Mass Killings Spike In US Linked To Extremism; White Supremacist Shooters 'Main Threat': Report

A massive spike was seen in the number of mass killings linked to extremism in the U.S. over the past decade, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League.

The report also showed that every single extremist killing in 2022 was linked to right-wing extremism. Moreover, an "unusually high" percentage of white supremacists were the perpetrators of these killings, Axios reported. Extremists are usually motivated by their ideologies to commit such grave murders.

The decades between the 1970s and 2000s reportedly saw two to seven domestic extremism-related mass killings in each decade. That number spiked to 21 in the 2010s.

Now, two years into the present decade, the upward trend appears to continue with five domestic extremist mass killings in 2021 and 2022, AP News reported.

"The 26 mass killing incidents over the past 12 years actually exceed those from the previous 40 years (20)," stated the report. "It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings."

The report also says that all extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists of different stripes. While left-wing extremists also engage in violence (such as assaults to fire-bombings), they have not often targeted people with deadly violence since the late 1980s, the report noted.

Right-wing extremism contributed to 75% of domestic extreme-related killings in the U.S. between 2013-2022. Left-wing extremism contributed 4%, domestic Islamist extremism contributed 20% and other/misc. extremism contributed 1%.

"Right-wing extremists commit most extremist-related murders each year, but in 2022 such extremists committed all the murders COE has been able to document," the report said.

Furthermore, it states that nearly 3 out of 4 right-wing extremist killings in the U.S. are committed by white supremacists.

White supremacists were the perpetrators of 73% of all right-wing extremist-related killings in the country between 2013 and 2002. The remaining perpetrators were composed of anti-government extremists (17%), toxic masculinity extremists (5%) and anti-abortion and other right-wing extremists (4%), according to the report.

"For the near to medium future, the main threat of extremist-related mass killings seems to be white supremacist shooters attacking targets such as people of color, Jews and Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community," stated the report.

The report highlights two shooting sprees from 2022 — the Tops supermarket attack in Buffalo in May, and the attack on Club Q, an LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Springs in November — as two of the "most serious incidents" committed by right-wing extremists.

Ten people were killed in total and three others were wounded in Buffalo, New York, when White supremacist Payton Gendron opened fire in a supermarket. Gendron targeted Black people, and 11 of his victims were Black, as per the report.

In the Colorado bar incident, suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich is accused of killing five people, leaving 17 wounded, and injuring five more people while trying to escape.

A massive spike was seen in the number of mass killing linked to extremism in the US over the past decade.