Mass Shooters

Vocabulary

Video: Mass Shooters

Transcript

A talk by Ron Hosko, Former FBI Assistant Director

Well sadly, lone gunman attacks are increasingly frequent in America. The FBI had done a study a couple years ago, where it looked like the frequency was in effect doubling from where it was just a few decades ago.

And now it seems like we have an uptick in that already existing frequency.

The most common motivation seems to be rage, seems to be anger. And that seems to be the path for a lot of these folks — armed violence, where they take a lot lives.

Sadly today, it almost feels like there’s a competition going on between some of these people to set the bar higher.

But then again, these can be multilayered, so that you can see somebody who is angry, yet they are able to process it, and they don’t become an active shooter.

But mix that anger with a change in personal circumstances: they can be sudden triggers, like something bad happen at work, termination, or a bad job review.

And then you may see an employee, a former employee to go back to their workplace and try to exact some sort of revenge. You see it in places of worship, although that seems to be by-and-large the smallest proportion until very recently.

Now this will change the numbers, the most recent event. The Sutherland Springs killer was kicked out of the US Air Force for domestic violence in 2012.

Domestic violence can be an indicator, but it doesn’t seem to be the strongest indicator.

Frankly, the strongest one seems to be mental health, mental illness, depression, isolation; don’t have a strong social network or a circle around the shooter that can perhaps comfort them or repair damage.

And it’s just a sense of anger, that they are in it by themselves — and this is their way out of it by themselves.

Questions

1. Mass shootings in the United States is happening more often. True or false?

2. “It almost feels like there’s a competition going on between some of these people to set the bar higher.” What does this mean?

3. How do people who go on shooting rampages feel, happy, sad, angry, scared, thrilled?

4. Everyone who is angry becomes a shooter. Is this right or wrong? What is the difference between the shooters and normal people?

5. What scenario did he mention of a shooting rampage?

6. The biggest cause of mass shootings is an infatuation with guns. Is this correct or incorrect?

7. Can gun violence be prevented?

A. Do you often hear about mass shootings on the news?

B. What causes mass shootings?

C. What will happen in the future?

D. What is the solution to mass shootings? How can they be prevented?

E. Do you know the meaning of schadefreude? How might this be related to people and the media?