When defining 'terrorism' matters

Apr. 22, 2013, 4:23 PM EDT

By Collier Meyerson

On Monday, the Justice Department announced that the suspect in the Boston Marathon Bombings, Dhzokhar Tsarnaev, was charged with conspiring to use a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

Last Wednesday, Chris Hayes asked FBI veteran, Donald Borelli, how the FBI determines when a crime is terrorism. How, Chris inquired, do we distinguish between a crime like the one committed at Sandy Hook Elementary and the Boston Marathon Bombings?

Borelli responds: “…the reason, i think, why it was easy for people to come out early and say it’s terrorism, you had a Weapon of Mass Destruction that was used to kill people.” The distinction, according to Borelli, is that the pressure cooker bomb used in the Boston Marathon Bombings is considered a WMD.