Tennessee Extremists

A group has found that Tennessee has seen a spike in people searching for information on how to join extremist groups.

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New data collected shows heightened risks of domestic violent extremism in tennessee, compared to the national us average.

News 12 brian armstrong takes a closer look at the data and what it could mean for our area.

We've seen a huge jump in this kind of material since covid.

According to moonshot c-v-e data collected on google search from september 2020 to march 2021 shows tennessee has 77 percent more searches per capita than the us average for armed groups including how to join them.

Over the last few weeks, we've seen a number of these really horrifying incidents.

Not in tennessee but in other places and it really highlights this is an issue we need to take seriously and figure out how to prevent.

Aris says this research wasn't a look at people interested in gun carry.

It's not gun-carrying that's the issue, it's the intent.

Why are you trying to carry a gun?

It was meant to gather what people are looking at in a violent sense.

According to the study, 20 percent of searches fell into the most serious risk category, desire to cause harm.

This includes searches for bomb-making instructions.

We're talking about arm groups that are malicious.

We're talking about malicious people who have a very specific grievance.

And those grievances tend to be or intended towards conspiratorial thinking or kind of the outsider.

He says covid and the pandemic have caused a spike in domestic violent extremism searches.

People have a lack of clarity on anything.

It's so hard to separate facts from emotions right now.

He adds the data collected highlights the extent to which the spread of conspiracy theories has pushed domestic violent extremists into taking action.