Seattle interim police chief Andre Sayles drew online criticism after using the phrase “trigger pullers” while discussing plans to proactively address violent crime in the city.
According to the New York Post, critics accused Sayles of avoiding the word “shooters” and using what they viewed as politically softened language. Some social media users mocked the phrasing, with one asking whether officials were addressing shootings or merely avoiding “overstep boundaries with criminals.” Another argued that word choice would not change the harm to victims.
The controversy gained traction because Sayles serves in Seattle, a city often associated with left-leaning politics, under socialist Mayor Katie Wilson. The Post described the term as a “baffling neologism” and connected the wording to Seattle’s political environment.
The term did not start in Seattle
But the available record shows “trigger pullers” is not a new phrase invented by Seattle officials. It has appeared in federal law-enforcement language for more than a decade.
A 2014 press release from the U.S. Attorney in Alabama referred to “trigger pullers and street-level drug dealers” targeted by federal authorities in Elmore County.
In 2017, FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Anderson, then leading the bureau’s Chicago field office, said agents were interested in identifying “trigger-pullers and shot-callers.”
That same year, a Justice Department report on the Detroit One Violent Crime Reduction Initiative described “priority offenders” as being known colloquially as “trigger pullers.” The report defined the group as “individuals who had committed, were committing, or were most likely to commit a crime while using or shooting a firearm.”
The report said identifying significant “trigger pullers” could help law-enforcement agencies focus resources on some of the most dangerous individuals in the city.
Used under the Trump administration, too
The phrase also appeared during the Trump administration. In 2020, John R. Lausch Jr., then U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said his office had maintained or exceeded recent prosecution levels for violent criminals, including “trigger-pullers, carjackers, and those who illegally use and possess firearms.”
In 2022, the head of the U.S. Marshals referred to “trigger pullers” while discussing repeat violent offenders. He said focusing on those responsible for the most violence could remove “trigger pullers off the street” and bring justice to families affected by them.
A loaded phrase, but not necessarily a woke one
Based on those examples, the phrase appears to be established law-enforcement shorthand rather than a newly coined political euphemism. In that context, it generally refers to repeat or high-risk offenders connected to firearm violence, not lawful gun owners.
That does not settle whether Sayles’ strategy will work, or whether Seattle’s political leadership will support targeted enforcement against prolific violent offenders. But the claim that “trigger pullers” is simply new woke terminology is harder to support when federal officials, FBI personnel, DOJ documents, and U.S. Marshals have used the same wording before.
The larger question for Seattle is not just what its interim chief calls violent offenders. It is whether the city will follow through on a focused strategy aimed at the people driving gun violence.
