The shootings yesterday and today in El Paso, and Dayton were not caused by mentally ill individuals, but by hatered possessed by the killers. They were young, white males. A mass shooting is perhaps the most violent of acts that Homo sapiens carry out against each other. In these cases, the perpetrator seeks out people who most vulnerable, and unaware that they are unsafe. Shopping in a Walmart with several thousand others is not considered to be a dangerous activity. The shooter plotted for some time to go to this Walmart and inflict as much damage as possible. Going out to a nightclub with your friends, having a few drinks, is rarely believed to be unsafe. The Dayton shooter actually participated in the night activities, but then slipped away, only to return in full body armor to shoot as many as he could. And he killed his own sister, and another friend, along with three dozen others, killing 9.
Both of this men planned the killing. They did not have a mental breakdown, and commit these evil deeds. No, they acted on hatred that had developed within themselves, perhaps over a period of months, or years. Each was in their early 20s. Each was a white male. There is no evidence of mental illness in either. But for the El Paso killer, he wrote a diatribe and posted it on the net expressing hatred of Mexican people, immigrants who were seeking a better life in the United States. This killer was a White Nationalist. He expressed the ideology espouses whites as supreme, and considered nonwhites as inferior. The killer expressed similer views as the KKK, neo-Confederates, & neo-Nazis.
Although we don’t know the motivation of the Dayton killer, the El Paso killer was clearly motivated by White Nationalist ideology. They want to reverse the changing demographics and loss of the white majority. Killing non-whites is one way for them to achieve this.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), white nationalists have an agenda to end non-white immigration. The SPLC says that:
White nationalists seek to return to an America that predates the implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Both landmark pieces of legislation are cited as the harbingers of white dispossession and so-called “white genocide” — the idea that whites in the United States are being systematically replaced and destroyed. (“White Nationalist.” Southern Poverty Law Center, 2019, www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/white-nationalist.)
The combination of white nationalist rhetoric that is supported by the White House occupants in 2019, and the number of guns in the country presents the perfect storm for mass killings. Unless the government recognizes these two facts of life, not much will change for the protection of American citizens.
In 2018, the SPLC identified 148 white nationalist hate groups across the United States. The number of white nationalist groups has increased from 68 identified in 2000.
Source: “White Nationalist.” Southern Poverty Law Center, 2019, www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/white-nationalist.
The second fact that we need to consider is the number of guns in the hands of nearly everyone, and the ease with which people can buy weapons. Many of these weapons are killing machines, the kind of weapon used by the El Paso and Dayton killers. The United States is the leader in the number of weapons in the hands of its citizens. Unfortunately, we are also the leader in the number of mass killings. The El Paso and Dayton killings brings the number of mass killings this year to 251 in 216 days.
The graph below shows how the number of guns in a country is correlated with the number of mass killings. The United States is nearly off the chart. Except for Yemen, the United States is located in an area of graph far from other countries.
The fact that the present administration blames mass killings on the mentally ill is cowardly. The facts do not support this view. There is only a 5% chance that a mentally ill person would commit a crime, let alone a mass killing.
No, the discussion on solving the problem of mass killings needs to address the idealogy of hate, and the culture of guns that is persistent in the United States. Not doing so will lead us no where.
Notice that all Republicans from the state houses to the White House claim shootings are done by crazy people with mental illness who grew up on video games. Wrong. But they are afraid of dealing with the truth that the shootings are deliberate attacks on people, the vulnerable, and in the El Paso Walmart shooting, any non-white, but especially Hispanics.