By United States. Government Accountability Office

From the document: "Domestic terrorism investigations have more than doubled since 2020, according to the FBI. FBI and DHS are the main federal entities charged with preventing terrorist attacks in the U.S. FBI has lead responsibility for federal domestic terrorism investigations and domestic intelligence efforts. DHS is responsible for producing terrorist threat information in coordination with federal, state and local government agencies, and private entities. GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review domestic terrorism threats, incidents, and related federal cases and charges. This report addresses, among other objectives, the extent to which the FBI and DHS I&A [Office of Intelligence and Analysis] (1) track domestic terrorism investigations and incidents, and (2) followed leading collaboration practices in their efforts to counter domestic terrorism threats."

United States. Government Accountability Office. Report Number .GAO-23-104720. 2023.

By Tapia, Daniel; Warren, Kristin; Burns, Jacqueline Gardner; Holynska, Khrystyna; Reimer, Jordan R.

From the document: "Racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism is becoming an increasingly common occurrence in the United States. Racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist (REMVE)-related terrorism has consequences beyond loss of life: It undermines the sense of safety that targeted groups feel in their country and unravels the social fabrics of trust that are necessary for society to function. Further still, REMVE attacks can motivate other like-minded attackers to follow up with their own attacks, as was apparently the case with the May 14, 2022, mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, by a self-avowed, internet-radicalized white supremacist whose manifesto drew heavily from the March 15, 2019, Christchurch mosque mass shootings, which also inspired a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. Two key challenges for those who observe online spaces in which radicalization occurs are the sheer volume of data and the idiosyncrasies of online communities. Website-specific language and memes are difficult to track and parse; even if emerging terms are detected, defining them can be difficult."

Rand Corp. 2023. 102p.

By Haydar Karaman

All terrorist groups need finance to operate. It is a means for certain groups to accomplish their objectives; for others, it is the aims itself per se. Terrorist groups are therefore involved in different levels of organized crime. One of them is illicit drug trafficking, which has a nexus with organized crime and terrorist groups. This study aims to demonstrate a better understanding of the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) evolution into an organized criminal organization and its funding sources. From this point of view, the PKK is classified as a narco-terrorist organization with strong financial motives in this paper. As it will be analyzed on paper, its financial motivations frequently have weighed in the same level as its political motivation. It began to act as a hybrid organization through transnational offences, and it has steadily strengthened its criminal capabilities. Its members retain their deceptive political rhetoric to perform their illegal operations more easily. The organization can also be defined as a hybrid transnational organized crime group by UN standards, given the severity of its crimes and its criminal network spanning the Middle East, Turkey, and Europe    

Manas Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 10(4), 2513-2527. 2021. 15p.

By Leonard Cole and Nancy D. Connell

Local Planning for Terror and Disaster gives voice to experts in key fields involved with local preparedness, assessing the quality of preparedness in each field, and offering directions for improvement. Introductory chapters provide overviews of terror medicine, security and communications, which are indispensable to successful preparedness, while subsequent chapters concentrate on a particular field and how responders from that field communicate and interact with others during and after an event. Thus, a chapter by a physician discusses not only the doctor's role but how that role is, or should be, coordinated with emergency medical technicians and police. Similarly, chapters by law enforcement figures also review police responsibilities and interactions with nurses, EMTs, volunteers and other relevant responders.

Developed from topics at recent Symposia on Terror Medicine and Security, Local Planning also encompasses aspects of emergency and disaster medicine, as well as techniques for diagnosis, rescue, coordination and security that are distinctive to a terrorist attack. Each chapter also includes a case study that demonstrates preparedness, or lack thereof, for a real or hypothetical event, including lessons learned, next steps, and areas for improvement in this global era which increasingly calls for preparedness at a local level.

