Mass Shootings: The Elephant in the Room

America desperately needs to have a conversation, and it’s very different than the one we have been having when reflecting on mass murders.

Despite the hysteria that these events cause, there is no significant upwards trend. These crimes have been a part of the public sphere in the U.S. since the country’s inception.  While most studies reflect the better-recorded data in the latter half of the 20th century, mass killings were just as prevalent in the 1920s and 30s, although the use of a firearm was less common.

Sometime in the last few decades, Americans have lost to ability to think rationally about mass killings.  We are collectively trying to blame some other factor besides the individuals themselves.  However, access to guns has never been cited as a reason for a mass shooting and mass killings share no correlation in ideology.  No one political party, no one race or ethnicity, no one religion, etc. is a constant factor, but there are specific commonalities between mass shooters that are never widely discussed over the calls for gun control and party reform.

There are five stages that culminate in a perfect storm that leads to individuals committing these massacres (also known as the Levin & Madfis model).  This is gravely important for our society to know, as identifying these factors can lead to prevention of these atrocities.

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Mass Shootings: The Elephant in the Room