Two Minnesota lawmakers were shot, one fatally, on Saturday in an apparent assassination plot that underscored the growing frequency of political violence in the US.
Authorities said a gunman impersonating a police officer killed a high-ranking state representative and her husband in their home, and also targeted a state senator and his wife.
Like school shootings, politically motivated attacks are an “inescapable reality” in the US, The New York Times wrote: In the last several months, two Israeli diplomats were killed in Washington, and an arsonist set the Pennsylvania governor’s residence on fire.
Writing in The Atlantic, political scientist Brian Klaas highlights how easy access to weapons, incitement from public figures, and “intense polarization that paints political opponents as treasonous enemies” are together driving the violence.