Steep rise in extremist mass slayings across U.S., says study
Over the course of the last decade, there have been three times more mass killings rooted in extremism nationwide than any other 10-year time frame since the 1970s, according to a report released Thursday by the Anti-Defamation League.
In 2022 alone, at least 25 people were killed in 12 separate incidents linked to right-wing extremism or white supremacy. That includes a mass shooting at Club Q — an LGBTQ club in Colorado where five people were gunned down during a drag show — and an attack at a Walmart in Buffalo that left 10 Black shoppers dead.
The last time all mass attacks were linked to right-wing extremism was back in 2012. And while it’s not rare for such violent incidents to be rooted in white supremacy, those tied to the ideology jumped in 2022. According to the report, the percentage last year was unusually high, with 21 of the 25 murders linked to white supremacy.
In 2021, when 33 victims were murdered in mass attacks, white supremacists killed more people than any other type of extremist, though not an outright majority, like last year and other years before.
Since the 1970s, between two and seven extremism-related mass killings occurred every decade through the 2000s. The figure spiked in the 2010s to 21.
“The 26 mass killing incidents over the past 12 years actually exceed those from the previous 40 years,” according to the report. “It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings.”
The agency’s vice president, Oren Segal, said the increase in the number of mass killing attempts, meanwhile, is one of the most alarming trends in recent years.
“We cannot stand idly by and accept this as the new norm,” Segal said.