Hateful extremism and conspiracy theories motivate one out of four mass assaults: report

A new federal report shows one in four mass attacks in public spaces are motivated by conspiracy theories or hateful ideologies.

The U.S. Secret Service published a 60-page report Wednesday examining 173 attacks between 2016 and 2020 that injured three or more people in public spaces, including churches and schools and while personal grievance was the most common motive, extremist views motivated a quarter of that violence, reported NBC News.

“Our research informs policy, and we really hope communities take preventative action to make sure that they are mitigating any possible risk of a tragedy like this happening again," said Lina Alathari, the chief of the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center.

The typical assailant was a 34-year-old man motivated by personal grievances -- usually issues involving their health, finances or interpersonal relationships -- rather than ideology, but a substantial number of attacks were motivated by anti-government, antisemitic or misogynistic views.

More than three-quarters of all attacks involved firearms, usually a handgun, and more than 80 percent of attacks involving guns resulted in at least one death.

Attackers who used a weapon other than a gun fatally wounded their victims in fewer than half of those assaults.