Libertarians Are at It Again

There are currently two studies circulating that suggest right-wing political violence is more prevalent than left-wing political violence. The aims, it seems, are to counter conservative responses to events like the assassination attempt on Charlie Kirk. In short, left-wing violence and its celebrations are still pressing issues that deserve attention.

One notable study comes from the Prevention and Abolition League. My friend Ryan Gardski provided a thorough analysis in his newsletter, National Populist. Essentially, they’ve included a mix of white nationalist murders alongside domestic violence and other ideologically driven killings under their classification of “right-wing political violence.” Highly recommend checking it out.

Another study worth mentioning is by Kato Wangk, while Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president of economic and social policy at a libertarian think tank, collaborates with David Beer, who leads immigration research there. Nowrasteh has also authored a controversial study claiming that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans.

He stated in his Substack post on Political Violence that politically motivated violence “is not a big deal, and left-wing terrorists aren’t the worst.” Quite the claim, right? Let’s explore the data he compiled.

Nowrasteh defines his focus as primarily on politically motivated terrorists responsible for at least one fatality in their attacks. For the sake of time—and my own sanity—we’ll restrict our examination to his findings from 2015 to 2025. This is essentially an arbitrary cutoff, so if one were to dig deeper, a more comprehensive list could likely emerge.

According to his findings, he identified 57 politically motivated killers in this timeframe. Among these, 13 are labeled as Muslims, foreign nationals, or categorized as unknown/other. This narrows it down to 27 right-wing killers and 17 left-wing killers according to Nowrasteh’s tally.

It’s worth scrutinizing how the right-wing killers are classified. Those appropriately classified are marked in bold, while those inappropriately classified are underlined. Some, which I’ve marked as italic, suggest a less verified or more subjective motivation.

1. Dylann Roof – Appropriately classified
2. John Russell “Rusty” Hauser – He reportedly had right-wing views, but there’s no definitive proof that this was his sole motivation for shooting in Lafayette. Mental health issues were apparent, and the reasons behind his actions remain unclear.
3. Dear Robert Lewis – Appropriately classified
4. James Harris Jackson – A complex case; he had long-standing racial animosity despite growing up in a liberal environment. He later became sympathetic to far-right ideologies, making his classification appropriate.
5. Jeremy Joseph Christian – Appropriately classified
6. James Alex Fields, Jr. – Appropriately classified
7. Matthew Edward Lille – A military veteran suffering from PTSD who streamed his violent act online. His motivations were muddled and involved complaints about local officials, making his classification questionable.
8. Samuel Woodward – Raised Catholic and struggled with his sexual identity, he displayed anti-gay sentiments but later acted violently against a gay man. While this clearly shows hatred, attributing it to right-wing violence is tenuous.
9. Gregory A. Bush – Targeted two Black shoppers out of racial hatred, though whether this was politically motivated is unclear. His motivations appear more personal than ideological.
10. Robert D. Bowers – Appropriately classified
11. Scott Paul Beierle – Appropriately classified
12. Anthony Comello – His defense hinged on an outrageous claim of being radicalized through Qanon. The motives behind his actions were complex and multi-faceted, complicating his classification.
13. John T. Ernest – Appropriately classified
14. William Santino Legan – Appropriately classified
15. Patrick Crusius – Appropriately classified
16. Steven Carrillo – Appropriately classified
17. Robert Justus – Appropriately classified
18. Roy Den Hollander – Appropriately classified
19. Robert Aaron Long – For shooting individuals in Asian-owned “massage parlors” due to personal conflicts with his religious beliefs, his motives were complex.
20. Nathan Allen – He targeted two Black individuals after stealing a vehicle, articulating anti-black sentiments, yet there’s no evidence linking him to any organized hate group.
21. Payton S. Gendron – Appropriately classified
22. Benjamin Jeffrey Smith – Appropriately classified
23. Anderson Lee Aldrich – Appropriately classified
24. Mauricio Martinez Garcia – Appropriately classified
25. Ryan Christopher Palmeter – Appropriately classified
26. Solomon Sahmad Charlie Henderson – Appropriately classified
27. Vance Boelter – A former Democrat turned Republican with a convoluted history, believed he was assisting in the assassination of state Democrats.

If we’re being generous, we might count 17 left-wing and about 21 right-wing terrorists. If you’re not so generous, it could feel a lot more like 19 to 17. In the grand scheme, that’s a pretty minor discrepancy.

However, we need to keep in mind that Nowrasteh omitted several left-wing terrorist cases from his analysis.

1. The Waukesha attacker drove a vehicle through a Christmas parade in 2021, had numerous anti-white posts, and was involved with Black Lives Matter—eyebrows raised here.
2. Jessica Doughty Whitaker was shot following the declaration of “all lives matter” during a BLM protest; her case remains unsolved.
3. Anti-natalists bombed an IVF clinic in 2025, resulting in a fatality.

This raises questions about how we categorize violence on both sides of the political spectrum.

Yet another issue is that Nowrasteh’s count only reflects killings. We’re missing out on several high-profile assassination attempts—including those against Trump, a Republican baseball shooting in 2017, and attempts on various other politicians, which complicate the narrative around politically motivated violence.

Nowrasteh’s approach is certainly an improvement over other studies, yet it abundantly illustrates that determining the political motivations behind violence is highly subjective. At the very least, the assertion that right-wing violence is more prevalent than left-wing violence remains debatable, if not highly questionable.