Common Characteristics Of Public Mass Shooters

Like any math equation, to be able to find a solution, we must first understand the problem. We must use this same concept into this public health issue. Research and reports are beginning to provide patterns for understanding the individual’s motive to kill and the characteristics of the different schools where shootings occur (Wike and Fraser 2009). According to Wike and Fraser, making sense of the senseless, holds the key for designing prevention programs. An individual’s drive to commit such crimes can extend from factors such as bullying, their mental health, their environment, and lack of support.

They vary so much that professionals have given up on the idea that they can predict who will become a school shooter. [SOURCE] While there is no way to categorize and profile a school shooter, there are many similar motives: 24% crave attention or recognition, 27% are suicidal, 34% see it as a solution for their problems, 54% had multiple motives, 61% are motivated by revenge, 75% felt bullied or threatened by others. [SOURCE] Most of these kids are often victims of being ostracized by their peers, and they tend to suffer from some degree of social marginalization. Their social lives are chaotic due to the fact that they don't get along easily with others, but they’re not loners. They tend to be people who try to socialize with others and join groups but get rejected — their social experience is one of being rejected and excluded rather than isolating themselves. This pattern is mostly displayed throughout “modern” shootings that have happened after the Columbine High School shooting in

Emotional wellness issues have been frequently shown another big cause of these shootings. Most school shooters were mentally sick or demonstrated side effects of psychological wellness issues. An opportunity for mental and psychiatric help could help stop these shootings. According to newyorker.com, ¨, from 2011 and 2013, more people believe that mass shootings result from a failure of the mental-health system than from easy access to guns. Eighty per cent of the population believes that mental illness is at least partially to

One of the many misuses of firearms are the mass shootings that seems to becoming a normal tragedy in the United States schools. Mass shootings that occur usually have a motive or some kind of emotional tie to why these types of murderous actions took place. Phillip Cook and Kristin Goss explains emotional ties of the killers and what drives them to murder:

Research in school shootings have been administered in many categories, including sociology, psychology, and etc. past studies, and direct later studies in school shootings, offers a sociology stand point for understanding the differences of school shooting incidents, including rampage shootings, mass murders shootings, and examining the mass media dynamic of school shootings; as well as presenting a combination of causes said in the research, including those on the individual, community, and social levels. Suggestions for studies in the future in school shootings are still yet to be explored.

The proposal to the problem focus on mass shootings specifically, not gun violence in general, although the potential solutions to mass shootings would do much to prevent gun violence as a whole. Mass shootings represent a mere 2% of gun-related deaths, yet the sheer horror, shock, and scale of carnage tend to capture the public’s attention so much more so than the typical shooting homicide or suicide, which are seemingly ubiquitous in news reports these days. The big issue with solving the problem of mass shootings is the variety of factors involved with the shooters’ motivations to kill.

So how could someone commit a mass shooting? Many psychologists have given their own thoughts as to why someone would fulfil such a deadly personal mission. For the most part, it would appear that many school shooters do what they do for their moment in the spotlight. In this day and age of modern technology, there's no doubt the killer's face will soon be on everybody's social media feeds and on the front of newspapers all over the globe. Others, however, may commit a mass shooting to make themselves seem powerful. This is common when the shooter has been a victim of bullying or abuse, as being the one with control over everybody else gives them a certain rush of adrenaline and feeling of dominance they may have never had had before.

Has the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill led to the increase of mass shootings experienced in the US? According to Lankford, several reports suggest that up to 60% of offenders of mass shootings in the US since 1970, exhibited symptoms including depression, delusions, and acute paranoia prior to the commission of their crimes. Further statistics have shown that since 1982, there have been at least 71 public mass shooting across the country; with 34 of these mass shooting having occurred since 2006. A recent analysis of the database by researchers at Harvard University corroborated by a recent FBI study concluded that mass shootings have been on the rise. More than half of the cases involve school or workplace shootings, 12 and 20

Most of the recent shootings seem to be contagious as their shooters’ plans and motives are almost all quite alike. These shooters have set a “stereotypical shooter” profile. They are typically male, white, and around the age of 20. Of all the mass shootings, only one was done by a woman (Mass Shootings in the U.S.). They are usually quite smart, part of a middle class family, and are normally quiet, lonely, and introverted. They are almost always socially awkward and have few-no friends. Yet, no one expects them to kill others as they are quiet. These shooters keep everything to themselves which may be one of the reasons why they are full of hatred. Often, they consider suicide, yet they refuse to talk to any sort of counselor. They are almost always constantly on a computer, frequently playing violent video games. Their shooting plan is almost always pre-meditated far in advance. They plan to make their shooting “great” and to ‘gain fame’ for their mass shooting. After the shooting, most commonly, they kill themselves.

