A terrorist by any other name?

My obsession over the past few days has been the reaction to the Tucson Assassination and Terror attacks. I am reading and listening as much as I can. At this time there is too much emotion and sentiment to put everything into a nice little box. Here is just one of the many thoughts that have crossed my mind. Should this attack be referred to as a terrorist attack. How many times since 9/11 have we been warned about the potential of a terrorist running into a mall with an automatic weapon and opening fire. If the main goal of a terrorist is to cause terror was this suspect successful. Below is a quote that I came across in my reading.



Rasmussen Reports

Tierney, who described the alleged shooter as nonideological, thinks his friend's motive was "mainly to just promote chaos. He wanted the media to freak out about this whole thing."