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Dr. Andrew Smiler lists some of the factors that mass shooters have in common.
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Another week, another mass killing. Or two, or three. Here in the US, we’ve had shootings in churches, movie theatres, at all types of schools (elementary, high school, colleges), and even military bases. Back in the 1980s, it was disgruntled employees in post offices and we called it “going postal.” As the President pointed out, mass shootings have become common and mundane.
Along the way, we’ve learned something about how to create this type of killer, just like we’ve learned something about how to create a rapist. To be clear, we’re not talking about killers like the Unabomber or even the DC parking lot shooters. We’re talking about people who kill their ex- and the kids (and themselves) or walk into a crowded place and open fire.
To create this kind of killer, you’ll need to teach your killer-to-be a series of lessons, and you’ll need these lessons be reinforced by other adults: parents, teachers, coaches, community leaders, etc. Here’s what you need to do.
Create a sense of entitlement
You’ll need to make sure your killer believes that the world is his oyster. So, emphasize that hard work is the most important thing and that the quality of the final product is ancillary. This will teach him that if he works hard enough, he can achieve his goals.
Teach him that all goals are a matter of effort. It doesn’t matter if that goal is getting an A on a test, making a friend, or making the team. He needs to believe that success and failure are based on his effort.
When he complains, or if he fails at something, tell him to pick himself up by his bootstraps and to stop being so weak. Teach him it’s important to “be his own man.”
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When he complains, or if he fails at something, tell him to pick himself up by his bootstraps and to stop being so weak. Teach him it’s important to “be his own man” and not rely on others; you need him to believe it’s all on him.
Then teach your killer-to-be that the effort-leads-to-rewards system works for big stuff, not just the day-to-day. This way, goals like finding and keeping a life partner and earning a promotion will be based on his effort…and nothing else. No one else’s perspective matters, even if that person is the “goal” he is working towards.
Here in the US, start with someone who’s White and male. People of color are repeatedly told–and many have experiences verifying–that the system is rigged against them and that their efforts are not as valued as the majority group. Girls and women are also learn that lesson. Most mass shooters in the US have been White and Male.
Do not teach your killer-to-be how the system was created, what the system’s goals are, or how the system has been adjusted over the years. It’s important to make sure your killer-to-be only has a superficial understanding of the system so he can see himself as a victim when things don’t work out.
Keep Him Angry
You’ll also need to teach him that anger is the only acceptable emotion. When he gets hurt, ask “what are you going to do about it?” instead of acknowledging that pain and sadness. Teach him to “tough it out” and “play through the pain.” Pain feeds anger and anger feeds action. Sadness doesn’t feed either anger or action.
Teach him that revenge is a good way to deal with anger, that vengeful acts have no scale, and that all hurts and pain are equivalent.
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Point out the people who look like they are “gaming the system” and moving ahead faster than others. Call them cheaters and repeatedly point to their group as rigging the system. It really doesn’t matter what group you pick – Blacks, Jews, Women, Muslims, Illegal Immigrants, whatever. The important thing is that he resents one or more of these groups. Resentment feeds anger.
Teach him that revenge is a good way to deal with anger, that vengeful acts have no scale, and that all hurts and pain are equivalent. This way, he’ll believe that overwhelming force is an acceptable response to any hurt he experiences. If his own list of accomplishments is short or non-existent, he may even come to believe that his own pain and his own life can be sacrificed in the name of revenge.
Trigger Him
Now that the stage has been set, we’ll need a trigger. Choose something that he has worked long and hard for. For that kind of effort, it’ll need to be something big, like a partner or job. Or maybe owning a house. To increase the odds that he’ll become a mass murderer, it’s better if the road to this goal has been bumpy and he has overcome those additional challenges by putting in even more effort.
Tell him he’s simply not good enough to have what he wants. That despite all of his effort, he just doesn’t measure up. If your killer-to-be is male, pour fuel on the fire by telling him that he has failed as a man.
