‘Here We Are Again’: On Gun Violence, White Nationalism, and the Scapegoating of Mental Illness

Summary: Once again, the country mourns after a weekend that saw two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, and more than 30 innocents killed. And once again, the blame game—or, rather, the scapegoat game—is dialed up to high, with the disability community caught in the sights of the gun lobby and its allies in Congress, as is too often the case. As the president and his enablers remain eager to avoid any commitment to tackle the growing scourge of white nationalism, others are motivated to pick up the mantle once and for all. This week, Daniella is joined by two CAP colleagues—Chelsea Parsons, vice president for Gun Violence Prevention, and Rebecca Cokley, director of the Disability Justice Initiative—to try and make sense of the all-too-familiar violence, the easy scapegoating of people with mental illness, and the growing tide of white nationalism that is being cheered on from the Oval Office.