Terrorism In The United States

All 25 terrorist killings the U.S. in 2022 were committed by domestic right-wing terrorists. 

In the ten years from 2013 to 2022, 75% of 444 extremist caused deaths have been due to right wing extremists (335), 20% have been due to domestic Islamic extremists (about 89), 4% have been due to left wing extremists (about 18), and 1% have been due to other forms of extremism (4) (a single incident which was the 2019 Jersey City, New Jersey, shooting spree by Black Hebrew Israelites David Anderson and Francine Graham, which primarily targeted a Jewish kosher market.)

There have been 14 instances of Islamic terrorism in the United States since World War II mostly resulting in deaths (some not listed in ADL report below) and one or two that didn't result in deaths: 

1. the Assassination of Meir Kahane, in New York City, on November 5, 1990;

2. the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 in New York City;

3. 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting on March 1, 1994; 

4. the 9-11 attack in 2001 (which immediately killed 2,996 people and led to 9-11 pollution related deaths in addition later on); 

5. the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing;

6. the October 23, 2014 New York subway hatchet attack;

7. a 'Draw Muhammad' cartoon art exhibit in Garland, Texas on May 3, 2015;

8. a July 16, 2015 attack on two military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee;

9. the December 2, 2015, San Bernadino attack; 

10. a July 12, 2016 mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida;

11. the September 15-17, 2016 New York and New Jersey bombings, 

12. a November 28, 2016 Ohio State University car ramming attack and mass stabbing;

13. an October 31, 2017 New York City truck attack; and 

14. the non-deadly August 12, 2022 stabbing of Salman Rushie in New York State.

Every year, individuals with ties to different extreme causes and movements kill people in the United States; the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) tracks these murders. Extremists regularly commit murders in the service of their ideology, in the service of a group or gang they may belong to, or even while engaging in traditional, non-ideological criminal activities.

In 2022, domestic extremists killed at least 25 people in the U.S., in 12 separate incidents. This represents a decrease from the 33 extremist-related murders documented in 2021 and is comparable to the 22 extremist-related murders in 2020. It continues the recent trend of fewer extremist-related killings after a five-year span of 47-78 extremist-related murders per year (2015-2019).

The 2022 murder totals would have been much lower if not for two high-casualty extremist-related shooting sprees. Only 10 of the 25 deaths occurred outside of those sprees—and one of those 10 deaths occurred in a less lethal mass shooting attempt.

The issue of extremist-related mass killings is of growing concern and is the subject of a special section of this report. From the 1970s through the 2000s, domestic extremist-related mass killings were relatively uncommon. However, over the past 12 years, their number has greatly increased. Most of these mass killings were committed by right-wing extremists, but left-wing and domestic Islamist extremists were also responsible for incidents. The Center on Extremism has identified 62 extremist-connected mass killing incidents since 1970, with 46 of them being ideologically motivated. Disturbingly, more than half (26, or 57%) of the ideological mass killings have occurred within the past 12 years. Of particular concern in recent years are shootings inspired by white supremacist “accelerationist” propaganda urging such attacks.

In 2022, 18 of the 25 extremist-related murders appear to have been committed in whole or part for ideological motives, while the remaining seven murders either have no clear motive or were committed for a non-ideological motive.

All the extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds, who typically commit most such killings each year but only occasionally are responsible for all (the last time this occurred was 2012). Left-wing extremists engage in violence ranging from assaults to fire-bombings and arsons, but since the late 1980s have not often targeted people with deadly violence. The same cannot be said for domestic Islamist extremists, but deadly incidents linked to Islamist extremism have decreased significantly in the U.S. over the past five years.

White supremacists commit the greatest number of domestic extremist-related murders in most years, but in 2022 the percentage was unusually high: 21 of the 25 murders were linked to white supremacists. Again, this is primarily due to mass shootings. Only one of the murders was committed by a right-wing anti-government extremist—the lowest number since 2017. . . . 

Almost all the killings in 2022 (93%) were committed with firearms. This has been a consistent fact of extremist violence for years. Although many people may think of extremists as employing weapons such as bombs and explosives . . . in each of the past five years over 80% of the victims of deadly extremist violence were killed with firearms[.] . . .

From 2011 through 2022, a period of 12 years, there were 26 ideological domestic extremist-related mass killing incidents (18 actual mass killings and 8 lethal attempted mass killings). These attacks resulted in 186 deaths—and many others wounded or injured (the latter often as they attempted to flee the scene of a mass killing).

Overwhelmingly, these recent mass killing events were also mass shooting events. Firearms were the primary weapon of choice in 23 of the 26 incidents; the only exceptions were the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and the vehicular attacks conducted in 2017 by white supremacist James Fields, Jr., in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Islamist extremist Sayfullo Saipov in New York City. Of the 186 deaths, 174 of them (including one of the people killed by the Boston Marathon bombers) were by firearms. Firearms are by far the weapon of choice for domestic terrorists in the U.S. seeking to kill.

During the past 12 years, right-wing extremists, domestic Islamist extremists and left-wing extremists have all conducted or attempted mass killing incidents. Right-wing extremists, of different stripes, have launched the most attacks, totaling 16 of the 26 incidents (61.5%) and 89 of the 186 deaths (47.8%). The majority of the attacks by right-wing extremists (10 out of 16) were committed by white supremacists, typically targeting minorities. They killed 71 people. Anti-government extremists, anti-abortion extremists, toxic masculinity extremists and other right-wing extremists also engaged in mass killing incidents.

Domestic Islamist extremists engaged in six mass killing incidents (23%), resulting in 81 deaths (43.5%), including the single most lethal incident, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, which killed 49 people. Left-wing extremists—all Black nationalist extremists—launched three attacks (11.5%) that killed 12 people (6%). Finally, categorized as “other extremism” in these tabulations, is the 2019 Jersey City, New Jersey, shooting spree by Black Hebrew Israelites David Anderson and Francine Graham, which primarily targeted a Jewish kosher market. They killed four people.

A significant number of extremist killings have been of police officers:

From here.