Mass shootings may be predictable and preventable

[Goshin]

This BBC article points out studies suggesting that potential mass shooters tend to exhibit specific warning signs, and that various forms of intervention could possibly prevent many such incidents.
While the pretense that this is a US phenomenon (rather than happening everywhere) remains, it is otherwise a very good article.



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62683094

 

[dmpi]

Just like the stock market crash or the housing bubble bust. After the fact it's always obvious.

 

[BirdinHand]

A "switch" clicked in his brain, said the sister of a gunman studied by the project. "What is wrong with me?" became "What is wrong with them?"
The reason gunmen are almost exclusively male, Mr Densley added, is likely due to the fact that men are more prone to externalise their feelings, and take out their anger on others.
"It's a way of saying, 'Hey, look, world, this is what you made me do,'" he said.
Mr Densley said one could look at mass shootings as organised "deaths of despair", a term sociologists often use to describe suicides and overdoses. All three have been on the rise over the past 20 years.

"There's a goldfish bowl effect where if you have a bunch of people online, and they're not doing well, they will reinforce all the worst things about their behaviour," said Dale Beran, a writer who specialises in reporting on the darker corners of the internet.

In hindsight, people often describe perpetrators of mass violence as "ghosts" - they went to school, attended classes, but they had no connections to anyone, no meaningful relationships with the larger community.

"We see so many people that are struggling with loneliness and hopelessness, feelings of helplessness… maybe we just need to extend the hand."

I think these are all relatively well known "warning signs". The problem seems to be how to handle them in a way that prevents the outcome of murder. No one has a complete answer to that yet and it is something that society has been struggling with for decades.

 

[AmNat]

This BBC article points out studies suggesting that potential mass shooters tend to exhibit specific warning signs, and that various forms of intervention could possibly prevent many such incidents.
While the pretense that this is a US phenomenon (rather than happening everywhere) remains, it is otherwise a very good article.

View attachment 67415217

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62683094

Human behavior is not individually predictable in any useful sense. The great majority of people who go through crises or become "agitated" do not commit murder.

While the pretense that this is a US phenomenon (rather than happening everywhere) remains, it is otherwise a very good article.

If you mix a cup of water with a teaspoon of sewage, is the resulting admixture water, or sewage?

 

[Chillfolks]

The article uses a lot of words to say hindsight is 20/20. When you have all the pieces and know the result it’s easy to make them fit together how you want.

My old man yelling at the sky moment is we have at least one, more than likely two or more generations who consider the ”likes” and “views“ of anonymous people in cyberspace to be as important if not more so than those of people that have an actual relationship with the individual. It took my niece about a decade and she was in her mid 20’s when she finally started to understand some random stranger’s opinion online is not something to upset yourself over.

 

[The Old Soul]

The 'warning signs' sound like the mindset of about 1/4 of the population. The only way to prevent mass shootings is when the 80/67/44 is present, make sure guns and ammo are not.

 

[uptower]