However, there’s a problem with this statistic, fright fans. Fear doesn’t make anything so—no matter how widespread that fear is. The expectation of violent acts and the possibility of violent acts are two different things.

Think about it this way: You can poll a thousand first graders and ask them if a boogey man lives under their beds, ready to grab their feet as soon as they touch the floor. Many will tell you yes—maybe even 53 percent—but that won’t make being grabbed by the boogey man any more of a reality.

Without an act of violence attributed to a native Hawaiian sovereignty group, the statistic is much ado about nothing. That said, the same can’t be said of the study itself. It should concern those in the sovereignty movement.