Politically Motivated Violence Is Rare in the United States
www.cato.org

... A total of 3,597 people have been murdered in politically motivated terrorist attacks in the United States from January 1, 1975, through September 10, 2025.

Murders committed in terrorist attacks account for about 0.35 percent of all murders since 1975. Only 79 happened since 2020, accounting for 0.07 percent of all murders during that time, or 7 out of 10,000. Terrorism is the broadest reasonable definition of a politically motivated murder because it is the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a nonstate actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through coercion, fear, or intimidation. That excludes individual hate crimes, which are frequently difficult to distinguish from terrorism but are often more personal and spontaneous.

Eighty-three percent of those murdered since 1975 were killed by the 9/11 terrorists (Figure 1). The Oklahoma City Bombing accounts for about another 5 percent.

Those murdered since 2020 account for just 2 percent.

Terrorists inspired by Islamist ideology are responsible for 87 percent of those murdered in attacks on US soil since 1975 (Table 1).

Right-wingers are the second most common motivating ideology, accounting for 391 murders and 11 percent of the total. The definition here of right-wing terrorists includes those motivated by white supremacy, anti-abortion beliefs, involuntary celibacy (incels), and other right-wing ideologies.

Left-wing terrorists murdered 65 people, or about 2 percent of the total. Left-wing terrorists include those motivated by black nationalism, anti-police sentiment, communism, socialism, animal rights, environmentalism, anti-white ideologies, and other left-wing ideologies.

Those murders that are politically motivated by unknown or other ideologies are a vanishingly small percentage, which is unsurprising because terrorists typically want attention for their causes. ...

Correcting inaccurate metaperceptions reduces Americans' support for partisan violence (2022)
www.pnas.org

... Prominent events, such as the 2021 US Capitol attack, have brought politically motivated violence to the forefront of Americans' minds. Yet, the causes of support for partisan violence remain poorly understood.

Across four studies, we found evidence that exaggerated perceptions of rival partisans' support for violence are a major cause of partisans' own support for partisan violence. Further, correcting these false beliefs reduces partisans' support for and willingness to engage in violence, especially among those with the largest misperceptions, and this effect endured for 1 mo. These findings suggest that a simple correction of partisans' misperceptions could be a practical and scalable way to durably reduce Americans' support for, and intentions to engage in, partisan violence.

Here, we propose that support for partisan violence is based in part on greatly exaggerated perceptions of rival partisans' support for violence. ...

US justice department removes study finding far-right extremists commit far more' violence
www.theguardian.com