https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-04/el-paso-dayton-gilroy-mass-shooters-data

From a National Institute of Justice Study. Doesn't make this an easy thing to prevent but gives us a place to start.

"First, the vast majority of mass shooters in our study experienced early childhood trauma and exposure to violence at a young age. The nature of their exposure included parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and/or severe bullying. The trauma was often a precursor to mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, thought disorders or suicidality.

Second, practically every mass shooter we studied had reached an identifiable crisis point in the weeks or months leading up to the shooting. They often had become angry and despondent because of a specific grievance. For workplace shooters, a change in job status was frequently the trigger. For shooters in other contexts, relationship rejection or loss often played a role. Such crises were, in many cases, communicated to others through a marked change in behavior, an expression of suicidal thoughts or plans, or specific threats of violence.

Third, most of the shooters had studied the actions of other shooters and sought validation for their motives. People in crisis have always existed. But in the age of 24-hour rolling news and social media, there are scripts to follow that promise notoriety in death. Societal fear and fascination with mass shootings partly drives the motivation to commit them. Hence, as we have seen in the last week, mass shootings tend to come in clusters. They are socially contagious. Perpetrators study other perpetrators and model their acts after previous shootings. Many are radicalized online in their search for validation from others that their will to murder is justified.

Fourth, the shooters all had the means to carry out their plans. Once someone decides life is no longer worth living and that murdering others would be a proper revenge, only means and opportunity stand in the way of another mass shooting. Is an appropriate shooting site accessible? Can the would-be shooter obtain firearms? In 80% of school shootings, perpetrators got their weapons from family members, according to our data. Workplace shooters tended to use handguns they legally owned. Other public shooters were more likely to acquire them illegally."

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-04/el-paso-dayton-gilroy-mass-shooters-data

From a National Institute of Justice Study. Doesn't make this an easy thing to prevent but gives us a place to start.

"First, the vast majority of mass shooters in our study experienced early childhood trauma and exposure to violence at a young age. The nature of their exposure included parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and/or severe bullying. The trauma was often a precursor to mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, thought disorders or suicidality.

Second, practically every mass shooter we studied had reached an identifiable crisis point in the weeks or months leading up to the shooting. They often had become angry and despondent because of a specific grievance. For workplace shooters, a change in job status was frequently the trigger. For shooters in other contexts, relationship rejection or loss often played a role. Such crises were, in many cases, communicated to others through a marked change in behavior, an expression of suicidal thoughts or plans, or specific threats of violence.

Third, most of the shooters had studied the actions of other shooters and sought validation for their motives. People in crisis have always existed. But in the age of 24-hour rolling news and social media, there are scripts to follow that promise notoriety in death. Societal fear and fascination with mass shootings partly drives the motivation to commit them. Hence, as we have seen in the last week, mass shootings tend to come in clusters. They are socially contagious. Perpetrators study other perpetrators and model their acts after previous shootings. Many are radicalized online in their search for validation from others that their will to murder is justified.

Fourth, the shooters all had the means to carry out their plans. Once someone decides life is no longer worth living and that murdering others would be a proper revenge, only means and opportunity stand in the way of another mass shooting. Is an appropriate shooting site accessible? Can the would-be shooter obtain firearms? In 80% of school shootings, perpetrators got their weapons from family members, according to our data. Workplace shooters tended to use handguns they legally owned. Other public shooters were more likely to acquire them illegally."

you forgot:
5) Trump is a racist

So, as with EVERY OTHER THREAT THAT CAN NOT BE PREVENTED, the obvious answer is to be as prepared as possible when the bad thing happens.

It's called self-defense.  You are your own first responder. 

Analogy:  You can't prevent all illness and injury, so you carry insurance to cover the cost when you need medical care.  Mass shootings are just as rare as most healthy people's need for a doctor.  It should be the individual's choice as to whether they want insurance (i.e. CCW).

you forgot:
5) Trump is a racist

Oops, silly me.

So, as with EVERY OTHER THREAT THAT CAN NOT BE PREVENTED, the obvious answer is to be as prepared as possible when the bad thing happens.

It's called self-defense.  You are your own first responder. 

Analogy:  You can't prevent all illness and injury, so you carry insurance to cover the cost when you need medical care.  Mass shootings are just as rare as most healthy people's need for a doctor.  It should be the individual's choice as to whether they want insurance (i.e. CCW).

I have multiple fire extinguishers in my house but I recognize I cannot rely on that to be my only protection. A smoke alarm and a fire extinguisher are my tools once a fire has started but they are not tools for prevention. Other safety measures work towards prevention.

