Americans in the twenty-first century have experienced a resurgence of public political violence: collective protests, civil disorders, mass demonstrations against the state (many induced by police killings), attempted assassinations and white supremacy murders. The January 6th 2021 storming of Congress and the attempted murder of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on July 13, 2024 stand out in public awareness of political violence. This chapter analyses political violence in American politics around three claims. First, the constitutional lack of a complete federal monopoly on the use of legitimate force reflects a tradition of protest valued in the political culture, which results on occasion in violent protest. Second, acts of political violence are more commonly orchestrated by the right than the left—for example in hate speech and white supremacist acts; this tendency is exacerbated by the rise of affective polarization and the persistence of systemic racism in criminal justice. Last, the impact of political violence is difficult to measure but public opinion survey results reveal an increased openness amongst both Republican and Democrat voters to the legitimacy of defending values with force.