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Shooting Attacks Renew Debate Over Domestic Terrorism in US

Sirwan Kajjo

   VOA's Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.

   WASHINGTON-- One of the two recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas,
   and Dayton, Ohio, is being treated as a case of domestic terrorism by
   U.S. federal authorities.

   The El Paso attack, which has left 22 people dead, has renewed debate
   over how to combat domestic terrorism in the United States.

   The FBI has expressed concerns that such attacks could inspire more
   homegrown extremists to carry out further violent attacks in the
   future.

   "The FBI remains concerned that U.S.-based domestic violent extremists
   could become inspired by this weekend's attacks and previous
   high-profile attacks to engage in similar acts of violence," the FBI
   said in a statement on Sunday.

   Domestic terrorism on the rise

   Domestic terrorism "has become increasingly more of a threat with the
   resurgence of white supremacists groups, as well as some acts from
   left-wing extremists, though these account for much fewer incidents,"
   said Randall Rogan, a terrorism expert at Wake Forest University in
   North Carolina.

   Peter Bergen, a national security expert and vice president at New
   America, a Washington-based think tank, says that attacks motivated by
   far-right extremists have increased in recent years.

   "Right-wing terrorism has been around in the United States for a long
   time, but what's a little bit different in the last couple of years is
   that we have seen more mass casualty attacks like we saw in El Paso and
   Pittsburgh (synagogue shooting in 2018)," he told VOA.

   According to New America, since the 9/11 terror attacks, terrorists
   motivated by far-right ideology, including white supremacy,
   antigovernment and anti-abortion views, have killed 107 people in the
   U.S. During the same period, 104 people have been killed in the U.S. by
   homegrown terrorists linked to foreign terror groups, according to the
   same study.

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