ISBN: 978-1-118-11286-1 October 2012 Wiley-Blackwell 274 Pages

By Ronald V. Clarke and Graeme R. Newman

Given that the war on terror is currently being fought the way crime typically is―after the fact―this country cannot protect its citizens from future terrorist events solely in this way. Instead, measures must be taken to actually stop terrorists before they can attack. Here, the authors argue that government anti-terrorism policy must pay much more attention to reducing opportunities for terrorist attacks by protecting vulnerable targets, controlling the tools and weapons used by terrorists, and removing the conditions of everyday life that make these attacks possible. While some of this work is being done on an ad hoc basis, there are no recognized methods to guide the work, there is limited experience on which to draw, and the government has no trained professionals to oversee the work. In this book, the authors address these deficiencies, and lay out a systematic approach for reducing opportunities for terrorism.

The current take-them-out mindset may be the main reason why reducing opportunities for terrorism has been so neglected by governments, but another important reason is that the task seems so overwhelmingly difficult. How can we possibly protect every vulnerable target or person? How can we control all the everyday tools that terrorists must use in carrying out their attacks? How can we control their weapons when we cannot even keep guns out the hands of ordinary criminals? In this book, the authors show that these tasks are indeed manageable.

Westport, Conn. Praeger. 2006. 308p.

By Paul Azan

Military history texts discuss the historical record of armed conflict in the history of humanity, its impact on people, societies, and their cultures. Some fundamental subjects of military history study are the causes of war, its social and cultural foundations, military doctrines, logistics, leadership, technology, strategy, and tactics used, and how these have developed over time. Thematic divisions of military history may include: Ancient warfare, Medieval warfare, Gunpowder warfare, Industrial warfare, and Modern warfare.

Military strategy texts present ideas for military organizations to achieve their desired strategic goals. Military strategy discusses the planning and conduct of campaigns, the movement and disposition of forces, and how to deceive the enemy. Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831), defined military strategy as "the employment of battles to gain the end of war." B. H. Liddell Hart defined strategy as "the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy", which places more emphasis on political aims relative to military goals. Sun Tzu (544-496 BC) is the father of Eastern military strategy and greatly influenced Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese war tactics. His book The Art of War has been very popular and has seen practical implementation in Western societies.

Cambridge. Harvard university Press. 1917. 183p.

By John J. Donohue, Samuel V. Cai, Matthew V. Bondy, Philip J. Cook

We analyze a sample of 47 major US cities to illuminate the mechanisms that lead Right-to-Carry concealed handgun laws to increase crime. The altered behavior of permit holders, career criminals, and the police combine to generate 29 and 32 percent increases in firearm violent crime and firearm robbery respectively. The increasing firearm violence is facilitated by a massive 35 percent increase in gun theft (p=0.06), with further crime stimulus flowing from diminished police effectiveness, as reflected in a 13 percent decline in violent crime clearance rates (p=0.03). Any crime-inhibiting benefits from increased gun carrying are swamped by the crime-stimulating impacts.

Cambridge Mass. National Bureau Of Economic Research. 2022. 36p.

By Rajeev Ramchand, Jessica Saunders

Australia’s 1996 National Firearms Agreement (NFA) banned several types of firearms and resulted in the government buying hundreds of thousands of the banned weapons from their owners. Studies examining the effect of removing so many weapons from the community have found that homicides, suicides, and mass shootings were less common after the NFA was implemented, although such incidents were declining prior to 1996. The strongest evidence is consistent with the claim that the NFA caused reductions in firearm suicides, mass shootings, and female homicide victimization. However, there is also evidence that raises questions about whether, for at least firearm suicides, those changes can be attributed to the NFA or to other factors that influenced rates of these outcomes around the time the NFA was implemented.

Rand Corp. 2021. 27p.

By RAND

Good public policies are based on facts and data, and the most effective laws are written when policymakers understand the effects of such laws on a range of outcomes and can weigh the inherent trade-offs. As part of the RAND Gun Policy in America initiative, we conducted rigorous and transparent reviews of what current scientific knowledge could tell the public and policymakers about the true effects of many gun policies that are frequently discussed in state legislatures. Our first review, released in 2018, synthesized the available scientific data from studies published between 2004 and 2016 examining how 13 classes of state-level gun policies affect firearm-related deaths, violent crime, the gun industry, participation in hunting and sport shooting, and other outcomes. In 2020, we released an expanded and updated review, which added five new classes of gun policies and extended the period over which we conducted our literature search to span from 1995 to 2018. In 2023, we incorporated those studies in our updated analyses, drawing new or revised conclusions about the quality of evidence available to support claims about the effects of various policies.

