Is the distinction between a terrorist act and an active shooter scenario an irrelevant distinction? I asked this question to a group of graduate students at John Jay College last week during a presentation that I was giving about violence prevention in the public sector. All but one student raised their hands to say that the Boston bombers were terrorists, while none raised their hands, indicating that they thought they were active shooters. One student raised his hand saying that it didn’t matter. My guess is that many people would respond in a similar fashion. Would your answer be different though if the Boston bombers chose to use a different weapon in their attack instead of using IEDs?