Homegrown terrorists are still the deadliest threat to Americans

A man and his son visit a memorial for the shooting victims in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Brent Lewis/The Denver Post/Getty Images)

Throughout all the rhetoric and fear-mongering about accepting refugees into the United States, Thanksgiving weekend featured another mass shooting with a familiar face — a white man.

Robert L Dear opened fire inside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs last week killing three people and injuring nine others. His past alleged violence against his former wife and former plots to attack the women's rights clinic have surfaced in the days following the attack, the New York Times reports.

Still, media and politicians were hestitant to call his planned attack on Planned Parenthood an act of terrorism.

Despite mainstream media coverage and Republican party talking points, homegrown extremists have killed more Americans than jihadists since the September 11 attacks.

Forty-eight people have been killed by non-Muslim right-wing terrorists while 31 people have been killed at the hands of self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a recent report by New America, a Washington research firm.

Since 2001, 10 refugees have been arrested on terrorism charges in America while 320 citizens were arrested on the same charges, the study shows.