• Major Losses Shift Islamic State, Al-Qaida's Balance of Power

    By Jeff Seldin

    Across the United States and many other Western countries, the threat from Islamist terror groups has been increasingly overshadowed by the threats from other extremist groups, but despite a rise in far-right and white-power-driven terrorist threats, counterterrorism officials have been careful not to overlook the still persistent threat from groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida., even though both the Islamic State, known as IS, ISIS or Daesh, and al-Qaida suffered significant setbacks in 2022.

  • Concerns About Extremists Targeting U.S. Power Stations

    Attacks on four power stations in Washington State over the weekend added to concerns of a possible nationwide campaign by far-right extremists to stir fears and spark civil conflict. Violent extremists “have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors,” the DHS said in a January.

  • Drug Gangs Threatening Rule of Law in the Netherlands

    By Priyanka Shankar

    The Netherlands is a country known for upholding the rule of law. But the yearlong investigation of the murder of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries has exposed cracks in the Dutch legal system.

  • U.S. Saw Increase in Domestic Terror Threats in 2022

    By Jeff Seldin

    The sweeping police raids in Germany earlier this month which nabbed 25 members of a far-right group who were plotting to topple the government and replace it with a Kaiser, highlighted the shifting and increasingly complex landscape facing Western countries in 2022 and, counterterrorism officials say, for years to come.

  • FBI: More Than 7,000 Hate Crime Incidents Reported in 2021

    By Masood Farivar

    The FBI said Monday it received more than 7,000 reports of hate crimes last year, even though thousands of police departments around the country failed to contribute any data to the bureau’s new crime reporting system.

  • Oath Keepers Leaders Were Found Guilty, but the Threat of Antigovernment Extremism Remains

    With Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes convicted of seditious conspiracy, the group he founded is at a crossroads. Sam Jackson writes that the conviction is creating disarray in the group’s ranks, but that other so-called Patriot movements might benefit, and that the overall cause will remain strong.

  • Threats to Jewish Institutions on the Rise

    Incidents of antisemitism targeting Jewish institutions remain at historic levels in the United States, jumping 61 percent from 2020 to 2021. There has also been an uptick in threats to Jewish community and religious spaces, including synagogues, JCCs and Jewish day schools.

  • Oath Keepers Members Found Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy

    Two leaders of the Oath Keepers were found guilty by a jury Tuesday, 29 November, of seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

  • What Is Seditious Conspiracy?

    By Masood Farivar

    The conviction on Tuesday of militia leader Stewart Rhodes in connection with the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol marks the first time in more than two decades that the Justice Department has successfully used a criminal charge known as “seditious conspiracy.”

  • Oath Keepers Convictions Shed Light on the Limits of Free Speech – and the Threat Posed by Militias

    By Amy Cooter

    The conviction of two leaders of the Oath Keepers militia for seditious conspiracy – a rarely used, Civil War-era charge typically reserved in recent decades for terror plots – are the most significant yet relating to the violent storming of the Capitol, and have meaning that extends beyond those who were on trial. The Oath Keepers convictions illuminate two crucial issues facing the country: the limits of the American right to free speech and the future of the militia movement.

  • Workplace Killers: People Kill Their Colleagues for Different Reasons Than Other Shooters

    By Craig Jackson and Laura Robinson

    Workplace mass shootings (WMS) are undertaken by attackers who either work or worked for an organization where the attack occurs. They are different from mass shootings which occur at workplaces unrelated to attackers or where the perpetrators are (disgruntled) customers. Workplace attacks are quite homogeneous in motive. They are mostly attributed to revenge and often derived from attackers’ perceptions of being denied “organizational justice” and being treated unfairly. Many other mass shootings occur at commercial premises perpetrated by disgruntled customers or clients, rather than staff.

  • Following Uvalde Shooting, Texas DPS Wants $1.2 Billion for Academy and Active-Shooter Training Facility

    By Karen Brooks Harper

    DPS is asking lawmakers to approve a $467 million active-shooter facility as a “down payment” for the training academy. “You play like you practice,” Director Steve McCraw said.

  • In Colorado Springs, Local Officials Resisted the State’s Red Flag Law

    By Chip Brownlee

    El Paso County, the site of the mass shooting at Club Q, is one of at least 37 Colorado counties that have declared themselves a “Second Amendment sanctuary” and openly defied the state’s gun laws.

  • Rampage at Virginia Walmart Follows Upward Trend in Supermarket Gun Attacks – Here’s What We Know About Retail Mass Shooters

    By Jillian Peterson and James Densley

    Mass public shootings in which four or more people are killed have become more frequent, and deadly, in the last decade, to the extent that the U.S. now averages about seven of these events each year. Mass shootings also tend to cluster, with one study finding they are contagious for 13 days on average and our own research showing those responsible study other mass shooters and draw inspiration from them.

  • More U.S. Adults Carrying Loaded Handguns Daily: Study

    The number of U.S. adult handgun owners carrying a loaded handgun on their person doubled from 2015 to 2019, according to new research. S larger proportion of handgun owners carried handguns in states with less restrictive carrying regulation, where approximately one-third of handgun owners reported carrying in the past month.