RAND Objective Analysis Effective Solutions. 2023. 9p.

By United States. Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, And Explosives

From the Introduction: "The National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA) is a comprehensive examination of commerce in firearms in the United States and the diversion of firearms to illegal markets. Produced by a team comprised of ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] subject-matter experts, academics from a variety of disciplines specializing in research relating to firearms, and other law enforcement professionals, the NFCTA is designed to provide the public, researchers, and policymakers with analysis of data lawfully collected by ATF as part of its regulatory and law enforcement missions to inform the dialogue on firearm law and policy. To ensure comprehensive analysis, the NFCTA is being produced in several volumes. In May 2022, ATF published Volume I, 'Firearms in Commerce'. [...] ATF routinely generates bulletins for law enforcement and industry, and issues public safety advisories for all citizens. This Volume of the NFCTA, however, represents the first comprehensive report incorporating crime gun information from the full range of sources used by ATF in more than twenty years. Advancements in ballistic analytical technology and information processing during this period have enhanced ATF's capacity to support law enforcement efforts to identify, investigate, and prosecute those who use firearms to commit violent offenses and the traffickers who illegally divert those crime guns to criminals. Volume II describes in detail the sources of information that constitute CGI [Crime Gun Intelligence], and how CGI is leveraged to promote effective investigation of firearm-related violence. Finally, the information and analysis in NFCTA Volumes I and II set the foundation for the subject that will be addressed in Volume III, 'Firearms Trafficking.'"

Washington DC. United States. Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, And Explosives. 2023. 9p.

BY National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN

In 1997, ATF initiated the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) program. Through this program, ATF provided for the first time comprehensive national automated ballistic imaging services to local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies across the country. NIBIN technology captures images of ballistic evidence, including cartridge casings1 recovered in shooting investigations (also referred to as “casings”) and test-fired cartridge casings2 from recovered crime guns (also referred to as “test-fires”), and stores those images in the NIBIN national database that conducts automated analysis for further review by expert technicians. Since 1997, law enforcement agencies have been submitting recovered ballistic evidence to ATF for entry into the NIBIN system, building a national and robust network of ballistic data. As of December 2021, approximately 5.2 million pieces of ballistic evidence have been entered into the system.

Washington D.C. ATF. 2021. 19p.

By The ATF National Tracing Center (NTC) and ATF International Affairs Division (IAD)

ATF and IAD cooperate with international law enforcement partners to disrupt transnational firearms trafficking and reduce violent gun crime in other countries. A central component of this effort is the use of ATF’s eTrace system to provide information on crime guns recovered and submitted for tracing by LEAs in foreign countries. Between 2017 and 2021, ATF received trace requests from an average of 75 countries involving approximately 33,000 crime gun trace requests on an annual basis. ATF continuously works to improve the tracing of crime guns recovered in other countries by completing formal tracing agreements with new international law enforcement partners and training them on the appropriate use of the eTrace system. As of 2021, ATF had eTrace Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with LEAs in 47 countries, representing 1,843 eTrace user accounts. To improve accessibility, Spanish language eTrace is available and currently used by law enforcement agencies in Mexico and other Central and South American countries.

The ATF National Tracing Center (NTC) and ATF International Affairs Division (IAD). 2021. 27p.

