In Dayton, Ohio a gunman opened fire, killing nine people and wounding at least 27 more. This was the second mass shooting in 24 hours and the third this week. On Saturday in El Paso, Texas a 21-year-old white man was charged with murder after killing 20 people at a Walmart. Between the two shootings, 52 people were injured. Prosecutors intend to pursue the death penalty against the man who murdered the innocent shoppers in El Paso, and his attack has been linked with anti-immigrant rhetoric and white nationalism. The shooter in Ohio, 24-year-old Connor Betts, was immediately shot dead by the police, and his motives remain unclear. The mayor of Ohio stated that Connor killed his nine victims in less than one minute. Law enforcement in El Paso identified their shooter as Patrick Crusius.

President Trump has not yet released a personal statement on the two shootings although the White House did offer an official statement: "Our Nation mourns with those whose loved ones were murdered in the tragic shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, and we share in the pain and suffering of all those who were injured in these two senseless attacks. We condemn these hateful and cowardly acts." Trump is currently spending the weekend at a golf resort.

Several Democrats who plan to run in the 2020 election have called out Trump's behavior. Beto O'Rourke, a former congressman in El Paso, accused Trump of encouraging this growing white nationalism by not addressing it head-on. Cory Booker, a US senator from NJ stated of Trump, "This is a moral moment and he is failing this nation." Another presidential candidate, Julián Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, had similar sentiments about our current president: "There is no question that this president is setting a tone of division and fanning the flames of bigotry and hate. It's not making it any better. It's making it worse."

Instead of openly addressing these tragedies immediately, our President is playing golf, posting wedding photos on social media and tweeting about ASAP Rocky. Beyond Trump, more ominously, what does it say about our country that the first mass shooting of this nature occurred in Sandy Hook in 2012, and as a country, we have still not come together to do anything about it? If it has been seven years with hundreds of shootings since the Sandy Hook tragedy, how can we have any trust that our government will put together a comprehensive plan for battling gun violence in America? It seems that if the lost lives of the children in Sandy Hook were not enough to promote real change, nothing will.

Many of these attacks have been linked to bigoted motives and white nationalism. All of these shooters have been white. Many of these white shooters are taken into custody uninjured and later they claim that they suffer from mental health issues in court, while black people in America are still being shot and killed by the police for having skittles in their hoodie pockets, or for selling cigarettes. Although gun violence in America is not limited to only effecting minorities, we cannot ignore these trends of racism and white nationalism that are sweeping through our country. Before we can even begin to change laws, our governments needs to approach this issue head-on and more importantly, call these shooters what they are: white terrorists.