We see it in the news daily, that awful word TERRORISM, but when does an act of violence or selfishness suddenly become an act of terrorism?

There are times, for example this weeks tragic event in Nice, when the ‘terrorist groups’ claim responsibility for the act of terror, yes, to me this is when we can start calling it terrorism, when a group who associate themselves with that word, claim responsibility.

I thought terrorism was a crime used to accomplish an aim, whether it be political, idealogical or even religious.

What about Nice relates to any of those things?

The recent Orlando nightclub shooting to me, lies somewhere on the line. The shooter, an american man, went into an LGBT nightclub and opened fire, originally labeled a hate crime until someone reported they heard the shooter pledging his allegiance to ISIL. From that moment forth, the shooting has been labelled an “act of terrorism”

But, what about all of the other crazy things that people do all over the world every day?

The word terrorism is a tricky one, says Robin Lakoff, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley. That’s because, she says, “terrorism itself, whatever that is” lives in a place between crime and war.