By Smart, Rosanna; Morral, Andrew R.; Ramchand, Rajeev; Charbonneau, Amanda K.; Williams, Jhacova; Smucker, Sierra; Cherney, Samantha; Xenakis, Lea

3rd. Edition. From the Webpage: "In this report, part of the RAND Corporation's Gun Policy in America initiative, researchers seek objective information about what scientific literature reveals about the likely effects of various gun laws. In the third edition of this report, the authors incorporate more-recent research in their synthesis of the available scientific data regarding the effects of 18 state firearm policies on firearm deaths, violent crime, suicides, the gun industry, defensive gun use, and other outcomes. By highlighting where scientific evidence is accumulating, the authors hope to build consensus around a shared set of facts that have been established through a transparent, nonpartisan, and impartial review process. In so doing, they also illuminate areas in which more and better information could make important contributions to establishing fair and effective gun policies."

RAND Corporation. 2023. 104p.

By Macdonald, Stuart Keith, 1979-; Staniforth, Andrew

From the Executive Summary: "Cooperation between law enforcement and tech companies is widely regarded as necessary to tackle online terrorist content. Both sectors have publicly stated their commitment to working together and there are examples of mutual cooperation. Yet there are also impediments to such collaboration, including different cultures and operating practices, and there have been high-profile instances of non-cooperation. The informality of existing collaborations has also led to concerns about censorship, mission creep and a lack of accountability and oversight. The focus of this report is on how to resolve the impediments to closer cooperation between law enforcement and the tech sector in order to realise the benefits of mutual collaboration, while simultaneously addressing concerns about due process and accountability. The report utilises an interview-based methodology to examine the experiences and opinions of personnel from both sectors who have first-hand experience of mutual cooperation. It provides empirically grounded insights into this under-researched topic."

Global Network On Extremism And Technology (Gnet). 2023. 38P.

By Alathari, Lina; Drysdale, Diana; Driscoll, Steven; Carlock, Arna L.; Cutler, Meagan; Besser, Jason

From the Executive Summary: "As law enforcement agencies, workplaces, and other community organizations implement behavioral threat assessment programs, the approach should be guided by the research findings contained in this report. When conducted properly, a behavioral threat assessment will involve promoting bystander reporting to identify warning signs of potential violence, systematically gathering information about the circumstances and behaviors of concern, assessing the possibility of violence as an outcome, and implementing preventive management strategies to make positive and safe outcomes more likely. The 173 attacks contained in this report impacted a variety of locations, 'including businesses/workplaces, schools, houses of worship, military bases, nonprofit service providers, residential complexes, public transportation, and open spaces'. In many cases, the attacker had a known affiliation with the site of the attack. The analysis is intended to provide critical information to a cross-sector of community organizations that have a role in preventing these types of tragedies."

Washington. US. United States. Secret Service. National Threat Assessment Center. 2023. 70p.

By Wang-Sheng Lee and Sandy Suardi

The 1996-97 National Firearms Agreement (NFA) in Australia introduced strict gun laws, primarily as a reaction to the mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996, where 35 people were killed. Despite the fact that several researchers using the same data have examined the impact of the NFA on firearm deaths, a consensus does not appear to have been reached. In this paper, we re-analyze the same data on firearm deaths used in previous research, using tests for unknown structural breaks as a means to identifying impacts of the NFA. The results of these tests suggest that the NFA did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates.

Melbourne. University of Melbourne. Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series Working Paper No. 17/08. 2008. 29p.

Edited ny Updesh Kumar and Manas K. Mandal

In the recent years, more so after the 9/11 twin towers and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, there have been numerous discourses on terrorism and counterterrorism. Terrorism as a phenomenon does not originate in isolation; rather it is, generally, a reaction to certain specific social and contextual circumstances leading to grievances among people. Therefore, in order to understand the roots and basis of terrorism, there is a pressing need to analyze specific social, cultural, political, and psychological contexts in which it flourishes. Countering Terrorism: Psychosocial Strategies works on this premise and penetrates into this psycho-socio-cultural milieu that serves as a context for the proliferation of violence through acts of terror. With contributions from experts from the developed as well as developing countries of the world, the book has ecumenical focus on terrorism from all possible angles and covers the multiplicity of perceptions and interpretations on the issue. The volume will ignite the mind of the reader toward latent variables that may be considered while carrying out research in this area. This book brings together the minutest aspects related to the burning issue of terrorism, which exploits the precious resources of nations and scars the minds of the people.

