How To Spot A School Shooter – by Rob Taylor

I’m going to do a few posts on school shootings and keeping kids safe in general because of the Uvalde tragedy. First though I want to clear up some misunderstandings that have slipped into the popular culture about school shooters and the “problem” of identifying them before they commit these acts.

Like always when I speak somewhat authoritatively on something I’ll tell you what makes me qualified to proffer these opinions and how I came to them.

I was originally going to be an academic and I wanted to study new religions in America. So I have taken learned how to do ethnographic research (a fancy way of saying watching people and collecting data) and I used those skills when I moved to writing politics and crime. While writing about crime I covered and researched multiple school shooters and more importantly the cults of personality that spring up around them. I have read their own words when available, first hand accounts of interactions with them etc. When examining the data this is what I found they seemed to have in common:

1. They pretend to be bullied but most people report they were actually the bullies. The Columbine shooters were the first example of this I ran into. Most people that knew the pair said they weren’t bullied and were in fact known to bully others. School shooters will have a history of claiming others are persecuting them while they actively harass others. They will dwell on perceived slights and blow them up to a degree that makes them look crazy to outsiders. Salvador Ramos for example was reportedly concerned about being bullied because he was “poor” yet he was, objectively, able to own very expensive items.

2. They tend to be spoiled and entitled. All criminality is based on entitlement but school shooters are especially entitled and spoiled. The act of killing children, especially when you have young men killing very young children, is in essence a tantrum designed to punish society for not catering to them. They will have a history of lashing out violently or angrily at people when they don’t get their way. Often they will come across as extremely immature emotionally.

3. They have paraphilias. Pedophilia, zoophilia, sexual sadism you’ll find all of these if you study the lives of these degenerates. Ramos allegedly live streamed himself torturing cats – it should be noted that social media platforms have had a uptick in “zoosadist” accounts – as did the Buffalo market shooter. Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, was known to spend hours on pro-pedophile forums. Perversions, especially those that inflict on others in some way, seem to be a common theme with them but what’s more telling is that they display them to the world. This is also likely driven by the need to punish the world by horrifying it, and reflects their entitlement as the don’t believe they will be be punished for this.

4. They tell people they’re going to do it. Couldn’t be more clear. Almost every single school shooter told people what they’re plans were. Adam Lanza told the pedos he was hanging around online and received encouragement. Ramos was arrested at 14 for making threats to do this. Their family, friends and often officials know they are planning this but don’t take them seriously or don’t know what to do.

5. Chronic drug users. Often this will begin with prescription mood or behavior drugs but the shooters will be mixing their prescribed drugs with recreational drugs so the theory that psych meds cause this can’t be proven, although suicidal/homicidal thoughts are a side effect of some drugs. Sobriety may not cure them but it might make them less impulsive and thus less likely to shoot up a school but I doubt it would make them less likely to commit crimes. Lots of addicts aren’t criminals so the drugs are a contributing factor in criminality but not the only one.

So there you go, that’s what a school shooter looks like. Intervention before they are able to act is not something I know about but if it were me I’d get the social services involved when they were young.

Stay safe out there.

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