Another Mass Shooting: What are the Signs?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a busy week at work and writing. I’m trying to revise my story and make it better, so there’s a lot of noodling involved with that, but I’ve figured out how I want to put it together. Now, I just have to worry about the word count, but enough about that. Last week I spoke about raising resilient kids, and today I’d like to piggy back off of that and talk about mass shootings.

These events are on the rise in our society, and it has me worried. Many experts say mental health plays a role in these shootings, and I agree. We as parents have to do a better job of raising resilient kids, so they are less likely to have mental health problems. Studies have been conducted, and they consistently show that higher levels of resilience mean lower levels of mental health issues. So, there’s one way to solve the problem, but this is something that will take years to change.

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So, what can we do now? That is a very good question. Mental health is a key factor in mass shootings. The shooter usually has some mental issue they’re dealing with, and they exhibit signs of violence before they commit the crime. There are warning signs that we have to look out for. They are listed below.

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Pathway. They start planning or preparing for their attack. These mass shootings are not impulsive, they are planned, and the shooter will develop a plan and start gathering ammunition and making bombs. So, we as parents need to be vigilant if we see our children purchasing guns and ammunition, we need to step in and assess the situation, and reach out to authorities if the problem persists.

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Fixation. If someone becomes fixated on a cause or a person, and they talk about violent actions. This is another big warning sign.

Identification. This is another big warning sign. A young person (usually a young male) will identify with other mass shooters before he decides to become one himself.

Energy Burst. The shooter will increase his behavior as he gathers his weapons and puts his plan into action. There will be a decline in his online activity.

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Leakage. This occurs in 60 to 90% of targeted attacks, where the shooter communicates his intention to a third party, usually days or hours before the attack.

Directly Communicated Threat. This least frequent but bears acknowledgement. Most mass shooters will not directly threaten their target because they don’t want to fail in their attempt, but it does happen.

Novel Aggression. A potential shooter will test their ability to be violent by creating a one-off situation. This is usually manifests in the shooter picking a fight or killing an animal.

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Last Resort. The shooter will say things illustrating an urgent need to act violently within a specific amount of time.

I received this information from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/05/28/8-warning-signs-mass-shooter-according-experts/9966901002/

Click the above link for more information.

The warning signs are clear, but we have to pay attention to them. What should you do if you witness a someone showing the above signs? If you’re a student, tell your principal or a teacher so they can act. If you’re an adult and you witness these signs in your neighbor or colleague, tell the authorities.  It’s their job to address situations like this.  So, there you have it. The warning signs of a mass shooter. Have you ever seen any of these signs before? What did you do? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Mass Shootings: When Are We going to Address the Problem?

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you were able to enjoy your holiday with family and friends. The Holiday season has begun and I’ve already started my Christmas Shopping.

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But enough about that. In the last week before Thanksgiving, we’ve had two mass shootings. One in Colorado and one in Virginia. This saddens me. What is going on in our country?

The shooting in Colorado is being investigated as a hate crime because the gunmen opened fire on a LGBTQ night club. The one in Virginia was an employee of Walmart who opened fire on fellow employees. Both incidents are under investigation, but like I’ve said before, I feel the root of all these shootings is disconnection. The shooter has lost his connection with family, friends, and community. No one wakes up one day and says, “I’m going to shoot up Walmart today.”

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There are signs something’s wrong. The shooters may have a history of violence in their past. In fact, The New York Times conducted a study and found that seven out of ten mass shooters have a history of domestic violence. Either they are the abuser, or they grew up in an abusive household. This is where we need to start. Let’s take a hard look at domestic violence.

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We have to stop sweeping it under the rug. Did you know that a woman is five times more likely to be murdered if her partner has a gun? So, if you combine the disconnection the shooter feels and add domestic violence to the mix, you’ve got a bomb ready to go off, and there’s no telling when it’s about to explode.

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But what can we do? That’s a pertinent question. There’s no way to predict when someone’s going off the deep end. We need to educate people and where there’s a disconnect create a connection. We can do this by community outreach programs and through our schools. I hate to put any more responsibility on our schools, but it is a place where kids come together and a place of connection for them.

We need to study other countries that don’t have a mass shooting problem and emulate them, then go above and beyond to create avenues where victims of domestic violence can go and be safe. Next we have to take a hard look at domestic violence and stop tolerating it as a society. It has to be punished and not swept under the rug.

I don’t like to get political on my blog, but there is another reason the United States has so many mass shootings and that is we have an astronomical number of guns. In a study conducted by The New York Times, Americans make up 4.4 percent of the population but own 42 percent of the total number of guns. We need to change this. Kids don’t need assault weapons and neither do adults. The only people who really need this type of weapon is someone in the military. I know there are some second amendment people out there, and I agree with you. We do have the right to bear arms, but the constitution was written a long time ago, and I can guarantee you, they weren’t even thinking about assault rifles when they wrote that amendment.

So there you have my action steps to the problem.

