The shooter who killed two detainees and injured another at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Field Office left a note saying the attack was aimed at ICE. But many experts on political extremism say the shooting and others like it are more about notoriety than ideology.
Assigning Blame
Joshua Jahn’s political affiliation isn’t clear. Public records from Oklahoma, where Jahn voted in 2024, indicate he was a registered independent.
Notes he left for law enforcement and an inscription on one of the bullets found at the scene indicate the attack was aimed at ICE agents.
Still, several conservative elected and government officials point to his actions as far left extremism, including Gov. Greg Abbott.
"The ongoing onslaught of violent and subversive rhetoric from the Left threatens to degrade the most prized and basic values our nation was founded upon and must be denounced at every turn,” Abbott said in a statement. “I urge all Americans to unite and stand for the common values that make us the greatest nation in the history of the world."
Vice President J.D. Vance also pointed the blame at Democrats for inciting Jahn to commit violence.
“Here's what happens when Democrats like Gavin Newsom did say that these people are part of an authoritarian government,” Vance said at an event in North Carolina after the shooting. “When the left-wing media lies about what they're doing, when they lie about who they're arresting, when the lie about the actual job of law enforcement, what they are doing is encouraging crazy people to go and commit violence.”
The FBI has said they’re still investigating why 29-year-old Jahn opened fire with a bolt-action rifle at a Dallas ICE field office at 6:30 a.m. last Wednesday. So far, the ongoing investigation has revealed Jahn, who lived Fairview, a quiet suburb North of Dallas, intended to harm ICE agents even though no law enforcement was harmed in the shooting.Jahn, who died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, likely acted alone, said acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson at a recent press conference.
"We did not find evidence of membership in any specific group or entity, nor did he mention any specific government agency other than ICE,” Larson said.
Jahn’s brother Noah told NBC News Jahn wasn’t interested in politics.
Focusing on ideology rather than the individual – who oftentimes is a disturbed individual lacking social support – oversimplifies a complicated issue, said Jason Blazakis, a professor and the director of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism.
"This is a complex situation, and humans are very complex in what animates them to violence,” Blazakis said. “And it's not just ideology alone.”
Blaming the other party for a tragedy is a tactic for politicians who want to mobilize their base, he said. Encouraging their supporters to see political opponents as the enemy may energize support for their cause, but Blazakis said doing so creates an “us versus them” narrative – something extremists want.
The actual political philosophy of individuals who commit this kind of violence is more complicated. Oftentimes, their views are a hodgepodge from both the left and right, said Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program.
"These shooters tend to want to use violence as a way of making their lives meaningful,” Kleinfeld said. “They often feel like their lives are really insignificant, unimportant. But if they commit an act of violence, they'll be appreciated by one side or another."
“Me and my brain”
The common theme for shootings like this isn’t politics – it’s a desire to leave a legacy, no matter how unfathomable it might be.
Law enforcement found a collection of notes at Jahn’s home in Fairview. One said “yes, it was just me and my brain.” Another said, “good luck with the digital footprint.”
Jahn was “terminally online,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. Being active in nihilistic online communities that glorify violence can lead someone whose only connections are within those spaces to commit brutal acts.
"A lot of these individuals who are so deep in these hyper-violence, really just dehumanizing online spaces, the idea of committing that very public act of violence is appealing,” Lewis said. “It gives them a way to get their name out, to become someone who matters.”
For someone who’s desperate to feel heard, any kind of infamy can be attractive. The name of mass shooters and assassins like Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed President John F. Kennedy Jr., and Luigi Mangioni, who shot and killed the CEO of United Healthcare, and the Unabomber are in the history books and all over social media.
Politicians, scholars and even conspiracy theorists assign a variety of motives to mass killings and assassinations, even though the killer’s reasoning may be muddled or conflicting. Months before Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated Kennedy, a Democrat, Oswald attempted to kill conservative General Edwin Walker.
For online forums that promote extremism, ideology, Lewis said, isn’t the point.
“Violence for the sake of violence can do the job,” he said.
Social Isolation
Vulnerable people who may be struggling with their mental health can be susceptible to rhetoric online that encourages violence, Kleinfeld said.
"Most mentally ill people do not commit violence,” she said. “It is much more likely that a mentally ill person will have violence committed against them. But the people who commit political violence are having these problems with who they are, and they're searching for a new identity, and they are finding it from online sources or communities of hate.”
But, Kleinfeld said, the type of person who would commit political violence is more likely to have mental health issues.
“It's like looking at a funnel from the big or small side,” she said. “If you look from the small opening, those who commit political violence a very large amount of the hole is filled with people who have mental problems. But if you're looking from the bigger opening down the funnel, a very small proportion of those with mental problems are actually going to commit political violence.”
Someone who has a mental illness that is receiving treatment isn’t more likely to be violent than anyone else, said Greg Hansch, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Texas. But untreated mental illness can be a risk factor for violence.
Many of the recent examples of political violence, Lewis said, are public suicides. Jahn died by suicide after shooting the detainees who were at the ICE field office in Dallas, something law enforcement said was part of his plan.
“These are individuals who in many cases are seemingly just on the brink of either killing themselves or killing other people, and it becomes a coin flip,” Lewis said.
Mass shootings and other public acts of violence often prompt finger-pointing at mental health issues, which Hansch cautioned against, as doing so stigmatizes mental health and could lead people in need to not seek treatment.
Isolation, which can lead to accompanying mental health struggles, is the more likely culprit. And Blazakis said extremist movements can provide those individuals with the connection they lack.
"Terrorist recruiters or extremist movements thrive on trying to lure individuals into their milieus to be part of a group,” Blazakis said. “And once they feel welcome, they feel like they found their community.”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
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