The whole "who is the most violent" argument surfaced again after a "liberal" opened fire on a group of republicans at a practice for a congressional baseball game in Virginia.
See: Representative Steve Scalise Shot at a Baseball Practice - The Atlantic

Some quoted studies showing liberals were more likely to commit crimes.
They didn't elaborate on the type of crime; e.g. Illegal protest vs Church bombing.

I've told people I'm a little schizo in the organizations I belong to, The Sierra Club, Jeep Clubs and an "evangelical"* Church.
  I have no problem telling the Sierra Club people I have a Jeep or belong to an conservative church. They may give me a bad time, but I don't feel threatened. I was elected to the executive committee of the NJ chapter of the Sierra Club along with 2 other republicans even though they knew we didn't always vote for their endorsed candidates. i.e. They can work with conservatives.
It's easier to be a moderate republican in New Jersey with republicans such as congresswoman Millicent Fenwick and governors Tom Kean, Christy Todd Whittman and others who were fiscal conservatives and social liberals.
See Stop Calling Yourself 'Socially Liberal and Fiscally Conservative' | HuffPost

The jeep people and the conservatives (most of my friends at church) really don't like environmentalists and will treat you as a persona non grata.
A lot of them have guns too. I'm afraid to tell the jeep club I'm a member of the Sierra Club. They'd jump down my throat, because the Sierra Club has lobbied to close some jeep trails which were causing environmental damage.

* The Presbyterian church I belonged to for 28 years recently left the PCUSA denomination because they were too liberal. One member sited their support of gun legislation in a list of 5 reasons to leave PCUSA. PCUSA also supports energy conservation. "Churches should stay out of politics", some friends say.


There have been posts by pro-gun people saying most gun violence is caused by liberals.
1. They claim most of the recent mass shooters were democrats.
That is false. See responsa on a "hate-liberals" facebook page.
2. Most gun violence is in poor neighborhoods in big cities which typically vote democratic. Of course these are not motivated by any political ideology or racism.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project says that “if you go back to the 1960s, you see all kinds of left-wing terrorism, but since then it’s been exceedingly rare.” She notes that eco- and animal-rights extremists caused extensive property damage in the 1990s, but didn’t target people.

While the extreme right has held a near-monopoly on political violence since the 1980s, conservatives and Republicans are no more likely to say that using force to achieve one’s political goals is justified than are liberals and Democrats.


More Specific examples:

Things got really nasty in Donald Trump's run for president in 2016, where he said of Hillary Clinton:
"I think her bodyguards should drop all weapons. Disarm immediately,"
"Take their guns away, let's see what happens to her."
"Take their guns away, OK? It'll be very dangerous," he added.

Trump supporters have bombarded journalists who criticized him with vicious tweets. see 2016 election hype.

After his election there were protests with some violence by the left.

In May, 2017 republican candidate for the house, Greg Gianforte, shoved Guardian Reporter Ben Jacobs to the ground breaking his glasses, when he persisted with questions on the health care bill. Jacobs was taken to the hospital for x-rays.

Right Wing violence:

  • Anti-abortion violende: At least eleven murders occurred in the United States since 1990, as well as 41 bombings and 173 arsons at clinics since 1977. Wikipedia
  • Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was reprimanded by the military for purchasing a "White Power" T-shirt at a Ku Klux Klan protest against black servicemen who wore "Black Power" T-shirts around the army base.
  • Racist Church killings and bombings:
    2015- 9 killed in Charleston SC
    1963 - 4 killed in Birmingham, Alabama
  • Southern Racism see:
    A History of Racial Injustice - Equal Justice Initiative
    Political Violence and Terrorism in Modern America: A Chronology - Christopher Hewitt - Google Books
    Racist Terror, Then and Now | Solidarity
  • JFK
  • MLK Jr.
  • Domestic murders by anti-abortion fanatics (Domestic terrorism in the United States)
  • Eric Robert Rudolph, of the so-called, "Army of God" whose targets included two abortion clinics, a gay and lesbian night club, and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
  • Oklahoma City - Timothy McVeigh
  • The Jewish Defense League (JDL) responsible for 15 attempted terrorist attacks between 1980 to 1985.
  • Ku Klux Klan lynchings as recently as 1981 (although most notably he murder of Medgar Evers in 1963.)
  • The Order, a white nationalist revolutionary group, murdered the radio talk show host Alan Berg in 1984.
  • Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting
  • Greensboro massacre
  • Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting
  • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting
  • 2010 Austin suicide attack
  • 2011 Spokane bombing attempt
Left Wing Voilence:
  • The Fort Hood shooter, Major Hasan, was a registered Democrat.
  • The Virginia Tech shooter was a registered Democrat.
  • The Colorado theater shooter in Aurora was a registered Democrat.
  • The Connecticut school shooter was a registered Democrat.
  • The Columbine shooters were too young to register; both of their families were registered Democrats and Progressive liberals.
  • Gerald Loughner who shot Giffords and the others in Arizona was a ‘far leftist’, according to his friends.
Links:
Fact Check: Is Left-Wing Violence Rising? : NPR
Why Does the Far Right Hold a Near-Monopoly on Political Violence? | The Nation
Right-wing terrorism - Wikipedia
Gun Violence

last updated 24 June 2017