Facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
We need to stop seeing this as a gun crisis, because it isn't. It is a mental health crisis. Bombing federal buildings and shooting up shopping malls is the sign of a serious lack of ability for society to recognize and help the mentally ill. While prior experience with weapons is a common thread among the perpetrators of these tragedies, there are usually clear signs of mental illness tied with each.
Here are the key findings of a Secret Service study performed after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999:
- Incidents of targeted violence at school were rarely sudden, impulsive acts.
- Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker's idea and/or plan to attack.
- Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing the attack.
- There is no accurate or useful profile of students who engaged in targeted school violence.
- Most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.
- Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Moreover, many had considered or attempted suicide.
- Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack.
- Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.
- In many cases, other students were involved in some capacity.
- Despite prompt law enforcement responses, most shooting incidents were stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention.
This week's incidents (I also refer to the shootings near my home town in Clackamas, Oregon on Tuesday) are a wake-up call: be on the lookout for these signals, and make sure these people get the help they need. This may involve a re-examination of current laws on the books that prevent the involuntary committing of the mentally ill. This may require a serious effort to allocate resources to mental health facilities and faculty. And yes, this may mean denying access to weapons until a psychological examination is performed.
Also note the gender gap in rampage killers generally, and school rampage killers specifically. [ibid] Perhaps all males should be locked up until their obvious psychological faults, which contribute to this tendency, can be dealt with.
The problem with increasing sensitivity to mental health issues is the vagueness of some of the "warning signs". Should society punish students for playing cowboys and indians on the playground, miming gunplay, drawing or writing about scenes involving killing? Lots of adolescents who exhibit the same "warning signs" (though not going so far as to plan an attack or execute it) as school rampage killers turn out just fine without intervention. What level of interference and "reeducation" of marginalized and/or antisocial students should be tolerated in the name of catching the small minority who go on to commit these heinous acts?
The U.S. already has some gun control laws, but the data presented here suggests they don't go far enough. However, gun control laws are always going to come down to how much people value their freedom to versus their freedom from.