At least 20 dead in El Paso, Texas. At least 9 dead in Dayton, Ohio. Nearly 30 people were killed in two separate shootings in the space of 14 hours, making this one of the bloodiest weekends in recent US history. Many more were injured and are still being treated in hospital. This comes after three people were shot last Sunday at a food festival in Gilroy, California, making a total of 32 victims of gun violence in just one week.
In the wake of the El Paso shooting, US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that he sends his "heartfelt thoughts and prayers" to the people of Texas. Sending "thoughts and prayers" to those affected has become politicians' stock response every time there's another mass shooting in the United States. It's supposed to be a nice gesture, but it doesn't really achieve anything.
Perhaps the president should instead consider the fact that El Paso police found an online manifesto believed to have been posted by the 21-year-old suspect. In it, the author unloads about his hatred of immigrants, saying he's against "the Hispanic invasion of Texas."
President Trump has also described the immigration from Central America as an "invasion." He doesn't hide the fact that he doesn't want migrants in the United States. Trump would even like to send some nonwhite members of Congress who were born in the United States or who have become US citizens "back to where they came from."
Statements like these from the person who holds the highest office in the land have the effect of making hatred and xenophobia socially acceptable. When it leads to violence, as it did in El Paso this weekend, the president cannot completely deny some responsibility for what happened.
Carla Bleiker is DW's Washington correspondent
Tougher gun laws needed
The "thoughts and prayers" politicians have expressed after the attacks in El Paso and Dayton are also a way to avoid taking political action. What the United States really needs is tougher weapons legislation. The shooter in Dayton went out with an assault rifle and lots of additional magazines. It's easy to get weapons of this kind, along with the ammunition, in the United States — at so-called "gun shows," for example. Had the police not arrived less than a minute after the shooting began, the attacker could have killed hundreds of people.
Every time there's another attack, there are renewed calls for the introduction of a firearms license, a universal background check, and other, stricter laws. That was what happened in 2012, after 20 children aged between 6 and 7 and six adults were shot dead at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. It happened after a shooter killed 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas almost two years ago. And it happened after a killer shot 17 pupils and teachers at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine's Day 2018. In response, young people from Parkland started a protest movement. Tens of thousands of people participated in the "March for Our Lives" last year in Washington, D.C.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Ned Peppers Bar, Dayton
In the early hours of August 4, 2019, a man carrying a rifle opened fire at people outside a bar in Ohio, leaving nine people dead before police killed him. The man was wearing body armor and had additional magazines for the .223-caliber rifle. Police responded to the shooting within one minute; had they not, Mayor Nan Whaley said, "hundreds of people in the Oregon District could be dead today."
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Walmart, El Paso
Several hours earlier, Patrick Wood Crusius was arrested on suspicion of killing 20 people and injuring 26. The suspect allegedly posted an online screed shortly before the shooting that echoed US President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant statements. He appeared to target people he believed to be immigrants from Mexico. Prosecutors said they'd treat the shooting as domestic terrorism.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Municipal Center, Virginia Beach
Mourners gathered for a vigil in response to a shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach on June 1, 2019. A longtime city employee opened fire, apparently indiscriminately, outside and inside the building before engaging in a battle with police, who ultimately shot and killed him, authorities said. Including the gunman, the death toll was 13.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Borderline Bar & Grill, Thousand Oaks
In November 2018, a 28-year-old former Marine attacked a country dance bar outside Los Angeles, killing 12 people and wounding 10 others. The bar was holding a "College Night" and was packed with a young crowd. The gunman was found dead inside the bar, apparently he killed himself.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh
Eleven worshipers were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 while attending a baby naming ceremony. Six others were injured, including four police officers. The gunman is currently facing 29 criminal counts and could receive the death penalty. Police said he told officers that Jews were committing genocide and that he wanted them all to die.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Parkland, Florida
A 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killed 17 of his fellow classmates in February 2018. For the first time in the US, survivors of a mass shooting came together to demand immediate action on gun control. The students founded March for our Lives, a nationwide student mass protest movement.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs
A grudge against his in-laws led a 26-year-old man to attack a church in the small, tight-knit community of Sutherland Springs, Texas in November 2017. The shooter killed 26 people between the ages of 18 months and 72 years. The mass shooting prompted President Donald Trump to focus the issue of gun violence on mental health and away from gun ownership.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Route 91 Harvest Festival, Las Vegas
In the deadliest mass shooting in US history, concertgoers were targeted at a country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017. The shooter, a 64-year-old man with no criminal record, attacked from a room in the nearby Mandalay Hotel, killing 59 people and wounding more than 400. Authorities found 23 guns in the shooter's room.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Pulse nightclub, Orlando
An Afghan-American with a deep hatred for homosexuals attacked a gay nightclub in the city of Orlando, Florida in June 2016. Using an AR-15 rifle, the gunman stormed the darkened hall and killed 50 partygoers. The shooting was condemned worldwide and brought attention to hate crimes against the gay community.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown
The December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut rocked the nation in its brutality. It was the first time children under the age of 8 had been directly targeted, with 20 of them dying. Mourning parents flew to Washington, DC to support President Barack Obama's background checks legislation. The law ultimately wasn't approved, despite an emotional national debate.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Century 16 Theater, Aurora
In July 2012, a gunman opened fire during a movie screening in Aurora, Colorado, causing chaos and confusion. In the aftermath, 14 people were killed and 50 were wounded. The assailant attacked moviegoers as they were watching the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg
A student went on a shooting spree in a dorm and a class hall at Virginia Tech University campus in April 2007, leaving 32 people dead. The shooting turned the nation's attention to the National Rifle Association (NRA), the most powerful lobby group, which has fought to stop gun control laws.
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Deadly mass shootings in the US
Columbine High School, Littleton
The 1999 assault in Littleton, Colorado, was the first school shooting to shock the nation. Two disgruntled students walked into their high school and opened fire with automatic weapons, killing 13 people. The attack would later become the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine, that examined the causes of gun violence in the US.
Author: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
But the US gun lobby, particularly the National Rifle Association (NRA), has too much power and too much money for these voices to prevail. After the El Paso shooting, the Republican governor of Texas didn't talk about gun control; instead, he said that the perpetrator may have been mentally ill (there's no evidence so far to suggest this) and that there was a "need for the state and for society to do a better job of dealing with challenging mental health-based issues."
But there are people with mental health problems in other countries, too. And yet nowhere are so many men, women and children shot as in the United States. Until politicians finally dissociate themselves from the NRA and other powerful gun lobbyists and bring in tougher gun laws, people will continue to be shot and killed across the country.
