Gunman in Texas mall shooting may have had neo-Nazi beliefs
The gunman who opened fire on an outlet mall in a Dallas suburb Saturday, killing at least eight people, was a man in his early 30s who may have had white supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs, people familiar with the investigation said Sunday.
Mauricio Garcia, a local resident, had multiple weapons on him and in his nearby car, said people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe.
Authorities have not released a motive, but a patch on his chest said “RWDS,” an acronym that stands for Right Wing Death Squad, according to people familiar with the investigation. The phrase is popular among right wing extremists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, they said. In addition to the weapons found on his body, investigators found another five guns inside his car nearby, these people said. [Continue reading…]
According to the Mass killing database:
Semiautomatic handguns are far more common in mass killings than guns that are typically characterized as assault weapons, such as the AR-15. According to [James Alan] Fox [a professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston], handguns are easily concealable and some can be equipped with large-capacity magazines. In this database, the long guns category includes any gun larger than a handgun, including rifles and shotguns.
Far more people kill themselves with a firearm each year than are killed with one, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed by Everytown for Gun Safety. Nearly two-thirds of all gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides. More than half of suicides involve guns. Since 2006, firearm suicide rates have been steadily increasing.
Men who own handguns are almost eight times more likely to die of gun suicides than men who don’t, according to a California study published in 2021 by the New England Journal of Medicine that examined more than 25 million gun owners. Women were 35 times more likely to commit suicide if they own a handgun.
Mass killers often take their own live after shooting their victims. About 30% of mass shooters commit suicide, and that figure rises to just over half in mass killings involving family members or intimate partners. [Continue reading…]