Dallas attack on ICE the latest in trend of assailants engraving bullets, weapons with 'messages'

Wednesday’s attack on a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility marked the latest in a string of shootings in which the gunmen marked their bullet casings and/or weapons with left-wing political or social messages.

The Wednesday incident saw a sniper open fire on the facility, inflicting fatal injuries on one detainee and injuring several others. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound as authorities surrounded him. Authorities subsequently confirmed that the shooter engraved the words “anti-ICE” on unspent rounds of ammunition. FBI Director Kash Patel subsequently posted an image of the recovered rounds.

“While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an idealogical [sic] motive behind this attack (see photo below),” Patel wrote. “One of the unspent shell casings recovered was engraved with the phrase ‘ANTI ICE.’ More updates will be forthcoming.”

“These despicable, politically motivated attacks against law enforcement are not a one-off,” he added. “We are only miles from Prarieland, Texas where, just two months ago, an individual ambushed a separate ICE facility targeting their officers.”

Turning political dialogue into violence

Patel’s statement was correct in more ways than one. The engraving of political messaging on bullet casings has become a common practice for ideologically motivated shooters in recent months. Speaking on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast this week, Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles outlined what he saw as similarities between communist insurgents sowing disorder to start a revolution and the ongoing wave of left-wing violence.

“What you see is, this is an overt and covert effort to turn political dialogue into violence, and to talk about words being violence, and therefore violence as violence is somehow justified,” he said. “That the other thing I say is that the fact that they've directed at law enforcement really means they have directed it at the forces in our society that intend to keep order. So what are they advancing? They are advancing the whole concept of disorder. They want chaos. And that's the way, that's the way communist revolutions begin.”

The attack on ICE in Dallas

The Wednesday shooting saw no law enforcement officials injured. The gunmen instead managed to kill one detainee and injure several others. Multiple outlets have identified the shooter as Joshua Jahn, 29. The “anti-ICE” message found on one of the recovered bullet casings led some reporters and political figures to highlight what they perceived to be an apparent trend.

“So everyone is just engraving bullets before murders now?” Rift TV host Elijah Shaffer responded to Patel. “That’s the new thing? Feels like it started happening 2 years ago. Now every high profile shooting has little messages on the casings.”

“ANTIFA has made Bullet Casing Manifestos the new trend of 2025,” posted controversial MAGA influencer Laura Loomer.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, meanwhile, linked the recent strike of attacks on law enforcement to left-wing rhetoric likening ICE to various Nazi organizations. Failed vice-presidential candidate and current Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz referred to ICE as "Trump's modern-day Gestapo."

“These horrendous killings must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences. Comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences,” she said. 

“The men and women of ICE are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, we just want to go home to our families at night.”

Charlie Kirk's murder

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated earlier this month during an open-air event at Utah Valley University. The accused shooter, Tyler Robinson, engraved a number of messages on his bullet casings, including apparent references to the game "Helldivers," comments telling a “fascist” to “catch,” and a joke about his personal preference for transsexuals.

Kirk’s murder saw a number of high-profile figures on the left frantically deny that he had a political motive or insist on a bizarre theory that Robinson was actually a right-wing figure aligned with Groyper leader Nick Fuentes, pointing to Robinson's upbringing in a Trump-supporting household as "evidence."

Despite voluminous evidence of Robinson’s left-wing leanings, including testimony from Robinson’s transgender live-in romantic partner, text messages between them, and the testimony of his family, public opinion polling saw a substantial portion of the public express belief that he was a Republican.

Annunciation Catholic School: "Kill Donald Trump" written on rifle

The late August shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School saw the gunman open fire on students attending mass and discharge 116 rifle rounds during the rampage. The suspect was identified as Robin Westman, a transgender individual born as Robert Westman.

In Westman’s case, many political messages were scrawled on the magazines and the rifle itself, including the words “kill Donald Trump.” Many of Westman’s writings were written on the rifle itself and the magazines rather than the bullet casings.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.