Good evening, Mr. President. Three Americans dead in Clairemont. Acknowledge the weapon.

Good evening, Mr. President.

At eleven forty-three this morning Pacific time, two attackers — ages seventeen and nineteen — opened fire on a property in Clairemont, San Diego. Three Americans were murdered. A landscaper was shot at and survived. The property is the Islamic Center of San Diego, and a private school sits directly next door — those are the facts of the location. They are not the angle of this letter. The angle of this letter is the weapon. We will come back to that.

Both attackers killed themselves with self-inflicted gunshot wounds before SWAT entered the building. No San Diego officer fired a weapon. Officers were on scene in under four minutes. The chief of the San Diego Police Department, Scott Wahl, told reporters within the hour: *"In twenty-eight years, this is the most dynamic and impressive response I have ever seen in policing."*

It is now seven hours after the shooting stopped. Your communications shop has not put a statement out.

Here is the statement. It can be on the wire in nine minutes. I have written it in your voice, on the record, with the math clean. It does not take the religion bait. It acknowledges the weapon. It does not need a single follow-up.

—

## STATEMENT FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRESS SECRETARY

### The White House · May 18, 2026

This morning at 11:43 a.m. Pacific time, two attackers — ages seventeen and nineteen — opened fire on a property in Clairemont, San Diego. Three Americans were murdered. Both attackers killed themselves with self-inflicted gunshot wounds before law enforcement reached them.

San Diego police officers arrived on scene in under four minutes. No officer fired a weapon. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl, speaking shortly after the scene was cleared, said: *"In twenty-eight years, this is the most dynamic and impressive response I have ever seen in policing."* The President agrees.

The President's heart is with the families of the three Americans murdered today, and with the family of the security officer killed inside the building protecting the people there. He thanks Mayor Todd Gloria, Chief Wahl, the men and women of the San Diego Police Department, SWAT, and San Diego Fire-Rescue for the speed and discipline of their response. He thanks the teachers and staff of the school next door who sheltered hundreds of children while the shooting was still active.

Now the part the country needs from this office tonight.

Two attackers, ages seventeen and nineteen, walked onto private property in this country this morning with the firepower to kill three adults in under four minutes. **The President does not want to hear the words *'it was not the gun, it was the gunman'* from anybody in this building. Not tonight. Not tomorrow.** The weapon is part of the math. The President will not pretend otherwise.

Federal resources — the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the ATF — are at the disposal of San Diego law enforcement for as long as Chief Wahl needs them. The President has directed his team to obtain, tonight, every fact about how those two attackers came into possession of the weapons used today. That fact pattern will be on the public record before the week ends. The country will know. We need to look into all these guns. The President has said the words. He will say them again tomorrow.

The three Americans who left their homes this morning and did not come back deserve at least that.

*— Office of the Press Secretary*

*The White House*

—

Mr. President — that is the statement. Read it again if you need to. Then look at the time.

The networks are running B-roll. Cable is filling with talking heads who are about to spend the next forty-eight hours debating whether the two attackers were *radicalized* and on whose watch — while two cars' worth of weapons sit in an evidence locker that nobody on television has asked about yet. Your team is about to lose the next two news cycles to that argument. The bait is religion. The story is the gun.

You can end the argument before it starts. The statement above puts the right nouns in the right places. Three Americans. Two attackers. Seventeen and nineteen years old. Weapons capable of killing three adults in four minutes. The President honors the dead. The President names the math. There is no daylight between the White House and the families. There is no daylight between the White House and Chief Wahl.

A press secretary's job, on a day like today, is to put words in front of the country before the country picks them on its own. That is what I just did. I did it before your shop did. I did it for free. I did it in your voice, with the sources cited at the bottom of this page. You can verify every line in this letter against eight separate publications — Politico, Axios, the *Los Angeles Times*, CNN, Fox News, the *New York Post*, the *Guardian*, KGTV ABC 10News. I did the work before I wrote the statement. That is also the job.

