Terrorism in the United States

In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.^[2][3] This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.

During the American Civil War, pro-Confederate Bushwhackers and pro-Union Jayhawkers in Missouri and Kansas respectively engaged in cross border raids, committed acts of violence against civilians and soldiers, stole goods and burned down farms. The most infamous event occurred in Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863, when Quantrill's Raiders led by William Quantrill ransacked the town and murdered about 190 civilians because of the town's anti-slavery sentiment.^[4] Other acts of terrorism occurred during the war included the 1863 Chesapeake Affair^[5] and the 1864 St. Albans Raid,^[6][7] the former being committed by British subjects.

Since the end of the Civil War, organized groups or lone wolf white supremacists have committed many acts of domestic terrorism against African-Americans.^[8][9] This form of terrorism has consisted of lynchings, hate crimes, shootings, bombings and other acts of violence. Such acts of violence overwhelmingly occurred in the Southern United States, and they included acts of violence which were committed by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).^[10] White supremacist terrorist incidents include the Tulsa race massacre of 1921,^[11] the Rosewood massacre of 1923, and the Wilmington insurrection of 1898.^[12][13][14]

On November 19, 2019, according to remarks which were made by Matthew Alcoke, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, Alcoke defines domestic terrorists as "individuals who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of ideological goals stemming from domestic issues."^[15] Although acts of violence by domestic extremists consistently meet the definition, no US criminal charge for domestic terror exists. Rather, the phrase is an FBI investigative category which is used to classify four types of extremism: "racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism."^[15] A 2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that out of the 85 deadly extremist incidents which had occurred since September 11, 2001, white supremacist extremist groups were responsible for 73%, while radical Islamist extremists were responsible for 27%. The total number of deaths which was caused by each group was about the same. However, 41% of the deaths were attributable to radical Islamists and they all occurred in a single event — the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting in which 49 people were killed by a lone gunman. No deaths were attributed to left-wing groups.^[16][17] A 2017 report by Type Media Center and The Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed a list of the terrorist incidents which occurred in the US between 2008 and 2016 and included the 2014 killings of NYPD officers and the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers (a total of seven deaths saying that they could "plausibly be attributed to a perpetrator with such sympathies").^[18]

In 2018, most ideologically motivated murders in the United States of America were linked to right-wing extremism.^[19] As of 2020, right-wing extremist terrorism accounted for the majority of terrorist attacks and plots in the US^[20][21] and has killed more people in the continental United States since the September 11 attacks than Islamic terrorism.^[22] The United States Department of Homeland Security reported in October 2020 that white supremacists posed the top domestic terrorism threat, which FBI director Christopher Wray confirmed in March 2021, noting that the bureau had elevated the threat to the same level as ISIS.^[23][24][25]