Sixty percent (60%) of likely voters nationwide say last week's shootings at Fort Hood should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% want the incident investigated by civilian authorities as a criminal act. Another 13% are not sure.

Those following the story Very Closely are even more likely to want the shooting investigated as an act of terrorism.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of all voters say Major Nidal Malik Hasan should receive the death penalty if convicted. Nineteen percent (19%) disagree, and 16% aren't sure.

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Seventy-six percent (76%) believe the army should remove from duty all officers like Hasan who attempt to contact radical terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda. Only seven percent (7%) disagree. This general view was articulated by Senator Joseph Lieberman, who said, "If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have a zero tolerance."

"There were definitely clear indications that Hasan's loyalties were not with America," Lt. Col. Val Finnell, a classmate of Hasan's for two years at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., said in news reports.

While voters overwhelmingly support the idea of removing a soldier who has attempted to contact terror groups, 57% also are at least somewhat concerned that the incident at Fort Hood will prompt a backlash against Muslims serving in the military. Twenty-three percent (23%) are very concerned. Forty percent (40%) are not very or not at all concerned about such a backlash.

Interest in the story is high with 47% of voters following it Very Closely and another 36% following it Somewhat Closely.

Not surprisingly, there are significant partisan differences in response to the shooting. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party overwhelmingly believe that Hasan’s shooting spree should be investigated as an act of terrorism. Democrats are evenly divided as to whether the murders should be handled as a terrorist act or a criminal act.

By a 48% to 33% margin, liberals want the matter investigated as a criminal act. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of conservatives favor investigating the Fort Hood shootings as a terrorist act.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Democrats are at least somewhat concerned that the shooting will prompt a backlash against Muslims in the military. Roughly half of Republican and unaffiliated voters share that concern.

As on many issues, there is a wide gap between the Political Class and Mainstream Americans. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Mainstream Americans want the shooting investigated as a terrorist act while 51% of the Political Class want civilian authorities to handle it as a criminal investigation.

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