A declassified intelligence document claimed that Americans who opposed the COVID-19 vaccine mandates could contribute to violent behaviors.
According to an FBI, Homeland Security Department, and National Counterterrorism Center document, some “domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and their foreign analogues will threaten or mobilize to violence in opposition to new or expanding COVID-19-related mandates.” The document added that federal agencies have “observed at least a handful” of “extremists” who “characterize COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates as evidence of government overreach.”
The report dated to 2021 notes that some of the narratives espoused by DVEs” include the “belief that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe, especially for children, are part of a government or global conspiracy to deprive individuals of their civil liberties and livelihoods, or are designed to start a new social or political order.”
“We assess that the controversy surrounding vaccination mandates for school-aged children, employees facing termination for lack of compliance, or perceptions of unfair healthcare treatment for the unvaccinated might trigger increased violence by DVEs, their foreign analogs, or other violent actors,” the document states, going on to describe that the COVID-19 vaccine’s availability for school-aged children “might spur conspiracy theories and perceptions that schools will vaccinate children against parents’ will and may increase the potential for violence.”
A footnote in the report acknowledged that those opposing the COVID mandates and voicing their opposition are “likely engaging in First Amendment-protected activities, unless they are acting in concert with a threat actor.”
Another declassified document from April exposed an effort to limit gun rights as a means of countering domestic terrorism.
The documents discuss how the government can “confront long-term contributors to domestic terrorism,” explaining how officials may “rein in the proliferation of ghost guns; encourage state adoption of extreme risk protection orders; and drive other executive and legislative action, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
