What Makes a Mass Shooter?

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Politics, Washington, News, Obama, Wnyc, President, Lizza, Barack, Wickenden

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2022

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In America, unthinkable violence has become routine. In the wake of the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings, David Remnick speaks with the researchers Jillian Peterson and James Densley, whose book “The Violence Project” is the most in-depth study of mass shooters. Pro-gun politicians may continue to block any measures to reduce violence, but we can understand better a different side of the equation: what motivates these crimes. David Remnick speaks with two criminal-justice researchers who have studied mass killers, James Densley, of Metropolitan State University, and Jillian Peterson, of Hamline University. They point out that mass shootings have risen alongside deaths of despair, including overdoses and suicide. “The perpetrator goes in with no escape plan,” Peterson points out. “What we can learn from suicide prevention can teach us how to prevent some of these mass shootings. We haven’t connected these two things.” We also hear from a 70-year-old resident of Uvalde, Texas, about the aftermath of the killings in a tight-knit community.

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0:42.5	Yeah, eBay.
0:44.0	Things people love.
0:47.7	This is the Politics and More podcast.
0:50.6	I'm David Remnick.
0:55.0	I'm Willie Edwards. pretty much a lifetime resident of Evaldi, Texas.
1:00.0	I've lived here ever since I was one, and I'm proud to say I'm 70 now.
1:05.0	I was actually at a restaurant 20 miles from town with a friend and his wife who my friend
1:16.6	had back surgery today.
1:18.5	He's doing well.
1:20.5	And as we were leaving the restaurant, a friend of mine, former teacher said that she just
1:26.5	got a text that there was an active shooter at Rob that maybe a teacher had been killed.
1:33.3	And my wife and I, you know, just drove towards Rob Elementary and it became obvious that it was something really bad was going on, lots of ambulances.
1:47.5	And then the tolls started coming in, 14 children dead, 18 children dead, 19 children
1:54.2	dead, two adults, three adults.
	...

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