Ten people killed and three more injured following a racially tinged white extremist motivated shooting in Buffalo, New York. Of the 13 victims, 11 were Black. The 18 year old domestic terrorist had planned to inflict more killings at a nearby Superstore, before he was stopped. He had travelled over 200 miles to get to Buffalo and had cased that specific area the day before.

This occurred on a weekend where over 300 gun shootings occurred in the US and 128 people died from their gun shot wounds. After 19 weeks, in 2022, the US has recorded 198 mass shootings. A mass shooting is defined as four or more people, excluding the shooter, being killed or wounded, in a gun violence incident. This chirp is not about gun violence though. That shipped sailed after the Sandy Hook massacre of over 20 chikdren . The Republicans, together with the NRA, made sure that there would be no significant gun control changes after that massacre.

News reports indicated that the 18 year old shooter acted alone. Perhaps, physically he did. But he had a whole community behind him, in spirit. Before the shooting, this domestic terrorist, published a 180 page manifesto detailing why he was doing this and how. He plagarized over half of this manifesto. So, he got his ideas, his motivations, from other white supremacists, other domestic terrorists. He describes himself as a white supremacist and a fascist. His main motivation was his concern over “the Great Replacement Theory”. This is a conspiracy theory where segments of society (e.g. democrats) want to replace white people with “weak willed immigrants of colour” who will kowtow to the wishes of the democrats and, of course, vote democrat. This sick theory has been pushed by the right, led by their talking head spokesman of hate Tucker Carlson. Carlson has promoted this theory constantly, saying that it is happening right now. He also has baldly lied, saying there is no domestic terrorism in the US. It is interesting that while Fox News is reporting on this shooting, they quickly veer away to other news stories.

Since the then president was elected in 2016, acts of hate and white supremacist crimes have risen sharply. We all remember 2017 when Neo Nazis in Charlottesville chanted “Jews will not replace us”. We also remember the then president saying “there were good people on both sides”. Will the dynamic change after this act of domestic terror. I doubt it.