Mass Murder as Domestic Terrorism

For John, BLUF:  I checked The Center On Terrorism website and din't see a link to the data mentioned.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Let's tackle mass shootings like we do terrorism

From The Hill, by Opinionator Courtney La Bau, 1 September 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

Mass shootings are a uniquely American tragedy.  I have worked in the extremism and counterterrorism space for a long time, as a federal contractor for the Department of Homeland Security and as a national security expert for several think tanks around the world.  I have sat in prison cells and interviewed convicted terrorists.  I have sought to understand the nuances of violent hate whether it manifests in an ISIS-inspired bombing in Sri Lanka or a white supremacy-driven shooting in El Paso.

What I have seen is a common narrative: hatred, the notion of superiority and cleansing, and mobilization to violence in the name of an ideology.  But in the United States, we’ve chosen to fight back a lot harder against the kinds of violent extremism perpetrated by foreigners or those with a certain color of skin.  We created a vast toolkit to counter al Qaeda and ISIS, but we do nothing to prevent these homegrown extremists who happen to be white from accessing weapons of mass destruction in our country.

Though the radicalization process might be the same across the extremism spectrum, the numbers do not lie.  The Center on Extremism released statistics showing that 73 percent of extremist-related murders in the U.S. over the last 10 years (through 2018) were committed by right-wing domestic extremists.

Except the Global War on Terrorism isn't working.  The current Administration is working on a way to pull out of Afghanistan, but without having eliminated terrorism.

The other thing is that gun violence in certain neighborhoods in Chicago, and other cities, is a major source of terror for individuals and families.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff