Of the 13 mass school shootings that have occurred in the United States, the three have been deadliest in the past decade. Data from these attacks helped criminologists build a profile of the gunmen.
When the Columbine High School massacre happened in 1999, it was considered a turning point in America: the worst mass school shooting in the country’s history.
Now it is in fourth place. The three school shootings that have surpassed 13 fatalities — 12 students and a teacher — have all occurred in the past decade: the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School attack, in which a gunman killed 26 children and school teachers; the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people; and now the attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where at least 19 children and two adults were murdered on May 24, 2022.
We are criminologists studying the biographies of the assailants in mass shootings in the United States. As part of that research, we built a comprehensive database of these shootings using publicly available data, covering over 200 different variables, including location and racial profiling.
For the purposes of our database, mass public shootings are defined as incidents in which four or more victims are killed and at least one of those murders takes place in a public place and is unrelated to underlying criminal activity, such as gangs or drugs.
Our database shows that since 1966, the year his timeline begins, there have been 13 such school shootings in the United States, the first in Stockton, California, in 1989.
Four of those shootings — including the one at Robb Elementary School — involved a murder elsewhere, each involving a relative in a private home. In the latest case, the attacker is said to have shot his grandmother before going to school in Uvalde, although this has not yet been officially confirmed.
Nearly all school shootings have been carried out by a single shooter. Only two—the Columbine shooting and the 1988 Westside School shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas—were carried out by two gunmen. In total, about 146 people were killed and at least 182 people were injured in the attacks.
Calling the perpetrators of these massacres “gunmen” is appropriate: all of the mass school shootings in our database were carried out by men or boys. And the average age of those involved in the attacks was 18 years.
This is consistent with details that have emerged about the gunman in the Robb Elementary School attack. He turned 18 just a few days ago and bought two military-style weapons that are believed to have been used in the attack.
Police have not yet released any key information about the gunman, including what motivated him to kill the children and adults at Robb Elementary School. The image of the shooter that has transcended fits in some ways with the profile we built from previous authors, but differs in others.
We know that most school attackers have a connection to the school they attack. Twelve of the 14 shooters in our database prior to the last Texas attack were current or former students at the school. No previous connection between the newest shooter and Robb Elementary School has been revealed.
Our research and dozens of interviews with perpetrators of mass shootings in prison suggest that for most perpetrators, the mass shooting is intended as a last act. Most of the perpetrators of mass school shootings were killed in the attack. Of the 15 perpetrators in our database, only seven have been arrested. The rest died on the spot, almost all by suicide. The only exception was elementary school shooter Robb, who was murdered by the police.
In addition, school shooters tend to anticipate their attacks by leaving messages or videos warning them of their intentions.
Inspired by past attackers, some of these gunslingers seek fame and fame. However, most attackers at school are motivated by anger. Their path to violence is accompanied by self-loathing and a despair that turns against the world.
Our research shows that they often communicate their intention to harm in advance as a last-ditch cry for help. The key to stopping these tragedies is for society to be aware of these warning signs and act immediately.
This article was published in The conversation
Source: La Verdad
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