• Major Foreign Terror Attack on U.S. “Almost Inconceivable” Now

    Foreign terrorist groups, including some Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates, may have the desire to launch major attacks on U.S. soil, but decades of counterterrorism work have made carrying out such an operation close to impossible at the moment, a top U.S. homeland security official said.

  • MI5 Increases Terror Threat Level in Northern Ireland to “Severe”

    There has been increased dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland, including the attempted murder of a senior police officer last month. MI5 believed it had dealt a major blow to the New IRA in 2020 when police arrested nine suspected leaders of the organization, but the New IRA appears to have regrouped.

  • How Many Guns Are There in the U.S.?

    We’ve heard for years that there are more guns in the U.S. than people, but a precise accounting remains elusive. Federal legislation that would track gun sales or establish a nationwide handgun registry has been proposed — to much resistance from the gun lobby. Pinpointing the number of guns in circulation could help us better understand the relationship between gun sales and gun violence.

  • Guns Now Kill More Children and Young Adults Than Car Crashes

    For the past few decades, motor vehicle crashes were the most common cause of death from injury— and the leading cause of death in general—among children, teenagers, and young adults in the U.S. But now, firearms exceed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury-related death for people ages one to 24.

  • Hard-Right Social Media Activities Lead to Civil Unrest: Study

    Does activity on hard-right social media lead to civil unrest? With the emergence and persistent popularity of hard-right social media platforms such as Gab, Parler, and Truth Social, it is important to understand the impact they are having on society and politics.

  • “He Has a Battle Rifle”: Police Feared Uvalde Gunman’s AR-15

    In previously unreleased interviews, police who responded to the Robb Elementary shooting told investigators they were cowed by the shooter’s military-style rifle. This drove their decision to wait for a Border Patrol SWAT team to engage him, which took more than an hour.

  • 2021 Hate Crime Statistics: 20-Year High

    The number of hate crimes in the United States jumped to a 20-year high in 2021, the FBI said in an updated report released Monday. The FBI initially issued its annual hate crimes report in December showing 7,262 incidents for 2021.

  • Physicians Get Trained on Gun Safety

    For the past three years, Winslow and Julie Parsonnet, MD, professor of medicine and of epidemiology, have worked on an online, self-paced course called Clinicians and Firearms. The aim is to promote education for clinicians, teaching how to reduce firearm injuries and deaths, including tips on how to talk to patients about safe storage and temporary removal of firearms from the home during times of high risk.

  • Preventing Violence in Schools: Encouraging Students to Report Threats

    One of the most consistent findings in research on school shootings is that someone knew an attack was possible and didn’t report it. A recent RAND study looked at how schools can better encourage students to come forward when they see or hear something that should concern them. Its top recommendations: tip lines, training, and a lot more trust.

  • “Prevent” Review: Why We Need a New – and Clearer – Definition of Islamist Extremism

    An independent review of the UK counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent, has recommended that the government increase its efforts to tackle Islamist extremism. One fundamental question this review poses is what exactly “Islamist extremism” is. This matters because many professionals (including teachers, lecturers, social workers, health workers and prison guards) are now legally obliged to watch out for it. A clearer definition is possible.

  • Extremist Propaganda Soars to All-Time High in 2022

    In 2022, there has been a significant increase in racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (RMVE) propaganda efforts, which included the distribution of racist and antisemitic fliers, stickers, banners, graffiti, and posters, as well as laser projections - with a total of 6,751 cases reported in 2022, compared to 4,876 in 2021.

  • Why Police Resist Reforms to Militarization

    Issues revolve around culture of viewing civilians as potential threats, concerns about self-protection in departments equipped with military-grade arms.

  • Places of Worship Linked with More Neighborhood Crime in Washington, D.C.

    A statistical analysis of areas near more than 700 houses of worship in Washington, D.C. found that these areas are associated with higher levels of violent and property crime—even after accounting for other factors commonly linked with crime.

  • U.S. Creates New Antisemitism Task Force

    Four out of 10 Jews in the US feel less secure than they did a year ago. Faced with an uptick in antisemitism, the White House responds with an action plan.

  • Three Ways to Prevent School Shootings, Based on Research

    We study the circumstances that lead to violence in which an attacker picks a target – like a person, group, or school – in advance. We find that the same patterns of concerning behavior emerge among the perpetrators, but that’s not all. We also find that there are often many opportunities to intervene with the perpetrator before the tragedy that peers, family members, school staff, law enforcement officials, and others miss.