Anti-State Terrorist Plots and Attacks in the United States

extremists. Specifically, anti- government extremists tend to be much older and have higher rates of protective factors than other individuals in the data. [...] Further, PIRUS data shows that military veterans in the anti-government movement have been connected to a disproportionate number of mass casualty plots and attacks.3 This brief provides thoughts on what these findings mean for violence prevention programs in the United States both broadly and more specifically for the military veteran community. [...] • Approximately 30% of these plots resulted in successful attacks in which the perpetrators deployed weapons and caused some type of observable harm, such as damage to property. [...] START Research Brief © University of Maryland, August 2024 4 • Data from PIRUS suggest that individuals associated with the anti-government movement in the United States can be distinguished from other subjects in the data on measures of protective factors and extremist outcomes. • The anti-government subjects in PIRUS who committed crimes in the United States from 1992-2022 had signifi [...] • Specifically, anti-government extremists were much older than other extremists in the data, with an average age of nearly 43 years old at the time of offense/arrest. By comparison, both the far-left and Jihadist offenders from this period were on average more than a decade younger than the anti-government extremists when they committed their crimes. • Anti-government extremists also had f [...] • When it comes to risk factors, the anti-government extremists were similar to the other subjects in the PIRUS data, with the exception of mental health concerns and unemployment. [...] • As we have highlighted in a previous brief,8 military veterans in the anti-government movement have been connected to a disproportionate number of these plots and attacks. Prevention programs, therefore, must better support individuals with military service backgrounds in order to address radicalization within the veteran community. [...] • Age is an especially important metric to consider when analyzing anti-government extremism in the United States.9 Middle-aged adults are typically preoccupied with their careers, their children, and caring for aging parents, all of which act as deterrents to crime, including violent extremism. With an average age of nearly 43 years old, however, anti-government extremists often defy this [...] START Research Brief © University of Maryland, August 2024 6 ABOUT THE PROJECT START and We the Veterans and Military Families have partnered on the Veterans Preventing Misinformation and Violence project aimed at promoting a public health approach to violence prevention. [...] A special thanks to DHS for funding the collaboration between START and We the Veterans and Families, which has helped inform the contents of this report.