The White House has published its first ever national strategy for countering domestic terrorism five months after a violent mob stormed the US Capitol in Washington. Domestic terrorism has shaken the American society during recent years. There had been numerous incidents of home-grown terrorism in the country, however, the incident of violent rebellion at Capitol hills had inflamed a debate among the US lawmakers and intelligentsia that how to tackle the worsening situation? The newly formulated strategy provides a nationwide framework for the US Government and partners to understand and share domestic terrorism related information; obstruct domestic terrorism through comprehensive measures across the country. The new document has defined the terrorism as an activity that involve acts dangerous to human life or the violation of the criminal laws of the United States; appear to be intended to intimidate a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
According to reports, US Department of Justice and FBI has implemented a new system to methodically track domestic terrorism cases nationwide. As said, the Department of State, and Intelligence Community will share to learn with their foreign partners about transnational and trans-continental terrorist threats. For the first time in US history, the Department of Homeland Security has designated domestic violent extremism as a national priority area within its Security program. The US Government has allocated $ 77 million to state, local and other partners to prevent, protect against, and respond to domestic violent extremism during the current year.
Human rights defenders had been continuously pointing out the growing domestic terrorism in the US society, but American government was not willing to accept this reality. However, the recent alliance of political element with domestic terrorism during violent riots at US Capitol in the backdrop of Trump’s defeat in Presidential election had shocked the US Policy makers. US government has formulated a four-prong strategy comprising, reporting on potential case of domestic terrorism, prevention of recruitment and mobilization of violence, disruption of activities and confronting long term sponsors of the Terrorism.
Finally, the US government has recognized the problem, and set the course to meet the challenge. Domestic terrorism or gun violence is not a new phenomenon in the United States. Being a diversified and pluralistic nation, American society has several disparity lines based on colour, ethnicity, race, economic and religious grounds. These differences some time lead to discrimination and violent behavior. These violent sentiments usually turn into shooting or homicide incidents due to easy access to guns and ammunition across the US. According to a Washington Post survey, about 23 million guns had been purchased by the American people during 2020 alone. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is a 23 percent increase in shooting incidents during the first 5 months of 2021 as compared to previous year.
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution permits an individual to carry a gun for his self-defense and no authority in the US including legislature, judiciary or executive is ready to reverse this act despite countless incidents of mass shooting. Arm mafia is another factor which actively blocks attempts to ban guns in the US. It would be a better option for the US government to ban gun culture and retrieve guns from the masses to curb this menace in society, because cutting off fuel is the most effective method to control the fire.
