San Francisco has seen its share of past political violence

San Francisco, sadly, is no stranger to political violence.

Almost 50 years ago to the day — September 22, 1975 — President Gerald Ford came within inches of being killed by a would-be assassin on Powell Street outside the St. Francis Hotel.

Three years later, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were murdered in their City Hall offices. In 2022, an intruder targeting then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi bludgeoned her husband, Paul, with a hammer in their Pacific Heights home.

While politics played a role in each incident, the common denominator was not ideology. It was mental instability.

The same is likely the case in the horrific killing of Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University. Reports suggest that the man charged with his murder had been increasingly a