EVEN by recent standards, the events of the last few days in the US have been utterly horrifying.

On Saturday, Jewish residents in Squirrel Hill, a quiet neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, went along to a baby-naming ceremony in their local synagogue. This celebration of new life turned to unimaginable terror when a gunman opened fire, killing at least 11, injuring many others.

The perpetrator, who according to witnesses burst in shouting “All Jews must die”, is believed to be a local white man in his forties who had a history of anti-Semitic ranting on social media.

This is a developing story, of course, but don’t be surprised if and when we find out that the shooter used a cache of weapons that he bought legally, maybe even from a supermarket. This is the 294th mass shooting (an incident where four or more people were shot) in the US so far this year.

Yesterday, while condemning the incident, President Donald Trump also appeared to blame the victims for not having armed guards at their synagogue. How we all laughed back in the 1990s when Channel 4’s satirical comedy show Brass Eye did a skit on American priests having to arm themselves. It doesn’t seem funny now.

Earlier in the week, meanwhile, a string of high-profile critics of Donald Trump including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, actor Robert De Niro and financier George Soros, as well as the CNN newsroom, received bombs in the post. Mercifully, none of the devices went off, but it became disturbingly clear that a new, more violent front had opened up in America’s ever deepening culture war.

The suspect being held by the authorities is a man in his fifties, a Trump fanatic who apparently went around in a white van adorned with stickers featuring Trump in front of a tank, and Obama and Clinton with targets on their faces. Again, it would almost be funny if it wasn’t so sick.

Coming on top of other recent atrocities committed by perpetrators with links to white supremacists, from the killing of a protester in Charlottesville to the murder of black worshippers in church in South Carolina (which had frightening echoes of Saturday’s shooting), it’s depressingly obvious that the most imminent terrorist threat facing the US right now is of the homegrown variety.

But rather than confronting this devastating truth, offering leadership to a country at war with itself, the country’s Commander-in-Chief seems to revel in it, ramping up the cheap, divisive rhetoric, labelling his critics “enemies of the people”, condoning violence against journalists, using dehumanising language against immigrants and women, encouraging division in a country awash with guns.

I can’t help but think if last week’s events had taken place in an Asian or middle Eastern country, US officials would be telling its citizens not to travel there.

Indeed, perhaps the Foreign Office should now be warning British citizens about travel to the US, spelling out the threat to members of the Jewish community, people of colour and Muslims before they travel.

The last week has upped the ante considerably and one can’t help but wonder what will come next. Yet more mass shootings? A terror atrocity on a much bigger scale, God forbid?

Those of us with close family ties to the US are increasingly struggling to process the ferocity of the hatred and violence we’re seeing across the pond. Indeed, as someone who recently married an American, I don’t mind admitting I’m growing more and more fretful about the situation, and what it might mean for our future.

I’ve visited the southern states where he comes from on multiple occasions and I can honestly say that I have never met more friendly or hospitable people anywhere. But on visits over recent months I’ve noticed a definite hardening of the “us” and “them” rhetoric, an increase in the use of the term “un-American” to describe the views of those they don’t agree with, political and religious billboards using violent language. Most worryingly of all, I’ve even heard ordinary, decent people talk openly about hoarding food, guns and ammunition for a time they feel they will need to take up arms to protect their way of life, whatever that means. After last week, that’s an ominous prospect.

It’s only very recently that my husband was given permission to join me in Scotland, following a long, arduous and expensive immigration process; he hasn’t yet returned from Memphis, where we married in July, though he will be back in Glasgow soon, all being well.

When you marry someone from another country, where you settle is a massively important decision. There are obviously practical and financial considerations, but there are deeply personal ones, too, and ultimately one of you will have to sacrifice your homeland.

As events in the US deteriorate by the week, I am increasingly relieved that my husband was prepared to make that sacrifice. I don’t think I could have.