There is no proof that active shooter type incidents cannot be prevented. In fact there are many instances where an active shooter incident was prevented.
Case in point: https://www.policeone.com/investigations/articles/484614006-Police-Grandmother-thwarted-mass-shooting/?fbclid=IwAR3riZDaykTMpRy5edS5g6JZ_0EjKap-TsZbHjBlUuPi0NeVglpKY7h_URo
There are also other accounts of people who planned on carrying out such incidents but didn't for various reasons (lack of means, intervention, etc.)

The study makes multiple mentions of factors that were things people could see and react too, actionable intelligence. According to the article "The vast majority of mass shooters leak their plans ahead of time." These are things we can see and respond to and use to try and prevent these incidents.

I have multiple fire extinguishers in my house but I recognize I cannot rely on that to be my only protection. A smoke alarm and a fire extinguisher are my tools once a fire has started but they are not tools for prevention. Other safety measures work towards prevention.

There is no proof that active shooter type incidents cannot be prevented. In fact there are many instances where an active shooter incident was prevented.
Case in point: https://www.policeone.com/investigations/articles/484614006-Police-Grandmother-thwarted-mass-shooting/?fbclid=IwAR3riZDaykTMpRy5edS5g6JZ_0EjKap-TsZbHjBlUuPi0NeVglpKY7h_URo
There are also other accounts of people who planned on carrying out such incidents but didn't for various reasons (lack of means, intervention, etc.)

The study makes multiple mentions of factors that were things people could see and react too, actionable intelligence. According to the article "The vast majority of mass shooters leak their plans ahead of time." These are things we can see and respond to and use to try and prevent these incidents.

"There is no proof that active shooter type incidents cannot be prevented. In fact there are many instances where an active shooter incident was prevented."

How can anyone know a shooting was prevented.  By definition, it never happened.  Therefore, there is no proof there was anything to prevent.

There are cases where people may have intentions to commit murder.  However, if they got caught beforehand, they probably wanted to get caught.  Posting intentions on social media doesn't prove they were determined and willing to go through with it.

I put garlic over my doorway and never had a vampire attack.  Garlic prevents vampire attacks.

I put garlic over my doorway and never had a vampire attack.  Garlic prevents vampire attacks.

Good to know.  I going put garluc out right now so I can sell the silver bullets I have in my gun.  Got anything for zombies?

Good to know.  I going put garluc out right now so I can sell the silver bullets I have in my gun.  Got anything for zombies?

Chili pepper watta.

EEF, this study is still missing 1 common element that is present in many active shooters.  Go fishing.

Zombie master lvl 9999

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Most shooters don't "just snap" and go kill people.

The rate of violence among the mentally ill is almost identical to the rate among those not diagnosed as mentally ill prior to committing violence.

25% of recent mass shooters were diagnosed with some type of mental illness prior to the shooting.  That doesn't mean the others were "normal", just not diagnosed.

Most mass shooters don't survive the attack, and therefore they can't be diagnosed directly after the attack.

#1 thing we can do as a nation is to stop letting the media plaster the shooter's name, background, body count and "ranking among previous shooters" onto every TV, computer, smartphone, tablet, newspaper and magazine.  We don't publish the names of suicides because we know that spawns copycats.  The number of mass shootings started its rise during the Reagan years -- when CNN and Headline News created the 24/7 news cycle.  Since then, the number has risen.  School shootings began rising after Columbine.  How the news treats these events is important, yet they have 1A protections to act against the interests of society without fear of repercussions.

Video games have been proven to desensitize people to killing.  They are used in the military to dehumanize the enemy and condition soldiers to kill.  It's a difficult thing to deprogram someone who was taught their whole life that killing is wrong.  While some studies suggest that video games do not MAKE people kill, those studies do nothing to disprove others that show games MAKE IT EASIER to kill.

Video gamers being trained to become soldiers:

https://www.military.com/undertheradar/2016/05/6-military-video-games-used-to-train-troops-on-the-battlefield

How video games train the brain to justify killing:

https://theweek.com/articles/660166/how-video-games-train-brain-justify-killing

I remember watching the fake news and politicians blame Marilyn Manson for Columbine.  He's super awoke.  He said " who has more influence, me or our president who orders bombings that kill thousands of people?  I'm flattered that you all think I have more influence".

Remember when people were also blaming KISS and that their music and life style will corrupt our children.

We need to remove soft targets.  How many active shootings happen at a gun show, police station, gun store, or even the hood?  Now active shooter, not "mass shooting".  There is a reason why active shooters usually pic areas that they can cause the most damage before police or someone shoots back. 

I remember watching the fake news and politicians blame Marilyn Manson for Columbine.  He's super awoke.  He said " who has more influence, me or our president who orders bombings that kill thousands of people?  I'm flattered that you all think I have more influence".

Remember when people were also blaming KISS and that their music and life style will corrupt our children.

