The Significance of Firearms in Militant Accelerationist Attacks
by L. Zagara and Matthew Kriner
“Don’t worry so much about firing the first shot. The System has fired enough of them.” - The Hard Reset
Introduction
Firearms possess multivariate appeal among militant accelerationist attackers. Equal parts tactical and symbolic, firearms are so central to the militant accelerationist program that the conversation about their significance carries across perpetrator manifestos and online propaganda. In the manifesto accompanying Brenton Tarrant’s 2019 high-impact attack, he extolled the utility of firearms not only for their lethality, but also for their ability to stoke political controversy; this discussion continues in manifestos including Patrick Crusius (2019), Payton Gendron (2022), Juraj Krajcik (2022), Arda Küçükyetim (2024), and Solomon Henderson (2024).
Militant accelerationist attackers have since lauded firearms for their capacity to simultaneously accomplish two kinds of goals: conventional goals of terrorism and those unique to militant accelerationism. Firearms are proficient tools for achieving the conventional goals of maximizing casualties among attackers’ perceived enemies and spreading mass fear throughout the public– goals shared across all terrorist movements. Uniquely, militant accelerationists also make use of firearms’ legal and symbolic connotations. By using firearms–especially so-called “assault weapons” like the AR-15–attackers seek to provoke enhanced gun control legislation in the United States and exploit the subsequent political balkanization to instigate a civil war over Second Amendment rights. Finally, firearms serve a crucial symbolic function within militant accelerationist propaganda as part of the overall aesthetic of Terror (e.g., the Terrorgram Collective). As a cohesive aesthetic, firearms employed in pursuit of social collapse allow otherwise ostensibly “lone-wolf” attackers to be linked together as part of a united front to destabilize Western democracies and encourages future attackers to adopt the movement’s broad antipathy towards conventional politics.
Face-Value Efficacy
Firearms are first and foremost chosen for their primary purpose: as effective weapons. As a low-cost, high-impact modality, a shooter can cause a mass casualty event with minimal training and technical knowledge. Compared to other high-impact alternatives like bombings, shootings have higher success rates due to easily accessible and ready-made supplies that are reliable and unlikely to result in the attacker’s premature death during the preparation phase. While comparatively low-impact weapons such as knives are even more accessible, firearms strike a balance of availability, ease-of-use, and lethality.
Among attackers and propagandists, the AR-15 platform has been the gold standard firearm for accomplishing the goals of militant accelerationism. It is powerful, achieves a high rate of fire, and remains reliable through hundreds of rounds. That power and impact is captured in the testimony of some emergency room doctors who have lamented the “indescribable” damage an AR-15 can cause. Additionally, the AR-15 platform is easy to obtain, use, and reload. For individuals mobilizing to violence who often have limited to no formal training in firearms use, maintenance, and tactics, this ease is a highly prized aspect of the platform. In the United States, AR-15s are widely accessible and convenient–for some, more so than handguns. For example, in Wisconsin and Maryland, the legal buying age for an AR-15 is 18 while for handguns, the purchaser must be 21.
The importance militant accelerationists place on firearms’ lethality is exemplified by Payton Gendron who, in his 2022 manifesto, lays out his rationale for choosing an AR-15 style rifle: “there are very few weapons that are easier to use and more effective at killing than firearms, especially the Bushmaster XM-15 I will be using.” In Tarrant’s sentencing, Justice Mander makes a similar consideration: “In order to kill as many people as you could, you obtained and used a number of powerful firearms that were able to deliver high rates of fire. These included two AR-15 .223 calibre military style semi-automatic rifles.” Tarrant owned several other firearms, including other rifles, but chose the AR-15 platform for his attack. This suggests a deliberate choice to use that firearm over others in pursuit of his goals, not merely a matter of convenience. Since his attack, Tarrant has become a cultural script to be emulated by subsequent attackers. Not only did Gendron use the AR-15 platform because it was the firearm style Tarrant used, but he paid further homage to Tarrant by adorning his rifle using the same white lettering motif.
Image 1. Gendron’s firearm on left and Tarrant’s on right; both featuring white letters invoking ideological symbols justifying their attacks.
Other firearms, such as handguns and shotguns, have been used within the broader landscape of militant accelerationism. This is due to a combination of access restrictions, target-specific considerations, and different aesthetic goals for their attack. For example, in Solomon Henderson’s diary, he contemplates various preparations for his 2024 school shooting. He considers knives and bombs before settling on a firearm, writing “I’ll wait and hold my tongue and prepare with my guns.” Henderson ultimately carried out his attack with a handgun, but laments his lack of access to more powerful and symbolic weapons: “This will be rushed but an actual gun will be involved. The original plan was going to be like Saint Gendron but posted a Soyjak.party with AR-15, Glock with switch, Maverick 88 shotgun. While Livestream with a gopro attacking a high school.” These passages highlight both the importance of firearms and of continuity among militant accelerationist attackers.
Affecting Legislation
Beyond their pragmatic lethality, militant accelerationists value firearms as key tools for exercising extralegal and paramilitary influence over the American legislative process. Influence over legislation is viewed as a critical goal, despite total antipathy towards governmental politics. Unlike political movements which seek to impose their vision of positive legislative change, militant accelerationists seek the passage of undesirable legislation in order to cultivate further distrust in the political process and thus raise the likelihood of future violence. The primary legislative target of this strategy is American gun rights. By using firearms–especially controversial “assault weapons” like the AR-15–these attackers collectively hope to provoke the United States into passing gun control measures capable of inciting heavily-armed Second Amendment supporters to engage in organized, militant retaliation.
