text:  And so this is just an escalation. And so we could either see things get better or we could see this pattern continue and more attempts on political figures. Leah Wright Reger points to attacks in recent years on members of Congress, including the shootings of Gabby Giffords and Steve Scalise. She says perpetrators of such acts can have a variety of motivations, including partisan goals or quite simply mental health problems. It can be very hard to tease that out.