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MONITOR
Domestic Terrorism Is Taking Its Toll on Our Mental Health
After three mass shootings in one week, trauma, anxiety, and isolation set in
The string of mass shootings with military-style weapons began on July 28 at Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California. Three people were killed. The following week on August 3, another shooter stormed a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. That death toll has climbed to 22. Barely 13 hours later, a third shooter arrived at a bar in Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people, including his own sibling. Thirty-four people, including children, have died in mass shootings in one deadly week. Dozens more have been injured.
The profiles of these domestic terrorists are all too familiar. White. Male. A history of violence, threats of violence, or lists of targets. Two of the three gunmen pledged allegiance to White Nationalism. Those shootings are the natural consequences of a fully realized MAGA agenda — unmerciful executive orders, catastrophic Supreme Court decisions, threats of war, inhumane detention and deportation, berating chants at campaign rallies, public Nazi marches, and the unyielding refusal of Republicans to ban assault weapons. Though presidential candidate and former congressman for Texas’ 16th Congressional District Beto O’Rourke directed a spontaneous and…
