There have been more mass shootings than days this year, in 2019. Sunday was the 216th day in 2019 and it marked the 250th and 251st mass shooting this year. This weekend, we witnessed two mass shootings in less than 24 hours. Shootings that have put terrorism, white supremacy, and gun laws at the center stage of a national debate.



The El Paso shooting



El Paso, TX is a border community, known for its binational workers and bilingual residents. As well as its predominantly Latino community, that became a target of terrorism this past Saturday. The shooting at the El Paso Walmart has left at least 22 dead and injured more than two dozen others. The shooter, a 21-year-old white supremacist told investigators following his arrest that he set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could, according to authorities. He drove nine hours from Allen, Texas to El Paso to target the Hispanic population. At least eight of the 22 people killed were Mexican nationals and nine additional Mexicans were among those wounded, said Mexico’s Foreign Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard. Alvaro Mena, the son of a 78-year-old man who was killed in the shooting, told ABC News “We are afraid to go out. We are afraid to go out into the streets because we feel like we are being hunted because of our skin color.” The deadly rampage is being treated as an act of domestic terrorism by the Justice Department and potential hate crime by federal investigators, who are examining a four-page racist, anti-immigrant manifesto the suspect wrote on the dark website 8chan before launching the attack.



The El Paso suspect was acting on the manifesto he wrote, where he announced that “this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” The hatred filled language of the manifesto reflect ideas from President Trump. A Twitter account linked to the suspect shared and retweeted President Trump’s tweets, and even liked a post from an anonymous account showing Trump’s name spelled out with guns. The account posted a tweet saying “#BuildTheWall is the best way @POTUS has worked to secure our country so far!” Trump’s language towards Mexican immigrants has come under scrutiny after this tragedy. According to Facebook’s ad archive, Trump has run around 2,200 FB ads since May 2018 mentioning the word “invasion” in regards to immigration. The shooter said he did what he did to “stop the invasion” a term frequently employed by Trump to argue for a border wall. The shooter also quoted 8 different phrases from Trump in his manifesto.



Trump’s language has ignited this violence

The president has denied responsibility for inciting violence in American communities in the past. However, an ABC News investigation in November 2018, found multiple criminal cases involving mostly white men where Trump’s name or rhetoric was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats, or allegations. In June President Trump said, “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.” During a rally in May in Panama City Beach, Florida, Trump spoke about the border patrol agents working to stop migrants from crossing the border illegally. When he asked the crowd, “How do you stop these people?” one rally attendee shouted, “Shoot them.” The crowd laughed and Trump smiled. “That’s only in the [Florida] panhandle, can you get away with that statement.” It is clear that Trump’s hateful rhetoric played a role in the deaths of at least 22 people in El Paso and it might continue to incite violence and fear as long as he continues to enable white supremacy ideologies.



Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018

Trump’s response

On Twitter Trump made no mention of the El Paso manifesto, but instead focused on what he called “a mental illness problem.” Democratic Presidential candidates criticized Trump for his response to the shootings. His initial response to the attacks disregarded the fact that they were acts of terrorism. By Monday morning, Trump had condemned “racism, bigotry and white supremacy”, but had not called for changes to gun legislation. Language is important when dealing with these acts of violence. If these attacks would’ve been committed by Muslim men our government wouldn’t have wasted much time to categorize them as terrorist attacks rather than an issue of mental illness. Let’s be clear, white supremacy is not a mental illness. White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races. It’s an ideology being enabled by the President and many of our nation’s leaders, and it’s made deadly in this country via easy access to guns due to the lack of comprehensive gun laws.



The Dayton, Ohio shooting

On Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, a 24-year-old man killed nine people, including his sister, and left at least two dozen others injured in a popular nightlife area. Wearing a mask and body armor he opened fire outside an Ohio bar with an AR-15-style assault rifle that was carrying a 100 capacity drum ( a military-grade modification). Biehl, the police chief, said the shooter could have been carrying 250 bullets when he began his rampage. “It is fundamentally problematic to have that level of weaponry in a civilian environment, unregulated,” Biehl said. He also added that the gun appears to have been purchased on the Internet and then modified “to avoid any legal prohibitions.”

What is still unknown is whether the shooter intended to target the victims, including his 22-year-old sister, Megan, the youngest of the dead, police said. He had traveled to the area with Megan and a mutual friend. At some point, he left the group and later opened fire. Biehl said he has no information to suggest that Megan or the mutual friend were aware that he had brought the weapons with him in the trunk of the vehicle. The mutual friend is being treated for a gunshot wound in his lower torso. Though, the gunman was white and six of the nine killed were black, police said the quickness of the rampage made any discrimination in the shooting seem unlikely. It all happened within 30 seconds before police officers stationed nearby fatally shot him. Conflicting accounts of the shooter have emerged. To some, he was known as a friendly guy but high school classmates said he was suspended for compiling a “hit list” of those he wanted to kill, and a “rape list” of girls he wanted to sexually assault.



The Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting

A week before these two shootings there was another mass shooting at a festival in Northern California. The shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival left three dead and wounded 12, and the gunman killed himself during his standoff with police. California bans the sale of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, but the Gilroy shooter legally bought his gun in Nevada.



What’s being proposed

President Trump claimed Monday he wanted Washington to “come together” on legislation providing “strong background checks” for gun users, but he provided no details. The House of Representatives has passed a gun control bill that includes fixes to the nation’s firearm background check system, but it has languished in the Senate as McConnell refuses to hold a vote. Senate Democrats on Sunday called on Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to cancel the chamber’s August recess so that they can take up gun control legislation in the wake of two mass shootings. This also includes at least one of the bills the House passed in February.



According to NBC News, that bill, dubbed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, would create new background check requirements for gun transfers between unlicensed individuals. Under current law, only licensed gun dealers are required to conduct a background check for buyers. The other bill the Democrats passed in February would extend to 10 days, the amount of time federal officials have to complete a background check on a gun buyer before a sale is completed. Under current regulations, if a background check isn’t completed within three business days, the sale can be completed anyway.

Trump also suggested that a background check bill could be paired to immigration reform, a move that is meant to give Republicans leverage over Democrats in passing controversial immigration measures. He said he was “directing the Department of Justice to propose legislation ensuring that those who commit hate crimes and mass murders face the death penalty.” The President proposed “red flag” laws that would give family members the opportunity to get a court order for a relative’s firearm to be confiscated if they believe he or she posed a risk.

During his remarks on Monday evening, President Trump avoided calling for any specific gun control laws in contrast to his tweets hours before. Instead of blaming violent video games and mental illness for the scourge of mass shootings, there needs to be more established gun laws to prevent these shootings from happening in the first place.

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