Incensed To Kill 0
Richard Lettieri, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, takes a look at what research to date tells about mass. He notes that the recent shooting in Maine “mass shooting of 2023, a year that has witnessed 565 such massacres as of this writing. That’s almost two such calamities per day.”
He goes on to look at qualities mass shooters tend to have in common and identifies six; follow the link for a detailed discussion of each one.
- The majority of random mass murderers are white men (emphasis in the original–ed.), middle-aged or younger.
- They have histories of mental health problems.
- Chronic cynicism and brooding distrust are why mass murderers tend to be loners.
- Ninety percent of future mass murderers had prior contact with the law.
- The revenge motive is another animating force behind random mass murder.
- They typically have a history of difficulty maintaining employment, and are frequently out of work at the time of the killings.
In my view, though, he failed to address perhaps the most significant characteristic, though, granted, it’s not a psychological one: the ready availability of weapons of war at your local store.
