On December 25, 2020, Anthony Quinn Warner detonated a recreational vehicle (RV) bomb in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States, killing himself, injuring eight people and damaging dozens of buildings in the surrounding area.

[1][9] The explosion was caused by a car bomb carried in a Thor Motor Coach Chateau RV that had been parked at 1:22 am on December 25, 2020, outside an AT&T network facility on Second Avenue North in downtown Nashville.

[10][11] Four to five hours after the RV arrived, people nearby were awakened by the sound of rapid gunfire in at least three bursts, followed by a computerized female voice broadcasting over a public address system: "All buildings in this area must be evacuated now.

[26] Cellular, wireline telephone, internet, and U-verse television services were affected, as were multiple local 9-1-1 and non-emergency phone networks in the region, along with Nashville's COVID-19 community hotline and some hospital systems.

[29] The Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center experienced communication issues, leading the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground flights from Nashville International Airport for about an hour.

[46] Authorities concluded that 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner (January 17, 1957 – December 25, 2020), a longtime resident of Nashville,[47][48][49] was the bomber, that his remains were found in the wreckage, and that there was no indication anyone else was involved.

[51] Anthony Warner worked in a series of information technology jobs,[42] including as an independent computer technician contracted with a real estate firm, and he had also owned a company licensed to produce burglar alarms from 1993 to 1998.

[40] In the weeks leading up to the bombing, Warner quit his job, gave away his car, and executed a quitclaim deed transferring his Nashville duplex home to a Los Angeles woman for $0.

[68] One of the recipients of the letter provided a copy to Nashville's WTVF NewsChannel 5, but the outlet decided not to publish it in full, to avoid giving Warner 'unnecessary notoriety'.

[2] The Nashville Fire Department evacuated the downtown riverfront,[69][70] and Mayor Cooper issued a curfew for the affected area, which was lifted by December 28.

[1] The FAA issued a notice declaring a circular area with a radius of 1 nautical mile (1.15 mi; 1.85 km), centered around the site of the bombing, as "National Defense Airspace", effective that afternoon and lasting for five days.

[71] The bombing adversely affected many small business owners operating in the area, who were already dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and the aftermath of a tornado that passed through the city in March 2020.

[73] Former national security prosecutor Alex Little and Nashville city councilor Bob Mendes said the bombing fit the definition of domestic terrorism.

Federal investigators avoided using the term in the days following the bombing, with Special Agent in Charge Doug Korneski saying they had not yet established whether Warner had used violence to promote political or social beliefs.

[74] Addressing the terrorism classification debate, a USA Today December 2020 op-ed by Max Abrahms and Joseph Mroszczyk stated that the bombing exhibited an unprecedented combination of features, each of which could be found in different modern attacks labeled as "terrorist": the intentional minimization of casualties as exhibited by "left-wing groups... targeting... property instead of humans", the perpetrator's suicide as a method "uncommonly employed... by those like Warner who are trying to minimize human suffering", no clear motive or manifesto, and the use of a car bomb as seen in Islamic terrorist attacks.

[75] National security expert Dr. Erroll Southers told local news outlet WKRN-TV he saw similarities to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, given how Warner warned the public about the bomb and allowed the area to be evacuated before detonation.

[76] On the same day as the bombing, police in Cincinnati, Ohio, shut down streets downtown for a few hours while investigating an RV that appeared to have its engine running outside of a federal building, citing the Nashville incident as a reason for the high level of caution.

[77][78] On December 27, a section of U.S. Highway 231 in nearby Wilson County, Tennessee, was shut down because a box truck was playing audio "similar to what was heard" before the bombing.

[87] Some affected businesses, such as the Coyote Ugly Saloon remained temporarily closed for extended periods, while others were forced to relocate out of their 2nd Ave venues.