Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
What percentage of mass shootings are committed by rightwing extremists in the US?
Executive Summary
The sources agree that right‑wing extremists account for the large majority of extremist‑related mass killings in recent years, but none of the materials reviewed provide a definitive percentage of all U.S. mass shootings that are perpetrated by right‑wing extremists. Reports from the Anti‑Defamation League and contemporaneous fact‑checks show years (including 2022–2024) in which 100% of identified extremist‑related murders were carried out by right‑wing actors, and multiple reviews place roughly three‑quarters or more of extremist‑motivated fatalities in the hands of far‑right actors across recent decades; however, these figures refer to the subset of shootings tied to extremist motives, not the universe of all mass shootings [1] [2] [3].
1. Why advocates cite big percentages — The compelling data on extremist‑linked killings
Multiple organizational reports and journalism emphasize that when homicides are explicitly tied to extremist motives, the far‑right overwhelmingly dominates those tallies. The ADL documented that in 2022, all 25 extremist‑related murders were committed by right‑wing extremists, with 21 linked to white supremacy, and similar patterns appear in ADL annual tallies for 2023–2024 showing nearly all extremist‑linked killings traced to far‑right actors [2] [3]. Fact‑checking summaries and Reuters‑cited figures reinforce that in specific recent years the entire identified extremist murder set consisted of right‑wing perpetrators, an outcome that motivates public statements claiming a very high share of extremist violence is right‑wing [1].
2. Why researchers stop short — Definitions and the difference between “extremist‑related” and “all” mass shootings
Academic and policy analyses caution that “mass shooting” and “extremist‑related murder” are distinct categories, and many high‑casualty shootings have motives that are personal, criminal, mental‑health related, or otherwise non‑ideological. Studies that classify public mass shooters from 1966–2023 find about one‑quarter displayed extreme ideological interests overall, but they do not disaggregate that quarter by right‑ or left‑wing ideology in a way that yields a direct percentage for right‑wing responsibility across all mass shootings [4]. Cato Institute work on politically motivated terrorism likewise documents long‑term lethality patterns without offering a single proportion of all mass shootings attributable to the right, underscoring a methodological gap between extremist‑motivated fatalities and the broader mass‑shooting dataset [5].
3. How different timeframes change the impression — short bursts versus long trends
Short time windows (single years or half‑years) can show 100% of extremist‑related murders tied to right‑wing actors, producing an impression that nearly all mass shootings are right‑wing when commentators conflate categories. Over longer periods, analysts estimate the far‑right is responsible for a large majority—often cited around 70–80%—of domestic‑terrorism or extremist‑motivated deaths since 2001, but those longer‑term figures still refer to extremist fatalities rather than all mass shootings [1] [6]. This temporal framing explains divergent headlines: single‑year ADL counts highlight immediate danger from the far‑right, while broader historical reviews temper that claim by showing nuance across decades and crime types [2] [6].
4. Where the evidence is thin — what’s missing to get the precise percentage you asked for
None of the supplied sources produce a clean numerator and denominator that would answer “what percentage of mass shootings are committed by right‑wing extremists” for the United States. To compute that percentage you need a consistent, agreed‑upon definition of “mass shooting,” a comprehensive list of incidents, and reliable coding of motive for every incident. Existing datasets and reports either catalog extremist‑related murders (where right‑wing dominance is evident) or examine all mass shootings without reliably attributing ideology to every perpetrator, leaving the precise crosswalk between the two categories unreported in the reviewed materials [1] [4] [2].
5. Bottom line and next‑step data to resolve the question definitively
The defensible conclusion from the reviewed evidence is that right‑wing extremists are responsible for the vast majority of extremist‑motivated mass killings in recent years, and historically they account for a large share of domestic‑terrorism fatalities, but the exact percentage of all U.S. mass shootings attributable to right‑wing extremists cannot be determined from the sources provided. To resolve the question precisely one needs a mass‑shooting database that codes motive for every incident (e.g., a combined dataset from researchers and federal law‑enforcement classifications) and a transparent methodology; once such a dataset is produced, the numerator (mass shootings with validated right‑wing motive) and denominator (all mass shootings under a fixed definition) can yield a definitive percentage [1] [4] [2].