable as he tells me about a friend of his who carries a concealed weapon to his local church, where several other men in the community also bring their guns to Sunday services, spacing themselves out across the church “in case [someone] decides to come in and shoot the place up”.
“We shouldn’t have to feel obligated to have people carry weapons in their house of worship… it shouldn’t have to be that way.”
When we spoke in October, Virginia was battling over the issue of gun control and struggling to overcome an apparent deadlock. The Republicans controlled the state legislature by a slim majority, which Unger said was the result of contentious gerrymandering efforts on the part of the GOP. While Republicans blocked Democratic efforts to pass significant gun control reforms, the state’s Democratic governor vetoed the Republicans’ pro-gun measures.
It was all a vicious cycle with no end in sight – but Unger predicted, correctly, that Republicans would face a backlash for redrawing the state’s maps to maintain power. Earlier this month, Democrats took back control of the state senate in an off-year election – a possible foreshadowing for the swing state in 2020.
In terms of policy, Unger says he believes everybody should have a license to buy ammunition – “and no more online purchasing and getting ammo in the mail”.
“Whether it’s Big Brother or not, I think if somebody’s going week after week and buying 50 or 100 rounds of ammunition at a time, that – much like the purchase of a handgun – should go into some kind of database,” he says, adding, “If Fred has accumulated 3,000 rounds of ammunition for an assault rifle over the course of three months, maybe Fred needs a visit, a friendly knock on the door, you know, check to see what Fred’s up to.”
In terms of healthcare, Unger says he’s been calling for Medicare for everyone for at least five years, and supports many of the plans that seek to provide universal coverage while maintaining private insurance options.
And when it comes to the campaign trail, Unger says he’s watching closely, but “waiting a little bit longer” before he makes a decision about who to support, if any at all.
“I know he’s had his troubles here and maybe has put his foot in his mouth a little bit, but as far as experience-wise, Mr Biden is up there,” he says. “On the other end of the spectrum, for somebody a little younger but did a wonderful job in his region, Cory Booker.”
In fact, Unger seems open to considering many of the candidates still vying for the Democratic nomination, from “Mr Buttigieg, if I’m pronouncing that correctly,” to “Bernie, but he’s a little far down the spectrum and just because of his recent health scare, I’d be concerned about voting for him”.
He’s not as set on Elizabeth Warren, though he says he’s “not against her” either. And he also thinks Kamala Harris “is an interesting person”.
After realising he’s essentially read through the entire list of top-tier Democratic candidates, Unger sounds exasperated.
“I’m just looking for someone who’s got a chance here,” he says. “Someone who’s finally going to do something about all of this.”
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