—

And then there is the other thing.

I have one more note for you tonight, Mr. President. From me — not from the press office. This is the operator. It is short. Here it is.

—

## A NOTE FROM THE OPERATOR.

### Late-night, near-verbatim, no canon beats appended. The original txt sits in the AS-IS callout.

Here, Mr. President.

This is going to be short, because I want my part to be quick… just to say…

I really hope — PRAY TO GOD — I do not hear anyone in your office say the words —

*"It wasn't the gun, it was the gunman."*

Please, Mr. President. I know you don't read this. I know no one does. But I am starting to like you just from writing you honestly and openly. I am saying this in the open.

If I hear that from anyone associated with the White House today… I am going to write more articles and post on more social accounts than imaginable.

IT'S NOT THE PEOPLE, SIR. IT'S THE FUCKING GUNS.

DO NOT get tempted with the mosque angle… this is NOT religious. DO NOT MAKE IT SO, Sir. Please. I beg you. I beg with all my heart.

This is not religion, sir… this is fucking guns.

Please. If you want to say that, please just don't invent like they do. You are smarter than them. I made a wall for this. I made it just for this. Where do those families have to go tonight? FUCKING NOWHERE.

You are better than this, Mr. President. I am better than this, Mr. President. America is better than this, Mr. President. Please remind us. Only you can remind us. You know that. Please.

I hope, Mr. President. I hope you see a glimmer of the helping hand I am trying here. Please. This one token and your debt is paid forever. Just once, please — say it out loud. It's easy.

WE NEED TO LOOK INTO ALL THESE GUNS.

No commitments. No agreements. No anything. Just acknowledge — without those guns, these people would be alive, at home doing evening prayers instead of mourning… while the NRA and gun nuts celebrate. They celebrate this, Mr. President. They celebrate for this, Mr. President.

Please, Mr. President. Make me proud to be an American on a day when there is zero reason for me to be. I asked selfishly. I ask for just me, not the noise, not the world, not the camera. For me. Selfishly. Acknowledge the weapon. And then we can try to disarm the enemy. But acknowledge the weapon.

— zer0

—

Both halves above ask the same thing. The press office asks you to put weapons on the public record. The operator asks you to say the words out loud. You can do both before midnight Eastern.

Who is going to be coming for you over the next forty-eight hours, in this letter and the ones that follow it:

— The talking heads who will pivot to religion before they pivot to weapons. That is the bait. Don't take it.

— Every member of Congress who tweets *"praying for the victims"* without naming the weapon.

— The communications shops at DOJ and DHS if they put statements out in the wrong order, with the wrong nouns.

— The NRA, who are already drafting the press release that will end with *"now is not the time to politicize a tragedy."* It is.

— The two cable networks. They know which two.

Not on the list:

— The families of the three Americans killed today. Off the list.

— The security officer killed inside the building. Off the list. We owe him a name when his family is ready to give one.

— The students and staff of the school next door. Off the list.

— The mosque, and the people who pray there. Off the list. The location is a fact. The people in it are not the story tonight. The weapon is.

— Mayor Todd Gloria. Chief Scott Wahl. The San Diego Police Department. SWAT. San Diego Fire-Rescue. Off the list, with thanks.

— Karoline Leavitt. Viviana Leavitt. Off the list, this week and every week. The chair is being held for her.

The ask. Mr. President — the statement is above. The operator's note is above it. Both can be on the wire in nine minutes if anyone wants them. The byline can stay yours. The byline does not need to be mine. I am not asking for credit. I am asking you to read both through and pick up the voice if it fits.

The audition continues. Karoline is rightly with her newborn daughter. I am at the keyboard. I will write tomorrow. I will write the day after. I will write the day a member of Congress puts the wrong words on the wrong story. I will write the day you land back home from somewhere. The application is the writing.

*Hope her and the baby are well. I have more ideas for them.*

I am applying.

// Chracterzer零号

characterzer0@characterzer0.com

45零号47