Furthermore it states that humans, being conformists readily buy into these notions. However, access to the means for achieving these goals is not equally available to everyone. Some have the education, social network and family influence to attain these goals. The socially and economically disadvantaged do not have the opportunity, education or necessary social network for attaining material wealth and economic or political power. Thus the strain theory predicts that crime occurs when there is a perceived discrepancy between these goals and the legitimate means for reaching them. Individuals who experience a high level of this strain are forced to decide whether to violate laws to achieve these goals, to give up on the goals pushed upon them by society, or to withdraw or rebel.

Rampage-style school shootings are rare and tragic events. Although measures of prevention have become more advanced, school shootings have increased in frequency over the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Here in the United States, they have become especially prevalent, with 63 shootings just this year (Acevedo). The aftermath of rampage shootings leaves gaping holes and questions in communities. People try to heal and seek closure at their own pace, but the biggest question most are left with is “why”? In Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, Katherine S. Newman seeks to answer this question. She lays out her research and methodology for studying rampage shootings and comes to the conclusion that shootings are not spontaneous, but rather the build up of psychological issues and negative sociological situations within a student’s community that causes them to seek to regain power over their own lives through a rampage shooting. The story Rampage builds out of the narratives of shooters and their victims along with national data and trends is important because it highlights the places that our societies fail in providing a safety net for deviant students and their peers.

A current most spoken issue among the public media is gun violence or mass shooting however the crime is not as many as it was twenty years ago. The term mass shooting does not have an official set of definition yet, but the term indicates crime which is killing as many people as possible in a short time frame. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines it as “actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” (Sam Brock, Rachel Witte, and Joe Rojas). A mass shooting can begin due to several reasons: it could be background history, media, despair, or something else. Nico Lang, the author of America’s White Masculinity Complex and The Myth of The “Senseless” Mass Shooting says, mass shooting can also be related to mental “functions like the specter of ‘mental illness.’” A number of mass shooters have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. Are the mass media addressing the basic issue clearly? Of course, the media address the issue more than the violence expects to be addressed, but it is not overt enough. ….. By examining a variety of news media coverage on the subject of mass shooting, this essay concludes that when choosing stories to cover, the news media must take the general audience into consideration. Ultimately, what is at stake here is the media exaggerate the crime and report it disproportionally, and the distortion of reality can have variety of effects on the viewer or the general audience.

There is an assumption that if you understand the minds of serial killers, or persons who commit mass shootings, that it may help prevent mass shootings. “Mass shootings are not on the rise, but have held steady over three decades, randomly clustering in time to trick our brains into finding a pattern of increase where none actually exists” (Shermer 3). Mass shootings happen at varying times without rhyme or reason. Some think that a psychological disorder or some genetic defect could be the reason people commit these crimes. Although we cannot prevent mass shootings, we can educate on how mental health issues can be a precursor to such a tragedy, and how better laws can create a safer environment.

It is without a doubt that there has been an increase in violent crimes in schools throughout recent years. School shootings continue to become more and more common, especially in North America. Safety concerns for any and all students and staff in schools are at all all time high due to the high number of fatal and non-fatal occurring incidences. Since 2013 to the present, it is estimated that the United States has seen approximately 205 school shootings. Weekly, that is a shocking one shooting on average. Many of these shootings have resulted in the injuries and deaths of multiple of students and staff members. (Everytown Research, 2017) Evidently, school shootings are tragic events that affect so many more people than just the victims. However, these events are also interesting to look at from the psychological and sociological point of views. Through much research, it can be concluded that school shootings are a complex problem that are caused by a mix of improper brain development and societal and media influences which motivate school shooters to emerge. Psychological factors may include struggling with mental illnesses and/or abuse that leads to damaged brain development. Additionally, being bullied and/or the role of the media are examples of sociological factors.

This paper examines the act of mass murder. If society can find a valid answer as to what causes a person to commit mass murders, then the possibility of preventing the act would be great because it would be probable to recognize the psychotic behavior that is associated with mass murder. Occurrences of mass murder for instance the shootings at Sandy Hook, Aurora Colorado theatre; Columbine and Virginia Tech over and over again dominate much of society's attention not only for weeks but often for months following the incident. The research question I have selected is: ‘What are the sociological and psychological causes for unforeseen criminal actions of Mass