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Why Domestic Terrorism Is Not Specifically Designated a Crime in US

Masood Farivar

   WASHINGTON - The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has pumped new
   life into a long-running discussion among government policy makers over
   whether the U.S. needs a new domestic terrorism law.

   The debate stems from what many see as a yawning gap in the existing
   law: the absence of a standalone statute that criminalizes domestic
   terrorism.

   While U.S. law makes it a crime to provide "material support" to a
   foreign terrorist organization, there is no comparable law that makes
   domestic terrorism a federal crime, even though individual acts
   committed by domestic terrorists may be illegal.

   Now, in the wake of the January 6 insurrection blamed in part on
   members of far-right groups involved in violence, proponents of a new
   domestic terrorism law say it is now time to act.

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