An Evolving Threat Landscape: Composite Violent Extremism and Prevention Efforts

Excerpt

Introduction

A year before William Atchison carried out the 2017 Aztec High School shooting in New Mexico, killing two people before taking his own life, the FBI had investigated him for making a menacing inquiry in an online gaming forum: “If you’re going to commit a mass shooting, does anyone know about cheap assault rifles?” However, Atchison convinced investigators that he was “just trolling.” They closed the inquiry, missing their opportunity to prevent the attack.

Why was this opportunity to stop a tragic attack missed? It may have had something to do with the apparent incoherence of Atchison’s extreme views. The 21-year-old identified as a neo-Nazi but said that “Neo nazis are cancer (except me).” He endorsed white supremacy but admitted that “rednecks” and “white trash” are no better than other races. He admired mass shooters but said, “I’d kill Eric Harris so that columbine would never happen and thus i’d prevent like 3000 skol shottings [sic].”

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the founder and chief executive officer of the private firm Valens Global. He also heads a project on domestic violent extremism for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Thomas Plant is an analyst at Valens Global who supports the organization’s project on domestic violent extremism for FDD. FDD is a nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.