Jun 30, 2015 3 min read

The savage massacre of nine parishioners at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., two weeks ago by a young man barely out of high school serves as a reminder of how stubbornly persistent racism can be and the appalling ease by which the unhinged can get their hands on lethal weaponry.

It also highlights another important point: The extremists we should probably be spending the most time fretting about aren’t those who hail from the Middle East and want to foment jihad, but those who are nurtured here at home and could perhaps be living just down the street.

Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old accused perpetrator of the killings in South Carolina was reportedly inspired to embark on his deadly mission after looking at the online rantings of a white supremacist group. Roof is said to have told acquaintances before he opened fire in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that “blacks were taking over the world” and “someone needed to do something about it for the white race.” Unfortunately, he followed in the footsteps of other extremists on the lunatic fringe of the right who have targeted ethnic and religious minorities in recent years, their hatred given fuel by Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the White House and the long, uneven recovery from the Great Recession.

In fact, a report released just a few days after the Charleston slayings by the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based research center, found that more Americans have been killed by assorted far-right fanatics and white supremacists in the United States in the years since 9/11 than have been killed by Muslim extremists. The report found that 48 Americans have been killed by non-Muslim extremists, compared to the 26 who have been murdered by jihadists.

But even as the American public has come to associate the threat of terrorism with Islamic extremism over the last 14 years, law enforcement officials have come to understand that terrorism from antigovernment and far-right groups is almost certainly a greater danger. A survey of police and sheriff’s departments released at the same time as the New America Foundation report found that 74 percent worry about antigovernment violence, while 39 percent are concerned about terrorism from the likes of ISIS, Al-Qaeda or any of their followers.

“There’s an acceptance now of the idea that the threat from jihadi terrorism in the United States has been overblown,” according to John G. Hogan, a professor of security studies at the University of Massachusetts. He also told The New York Times that “there’s a belief that the threat of right-wing, antigovernment violence has been underestimated.”

And here’s something else to keep in mind: The combined total of those who were killed by extremists in the United States since 9/11, either of the far-right or Islamist variety, comes to 74 people. In the meantime, close to 100 people on average are killed in auto accidents every day, and 32 people are killed by lightning every year. Eight people have overdosed on heroin in less than three weeks in Washington, and about 23 people die as a result of heroin overdoses across the country every day. Then, of course, there’s gun violence, which claimed 30 Americans on a daily basis in 2013.

Yes, we must be vigilant about terrorism. But we must keep it in perspective and understand just who the terrorists might be. Their ranks could include the boy next door.