We need to remove soft targets.  How many active shootings happen at a gun show, police station, gun store, or even the hood?  Now active shooter, not "mass shooting".  There is a reason why active shooters usually pic areas that they can cause the most damage before police or someone shoots back.

There you go again!  Trying to inject logic, reasoning and facts into a situation that is only to be used to push for gun control.

There you go again!  Trying to inject logic, reasoning and facts into a situation that is only to be used to push for gun control.

What's the opposite of gun control?  What if we're told to carry any gun you own where ever you go.

What's the opposite of gun control?  What if we're told to carry any gun you own where ever you go.

The opposite of control is freedom -- freedom to choose for yourself whether or not you ought to carry.

They had those things in common,  so what do you suggest for others that could have the same things in common?

Blaming shootings on music?  I heard a bunch of kids singing along to this song one day. . .

Chili pepper watta.

EEF, this study is still missing 1 common element that is present in many active shooters.  Go fishing.

So you say but haven't mentioned it. Could it be possible that what you though was a common element isn't nearly that common?

We can discuss it if you bring it up.

"There is no proof that active shooter type incidents cannot be prevented. In fact there are many instances where an active shooter incident was prevented."

How can anyone know a shooting was prevented.  By definition, it never happened.  Therefore, there is no proof there was anything to prevent.

There are cases where people may have intentions to commit murder.  However, if they got caught beforehand, they probably wanted to get caught.  Posting intentions on social media doesn't prove they were determined and willing to go through with it.

I put garlic over my doorway and never had a vampire attack.  Garlic prevents vampire attacks.

Oh come on, that is an empty argument. I also don't plug 18 electrical devices into one wall socket but since the fire never happened obviously, by your logic, I never prevented anything.
 Plus the argument is self defeating to other pro-gun arguments. You can't claim that open carry prevents any crimes either or that non gun-free zones prevent crime, etc. Guns serve to prevent from a tyrannical government? We haven't had one, therefore guns never prevented a tyrannical government. Your position hurts multiple other gun rights arguments. You can't have it both ways

But lets say you are going to keep that line and you want proof of prevented attacks. There is proof in cases just like the one I posted. People who admit they were going to shoot up a place but were prevented by some factor.

BTW, people get charged with crimes like attempted crimes as well as conspiracy to commit the crime based on steps the individual took and are successfully prosecuted. You might as well argue that no heroes prevented the underwear bomber from blowing up the plane because by definition it never happened, nothing was prevented. You can't prove the underwear bomber wasn't going to change his mind at the very last second.

I remember watching the fake news and politicians blame Marilyn Manson for Columbine.  He's super awoke.  He said " who has more influence, me or our president who orders bombings that kill thousands of people?  I'm flattered that you all think I have more influence".

Remember when people were also blaming KISS and that their music and life style will corrupt our children.

We need to remove soft targets.  How many active shootings happen at a gun show, police station, gun store, or even the hood?  Now active shooter, not "mass shooting".  There is a reason why active shooters usually pic areas that they can cause the most damage before police or someone shoots back.

People are understandably upset after these types of incidents and they search out in desperation for a cause or causes whether it be movies, music, video games, guns, etc. They rush to conclusions on things that seem true on the surface. Now sometimes these things can be shown to be a factor however we need to look at the sources analytically.

There is certainly some data that shows correlations with some media and violence. To piggy back on top of what Flappier said, they have found correlations with violence and video games. However on the flip side I recently saw a chart that showed how much more video games are sold in some other countries yet have much lower violence rates so the jury is still out. It is very difficult to point out any single factor in most of these cases. I don't think that anyone can point to that one video game, that one song, that one movie, and say "but for this influence the individual would not have become violent". However we cannot dismiss media either because it does affect people.

We can never remove soft targets though, they will always exist. And even if we manage to make all targets a little harder it is difficult to make the case that these individuals will just give up. Look at columbine, there was an armed officer on campus and they still shot up the place. Though not as common there have been a fair number of active shooters who chose targets that were not gun-free soft target areas.

They had those things in common,  so what do you suggest for others that could have the same things in common?

Good question. I believe the article made some suggestions but I will offer my own here.

When I look at the list I see that it is not some line in the sand that someone is either safe or dangerous but rather behaviors and histories that can be used as warning signs.

Now say you had a friend who just went through a divorce.
Say this friend has been drinking a lot more after the divorce.
Say this friend has made comments that life isn't worth living anymore.
Now say this friend recently bought a firearm or a bottle of sleeping pills.
And say this friend told you he has a way to solve all his problems.

Any one of these things by themselves is not very significant but when taken together paint a very serious picture. Now along those lines I think the findings serve as a guide on what warning signs we need to pay attention to and when someone can intervene. It may also provide a way of getting individuals at risk to recognize the symptoms before they are too far gone and then seek help instead of acting out. This is not one size fits all of course but it could serve as an outline for an intervention program.