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Tell him he’s simply not good enough to have what he wants. That despite all of his effort, he just doesn’t measure up. If your killer-to-be is male, pour fuel on the fire by telling him that he has failed as a man. Let him connect his failure to his favorite target group…or push him down that road by telling him that a member of that group is keeping him from getting what he wants.
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We still don’t know why some guys act and others collapse in on themselves, so there are no guarantees here. But if you’ve done everything just right, then there’s a chance he’ll pick up a weapon and “go out in a blaze of glory.”
And if you don’t want your kid–or any kid–to become that guy, don’t teach him these lessons.
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I found this an incredibly brave article to write. Thank you.
I fully expect to see one of my brothers on the news for either a mass shooting or for being discovered to be a serial killer. We reconnected a few years ago after several years of estrangement (simply because I was tired of being used as the reason my brothers were being normal, rebellious teenagers, even though I had no part in any of it and hadn’t even done the shit they were doing when I was a teen). He said several things that left me with the sinking feeling that he was going to be a serial killer one… Read more »
Interesting way of writing this article. But . . . how does this help? What are the solutions? This is like the person at meetings that’s very good at point out problems, but never contributes any solutions.
The funny thing is I always hear the opposite when people ask how do you make a suicide bomber. You remove hope, disenfranchise him, humiliate him, then offer him some hope or salvation or redemption.
All very interesting. But the explanations don’t seem to apply to mass shooters we’ve seen in real life. Some of them were nuts, in the sense of having received serious mental health treatment. One factor the good doctor overlooked is that very few had a father in his life. Seems what we have here is the doctor doesn’t like certain of what he thinks is traditional masculinity and took the opportunity to lay it on mass shootings. And we don’t know how the author of the piece knew about the raising of these mass shooters. The last one is as… Read more »
The common thread with most of these shooters is that they have been bullied or otherwise abused by society, and this goes all the way back to Columbine. There is a reason that this behavior is becoming more common and links to anti femnism have been established. A lot of these people keep getting pushed and pushed and pushed until they finally snap, when reports from people who know them say that they were otherwise decent and keep to themselves. We need to take a big step back and re evaluate how we discuss masculinity and rag endlessly on men… Read more »
Nah. Don’t expect them to step back and wonder if maybe they’ve taken the discourse too far. If an entire generation of white and male guilt being shoved in our faces from every facet of society- including the female run school system- could possibly have contributed to these men’s feelings of utter disenfranchisement and rejection from society. It’s much easier to call it “entitled”
Then they don’t have to question their own motives.
And ultimately, they will be the ones that pay for it. In one way or another.
Of course, it’s “feminism” and, ultimately, women’s fault! It’s been like that since… the begining of times, right. Remember Eve! Damned females. “The common thread with most of these shooters is that they have been bullied or otherwise abused by society” Right? Just like most people in some ways. And sorry, but that behaviour is NOT becoming more common in my country. Our men are civilized human beings. American men should own they have a masculine culture of violence, abuse, bigotry, oppression, and that they support it and don’t really want to change, because changing also means losing the rest… Read more »
A very helpful article on this subject was written by Dr. Joseph Pierre, back in January of this year- http://aeon.co/magazine/psychology/what-explains-mass-shootings-in-the-us/ It references a number of different impartial sources dating as far back as far as 1999 and beyond, including a publication by the FBI which touched on a variety of ‘risk factors’ and warning signs such as “depression, alienation, narcissism, poor coping skills, low frustration tolerance, lack of trust, fascination with violence-filled entertainment, negative role models, low self-esteem, access to weapons, and the tendency to manipulate others.” Significantly, it determined from this that “such wide-ranging warning signs result in a profile that… Read more »
Nice post Mostly. What comes to mind when attempting to profile is the phrase: necessary but not sufficient. The patterns do seem real enough, though they materialize in retrospect: socially awkward, depression, attempted suicide, on pharmaceuticals, access to weapons, narcissism, younger and male, and some form of mental diagnosis. The infrequency of these events relative to the base population that fit the above profile is the unwieldy puzzle. Media hype after the fact may also contribute to the continuation to the next event. Another evident pattern is how various groups try and hijack these sad events to support their various… Read more »