It took about two days for the FBI to announce it was investigating the Dec. 2 attack that killed 14 in San Bernardino, California, as an act of terror.
Nearly five months after the killing of five military personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, authorities have carefully avoided using the same wording about the attack by a Kuwaiti-born gunman.
As a practical matter, labeling Chattanooga a terror attack would make its victims eligible for the Purple Heart, which if awarded would entitle their survivors to additional payments and benefits.
There’s also a key difference between Chattanooga and San Bernardino in terms of how publicly authorities have announced investigative details and drawn conclusions, said former federal prosecutor David S. Weinstein: the ramped-up visibility of terrorism after the deadly attacks in Paris blamed on adherents to the Islamic State extremist group.
“What has changed is U.S. and world perception about terrorists and how the U.S. is combating terrorism,” he said. “That national pulse about terrorism is high.”