GETTING WORSE

Mass Killings Tied to Extremism Have Exploded: Report

There were as many extremist mass killings in the U.S. in 2021 and 2022 as there were in the first decade of the 21st century.

The number of mass killings linked to extremism in the U.S. has radically increased over the last decade, according to a report published Thursday. The analysis by the Anti-Defamation League found that the last decade’s grim tally of extremist mass killings was at least three times higher than the total of any other 10-year period since the 1970s. The report examined mass killings which were carried out by people with ties to extremist movements or ideologies—between two and seven such massacres occurred in the U.S. each decade from the 70s to the 2000s. From the 2010s, the number spiked to 21. The report also found that every single extremist killing in 2022 was linked to right-wing extremism, particularly white supremacy. “It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings,” the report said.