The United States faces “a more dangerous period” from domestic extremists today than it did when the Oklahoma City bombing occurred in 1995.

That was Judge Merrick B. Garland’s assessment when he testified today at the hearing   on his nomination for Attorney General.

What should we do in Maryland in response to this threat?

Senator Shelly Hettleman and I have introduced legislation to create a task force to study and make recommendations regarding policies and procedures for preventing and countering domestic terrorism.

Can we have advance knowledge of illegal and deadly acts without stepping on legitimate protest?

Are ideologically motivated hate crimes and domestic terrorism overlapping phenomena that need to be addressed in that context?

Those are some of the questions that we need to deal with as we confront this threat to our democracy.