Cover: Think Mass Shootings Are Terrorism?

Think Mass Shootings Are Terrorism?

Careful What You Wish For

Published in: POLITICO Magazine [Epub November 2017]

Posted on RAND.org on January 04, 2018

by Brian Michael Jenkins, Richard Daddario

Like many terrorist suicide attacks, the Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs massacres involved a heavily armed killer engaged in a carefully planned assault that would predictably end in his own death. It targeted a public place. Its victims were randomly selected. It was aimed at producing mass casualties and many were killed or wounded. It certainly was terrifying to those who came under fire and it caused nationwide fear. A new domestic terrorism law, however, is not a solution and could create unintended consequences.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.