The desire to exploit American partisanship over gun control has been laid most bare by Tarrant, who explained at length his belief that shootings could provoke legislation capable of escalating existing tensions into an all-out war:
“I chose firearms for the affect [sic.] it would have on social discourse, the extra media coverage they would provide and the affect it could have on the politics of United states and thereby the political situation of the world. The US is torn into many factions by its second amendment, along state, social, cultural and, most importantly, racial lines. With enough pressure the left wing within the United states will seek to abolish the second amendment, and the right wing within the US will see this as an attack on their very freedom and liberty. This attempted abolishment of rights by the left will result in a dramatic polarization of the people in the United States and eventually a fracturing of the US along cultural and racial lines”
Strategically expanding on the reputation of firearms as a classic tool of terrorism adds a metapolitical component to militant accelerationist terror that began with Tarrant and spread to his ardent followers. A rabid consumer of Tarrant’s manifesto and the militant accelerationist ecosystem that sprang up around Tarrant’s legacy, Gendron echoes this rationale, choosing the XM-15 in part for “[t]he effect it would have on social discourse, the extra media coverage they would provide, and the changes to gun laws that will be pushed will all help my case.” As with Tarrant, Gendron viewed firearms as a means to turn the American people against each other and their government.
Terror and Total War
In addition to lethality and metapolitical efficacy, weapon choice is a crucial element in cultivating the signature militant accelerationist aesthetic of “terror.” This aesthetic serves several messaging goals including inciting future attackers and heightening fear among the public. This strategic approach to the communicative aspect of violence was gamified in Arda K’s 2024 manifesto, which featured a points system for assigning value to weapons and accessories; higher-scoring items were those with high lethality that also possessed cultural significance (e.g. AR-style rifles) or were particularly intimate and brutal means of attack (e.g. axes).
The accelerationist terror network, the Terrorgram Collective, has been a prolific distributor of fear-based propaganda involving firearms. Firearms comprise the visual and topical forefront in many Terrorgram Publications. Through both text and visuals, demonstrating the strategic blending of visual representation of firearms (in this case an AR-15) and an emotive narrative structure that will spur their target audience to action of their target audience taking action (see Image 2 below).
Image 2. An entry in the Terrorgram Collective zine, The Hard Reset, titled “Inaction is a choice.”
Firearms, also commonly depicted in the arms of sanctified past shooters, contribute to the glorification of previous attackers in service of inspiring future violence with the promise of martyrdom and a place within the militant accelerationist Sainthood. Images of Saints range from haloed images of past attackers holding their corresponding weapons to dark likenesses wearing the iconic skull mask and fading into a black background. Attackers adopt elements from previous Saints not only to pay homage, but importantly to declare their place in relation to their corresponding subculture. Unlike terrorists who attack under a clear organizational banner, this ingroup-focused method of attribution allows militant accelerationists to encourage future attackers without publicizing the extent of the relationship between adherents.
In addition to the ingroup message of incitement, firearms are used symbolically to heighten fear among the public. Their accessibility and ease of use lends to the notion that anyone, anywhere, can be a mass shooter. The range of firearm styles makes them adaptable to a wide variety of targets in service of minimizing attribution by avoiding obvious patterns. By demonstrating the ease with which someone can cause mass death in any number of public places, militant accelerationist attackers seek to erode trust in civic institutions by making violence feel omnipresent. Rifles, which can be more aesthetically striking, have been used in several of the most lethal militant accelerationist attacks and are more commonly depicted in their propaganda. Handguns, however, stoke their own fears over prevention and enforcement due to their portability and concealability. For example, recent school shooter Solomon Henderson was able to thwart Antioch High School’s AI firearm detection system by using a handgun.
Inconspicuous Community-Building
For a radicalized individual or network intending a high body count, firearms and the AR-15 platform specifically hold clear and undeniable value for delivering on that bloody goal. But there is also an additional social and ideological consideration when examining the centrality of the firearm in militant accelerationism: not only do they occupy a central place externally in the visualization of the Collective’s terroristic campaign, but they are also a frequent topic of internal conversation in their digital communities.
Like other extremist movements and social milieus, firearms are an extension of a militant identity which echoes a Hobbesian notion of personal weapons as being the only recourse in a humanity perpetually on the brink of total war. Tarrant referenced himself as “a lawful, uniformed combatant” in an unacknowledged war “against an occupying force.” The centrality of firearms in Tarrant’s legacy artifacts (like the Great Replacement manifesto and recordings of his livestreamed attack) exemplifies their importance in influencing ordinary citizens to militarize and wage warfare in the name of racial purity and other ends. Attackers’ continued use of AR-15 style rifles and military kit allow a community that thrives on staying unnoticed to simultaneously depict themselves as fellow combatants in a war they hope to bring full-scale to facilitate social collapse.
The Impact of Accelerationist Uptake of Firearms
Firearms have dramatically expanded the potential for high-impact militant accelerationist attacks. Anyone with access to a firearm and Terrorgram Collective materials has the necessary resources to become a significant terror threat. Firearms additionally serve as part of a subcultural shorthand that communicates a multitude of political goals and emotions that can vary according to their audience. By adopting simple and available symbolic elements, such as white lettering on rifles, an attacker can place themselves within the militant accelerationist Sainthood, contribute to future propaganda, and inspire additional attacks. The consolidation of firearms’ lethal, political, and symbolic values to accomplish a litany of goals has greatly expanded the threat of terroristic behaviors within digital communities that touch upon or intersect with militant accelerationism, and militant accelerationism has, in turn, uniquely amplified the symbolic utility that firearms add to their physical lethality.
