The targeted shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses over the weekend depict another recent instance of politically-motivated violence in the U.S. Dan Byman, the director of the Warfare,

From the pulpit on Sunday, Father Joe Whalen exhorted his parishioners to avoid the kind of extreme partisanship and hate that appeared to be behind the killing of one of the church's own, Democratic Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman.

Incidents of political violence have reached their highest level since the 1970s, according to a Reuters survey.