US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?

The FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago unleashed the latest barrage of threats of violence, on top of a wave of threats against election workers and rising weapons sales

Dr Garen Wintemute used to laugh off warnings of a civil war coming to America as crazy talk". Then the emergency room doctor in California saw the figures for gun sales.

Wintemute, who founded a centre to research firearms violence after years of treating gunshot wounds, had long observed that the rush to buy weapons came in waves, often around a presidential election. Always it fell back again.