• GUNSThe Ghost Gun Surge Is Abating. This Is How It Happened.

    By Chip Brownlee

    Ghost guns went from being relatively rare to ubiquitous in a short time span. Regulating them appears to be fueling a reversal.

  • TERRORISMThe FBI’s Counterterrorism Division Turns 25

    November 21 marks the 25th anniversary of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, or CTD. In the time since its creation, the division has worked to counter the constantly evolving threat of terrorism at home and abroad.

  • TERRORISMOrganizing for Innovation: Lessons from Digital Counterterrorism

    By Brian Fishman

    This article explores five factors that were key to facilitating innovation in Facebook’s approach to countering the Islamic State—and that I argue are more generalizable. They are: people, organization, legitimacy, tools, and collaboration. It also identifies lessons that can be learned from that experience.

  • MASS DEPORTATIONAs Trump Touts Plans for Immigrant Roundup, Militias Are Standing Back, but Standing By

    By Amy Cooter

    Trump’s said his administration would round up and deport millions of undocumented migrants. Some militia units may see it as their duty to assist with such efforts. In fact, local police may even deputize certain militias to help them deport immigrants.

  • DEPORTATIONSDenver Will Stand in the Way of Mass Deportation

    “More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep [National Guard units from other states] out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said. “It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.”

  • DEPORTATIONSTexas Offers Land for Use for Trump Deportations

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    Trump has said he plans to declare a national emergency on his first day in office, citing the border crisis. In an effort to aid the administration, Texas offered state property in Starr County, where more than 1,400 acres could be used to construct deportation facilities and staging areas.

  • CRIMEEven Blue States Are Embracing a Tougher Approach to Crime

    By Amanda Hernández

    A nationwide shift toward more conservative policies continues in 3 more states. The outcomes of seven ballot measures in Arizona, California and Colorado reflect the stricter approach to crime that’s been seen across much of the country recently.

  • IMMIGRANTS & CRIMEDoes Immigration Really Drive Up Crime? Not According to the Evidence

    By Paolo Pinotti and Olivier Marie

    The belief that immigration drives up crime is one of the oldest – and strongest – convictions held by the public, spanning over a century in the US and elsewhere. But what does the evidence really show? Our analysis reveals that studies consistently find no causal link between immigration and increased crime across a variety of countries.

  • DRUG CARTELSAn Idea Whose Time Should Never Come: Using Special Forces Against the Cartels Would Be a Colossal Mistake

    By Brandan P. Buck

    While this idea is not new, it has become hazardous now given the Mexican drug cartels’ increased military capacity and tactical competence.

  • GUNSIn 2019, Congress Finally Funded Gun Violence Research. Here’s How It’s Changed the Field

    By Jennifer Mascia, Chip Brownlee, and Fairriona Magee

    A Trace analysis of federal data found that the amount of money going to gun violence studies has soared since lawmakers lifted a de facto federal funding ban.

  • GUNSSenator Slams Gun Industry’s “Invasive and Dangerous” Sharing of Customer Data with Political Operatives

    By Corey G. Johnson

    In response to a ProPublica investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal demanded answers from the gun industry about its “covert program” to collect information on gun owners for political purposes.

  • ARGUMENT: PRTISAN POLITICS & VIOLENCEU.S. Domestic Terrorism Is Increasingly Motivated by Partisan Politics

    One of the most alarming trends in terrorism is the growth in anti-government extremism. “The heightened risk of terrorist attacks motivated by partisan beliefs does not just endanger individual lives but also threatens the democratic process itself, casting a shadow over open discourse and discouraging civic engagement,” Riley McCabe writes.

  • HOMELAND DEFENSEThe Past, Present, and Future of Homeland Defense

    By George Schwartz , Bert Tussing, and Darrell Driver

    Homeland defense issues my be referred to as seams of ambiguity which doesn’t clearly define itself as either a defense or a law enforcement issue, and our adversaries have discovered the seam and they’re playing along that seam. And that’s what thrusts us into the gray areas that we’ve been talking about for at least two decades now.

  • EXTREMISMHow the Far Right Is Evolving and Growing in Canada

    By Stéphane Leman-Langlois, Aurélie Campana, and Samuel Tanner

    Historically, Canada has always had a few active far-right groups, including the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and Nazis and fascists before the Second World War. But that was then. Now, the far right has a different strategy.

  • ARGUMENT: NON-IDEOLOGICAL POLITICAL VIOLENCEExtremist Ideology Is Hard to Pin Down

    When it comes to extremist motivations for political violence, their varied sources and the role of mental health make it difficult to attribute a root cause and who might have been responsible for leading them down that road. Benjamin Allison writes that thelack of ideological clarity among those who commit acts of political violence is not uncommon.