1. Create connection through our communities
2. Stop tolerating Domestic Violence as a Society
3. Limit access to guns and assault weapons
4. Emulate other countries who don’t have a mass shooter problem

What are your thoughts on Mass Shootings? What would you do to stop them? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

For more information on Mass Shootings, check out these links:

Another Mass Shooting? What’s going on in Our Country?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and writing. The fourth of July came and went, and we had another mass shooting. For the life of me, I don’t understand the motivation behind these shootings.

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What could the shooter possibly gain from killing people who are enjoying a parade. Did you know there was a two-year-old boy wandering the streets because his parents had been killed by the shooter? A good Samaritan helped him eventually and got him to the proper authorities, but this is heartbreaking. His little socks were soaked in blood.

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Something needs to be done. I hate to suggest more government intervention especially since there’s so much corruption, but I look at Canada, and they have the same issues we do, but they have strict gun-control laws, and they don’t have the mass shooting problems we do. It’s time to follow in their footsteps. I don’t want another child growing up parentless.

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More gun control will help, but it’s not enough. We need to find the motivation behind these shootings. What is the killer seeking by doing this? Is it attention? Is it to alleviate their own pain? One of the things these shootings all have in common is that the shooter in every single one is male.

What else do they have in common? I did a little research, and this article gives a detailed rundown on the profile of mass shooters. It breaks them down into five categories. https://www.vice.com/en/article/a35mya/nearly-all-mass-shooters-since-1966-have-had-four-things-in-common

This article suggests there are some commonalities between the different types. School shooters both at the K-12 level and university level are or have been students of that institution. They are suicidal and have a history of trauma or violence in their past.

Workplace shooters usually have a grievance against the company and work there. Place of worship shooters are motivated by hate against that particular religion. Then we have the mass shooters at a commercial location. These shooters have a history of violence and criminal records.

Wouldn’t a history of violence be a huge red flag? We need stronger gun controls until we are willing to deal with the underlying issues that are creating these mass shooters.

We need better mental health support for everyone, but especially for men. We need better family support because many of these shooters have experienced childhood trauma.

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I believe it all boils down to the family unit. I would bet my bottom dollar that workplace shooters, place of worship shooters, and mass shooters at a public location all had childhood trauma in their pasts.

We as parents need to take better care of our kids so they don’t grow up to be mass shooters. So more restrictive laws on guns, better mental health care, and better support for parents, so they can be better parents will create an environment where we can all live our lives without fear.

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I know this won’t happen overnight, but we do need to make some changes and fast. How about you? Do you have any ideas? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Another School Shooting…when will they stop?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and editing. I’m editing my second manuscript and I’m excited about this one too. But enough about that. We had a sad event happen this week. There was another school shooting in Texas.

This breaks my heart. I think about those innocent children cowering in corners and how scared they must’ve been. My heart goes out to them. Then I think of the shooter and wonder how wounded he must’ve been to go to that extreme. He must’ve felt he had nothing left to live for.

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I think of my own kids and wonder how I can protect them. I wonder if online school isn’t the solution, but also an exasperation of the problem at the same time. I mean keeping large groups from getting together will make them less likely to be victims, but and this is a big but, isolation and disconnection are huge factors that drive these kids to do the unthinkable.

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I was chatting with my husband, and he asked the mind-boggling question, where did this eighteen-year-old get the money to buy an assault weapon? These guns are not cheap. I read a little bit of background about the shooter. He was a loner who had quit his job a week prior to the shooting.

This supports my theory that disconnection is a major factor in these events. Disconnection from family, their community, and society. We all need to be vigilant. As parents we can do our part and make sure our kids feel connected to their family. Family traditions are a big part of that.

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According to another newspaper article, the shooter made threats to girls online when they rebuffed his sexual advances and claimed he’d come to their school and shoot it up. These are signs that we need to take seriously. No one believed he would carry out his threats. They all thought he was kidding.

Now we know better. Now we must do better.

We need to take better care of our kids. Pure and simple. The teen years are the hardest years of our lives, and they’re harder now than when we were teens decades ago. When they withdraw, make sure they’re not dealing with anxiety or depression. I know this is hard. They won’t like your intrusion, but they’ll appreciate it when they’re older. And the fact that they made it to “older” will be a blessing in itself.

We need stronger gun laws for young kids. I am a believer in the second amendment, but I’m also a believer in keeping our kids alive. Both can be true. Young kids don’t need assault rifles. Period.

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We need to train our police officers how to manage situations like this. It’s my understanding that they stood around the school for an hour, not knowing what to do. It was a border patrol officer who got into the school and shot the shooter.

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We need to do more for through our mental health programs. Mental health issues start in the teen years. If your teen or a friend of your teen’s is showing mental health issues, try and get them help in any way you can.

Is there a way to prevent mass shootings? I believe we can. Maybe not prevent every one, but we can bring these numbers down. How about you? Do you have any ideas? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.