New Delhi. Sage Publications.2012. 450p.

By United States. Congress. House. Select Committee To Investigate The January 6Th Attack On The United States Capitol.

From the document: "This Report supplies an immense volume of information and testimony assembled through the Select Committee's investigation, including information obtained following litigation in Federal district and appellate courts, as well as in the U.S. Supreme Court. Based upon this assembled evidence, the Committee has reached a series of specific findings[.] [...] This Report begins with a factual overview framing each of these conclusions and summarizing what our investigation found. That overview is in turn supported by eight chapters identifying the very specific evidence of each of the principal elements of President Trump's multi-part plan to overturn the election, along with evidence regarding intelligence gathered before January 6th and security shortfalls that day."

House of Congress Report 117-000. 2022.

By Elizabeth P. Shulman, Jordan Beardslee, Adam Fine, Paul J. Frick, Laurence Steinberg & Elizabeth Cauffman

  Objective: To examine whether at-risk male youth experience increases in anxiety, depressive symptoms, and aggression during years when they are exposed to gun violence, adjusting for relevant covariates. Method: Participants were 1,216 male, justice-involved adolescents who were recently arrested for the first time for a moderate offense. They were interviewed 9 times over 5 years. Fixed effects (withinindividual) regression models were used to estimate concurrent associations between exposure to gun violence and three outcomes: depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and aggression (both overall and separately for proactive and reactive aggression). The reverse direction (anxiety, depressive symptoms, and aggression predicting gun violence exposure) was also modeled. Results: After controlling for covariates, exposure to gun violence was significantly associated with increases in reactive aggression and, to a lesser extent, increases in proactive aggression. In addition, gun violence exposure was associated with increased anxiety but not depressive symptoms. We found no support for the reverse direction. Conclusions: At-risk males experienced significant increases in anxiety and aggression (particularly reactive aggression) during years when they are exposed to gun violence, even after accounting for several potential confounding factors. The greater impact on reactive aggression suggests that exposure to gun violence may affect self-regulation and/or social information processing. The analyses shed light on the less-visible damage wrought by gun violence and underscore the importance of mental health screening and treatment for youth who have been exposed to violence – especially gun violence – both to assist individual youths and to disrupt cycles of violence.  

Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 50:3, 353-366, 2021.,

By Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium

As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, the United States was rocked by the news of another school mass shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen fourth-grade students and two of their teachers were killed when an 18-year-old former student entered the school through an unlocked door, made his way to his former fourth-grade classroom, and opened fire during a 77-minute rampage. Seventeen others were injured in the attack. The tragedy in Uvalde conjured up memories of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Nearly 10 years earlier, 20 first-grade students and six of their educators, including the school’s principal, were killed after a 20-year-old shot his way into the building. Two others were injured during the six-minute attack.

In the aftermath of the shooting in Uvalde, administrators and policymakers struggled to implement policies and procedures that would prevent a similar attack in their schools or minimize the loss of life if one did occur. These included, but were not limited to, increases in the numbers and presence of school resource officers, authorization to arm teachers, and even supplying schools with ballistics shields, despite the lack of evidence to suggest these measures would achieve their intended goals in situations like Uvalde. Amid growing fear and apprehension about another Sandy Hook or Uvalde happening and the proliferation of purported school safety measures, two questions occupy the minds of many: Are schools a safe place for children to be? And what actually works to make them safer?

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  As policymakers, school administrators, and other vested stakeholders continue to grapple with these questions, it is critical to plan for every instance of firearm violence on school grounds. In doing so, it is important to implement strategies that are based in research where evidence supports their efficacy in achieving prevention and/or harm mitigation. At the same time, it is imperative to consider not only the short-term effects but also longer-term impacts of both gun violence and the associated strategies for prevention and response on students. Researchers will be key in cultivating this evidence and must continue to work closely with policymakers, school administrators, and the public to protect children from the harmful effects of gun violence.

Albany, NY: Rockefeller Institute of Government, 2022. 64p.