In the Mind of the Assassin

What Do 69% of Mass Shooters Have in Common?

On Saturday, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump. His assassination caused the unnecessary death of one person and two others are still in the hospital. It is beyond tragic. The investigation is ongoing and hopefully, we will learn more about the shooter’s motive and mental state. My belief is that it was preventable.

Did you know that 69% of mass shooters—and no doubt, individual assassins like Crooks—have one thing in common? You may be surprised. It is not the usual suspects like ‘evil’ or ‘psychosis’. It is not specific access to a particular weapon. Those things may be involved, but something else stands out above the rest.

I am Dr. Bill Senyard (www.gospel-app.com). I have been in Christian ministry for over 35 years and am passionate about getting the word out about God’s love for the unlovely, the unloved, and the unlovable. I pray every day that as God makes me feel it, I will proclaim His ridiculous and unlikely love for the rejects of our societies, the bullied and traumatized, and those who have come to find this world increasingly unsafe—and whose traumatized brains wrongly figure that they have to take matters into their own hands.

According to the National Institute of Justice 2022 report “Public Mass Shootings: Database Amasses Details of a Half Century of U.S. Mass Shootings with Firearms, Generating Psychosocial Histories,” that spanned 50 years (1966-2019), almost everyone who perpetrated mass shootings had experienced childhood abuse, bullying, neglect, violence, or trauma, and lacked the mitigating relationships that could have diminished the building internal rage and the growing desperate need to prove themselves as non-victims by shooting others.

So what do almost 70% of mass shooters have one thing in common? They are suicidal. So many mass shootings are death by cop, or in the case of Crooks, death by Secret Service sharp shooters. Nine out of 10 teens and all young adult mass shooters are suicidal. In their traumatized brains, their violence perpetrated on helpless others gave them one shot at a specific notoriety. Forever now, they are no longer seen as helpless victims. They are the ones with power. In their emotionally dysregulated state of crisis, this is worth losing their lives for.

Is it preventable? Absolutely. Attachment Theory suggests that such a bent toward trauma begins even in the first year of life. All parents of infants, no matter what their socio-economic status, should have access to skills and tools to help them better attune with their infants.

Studies show that if parents can attune with their children even 1 out of 3 interactions, the child will enter their next stage of life more secure, less fearful, and more able to emotionally self-regulate than children who don’t. To be clear, this means that they will be less likely to eventually shoot up schools or attempt to assassinate politicians.

Longitudinal studies show that such early and regular attunement influences the child’s emotional stability, his or her ability to love and be loved well into their adult relationships.

There are faith-based on-line tools available such as Good Enough Parenting (www.goodenoughparent.online) and Forgiving Path: Justice Reclaimed (www.forgivingpath.com) that help young parents atune better with their children. If you have access to Right Now Media, check out the series “Can’t Forgive!” and “Good Enough Parent.”

America, we can do better. Never before in my lifetime have young adults and teens been subjected to more violence, anxiety, polarization, and hopelessness. We could all use an expanded toolbox.

Let me know what you think. Bill@gospel-app.com. Check out my new character-building attunement-rich young reader fantasy book, the Tale of the Unlikely Prince (Amazon, Kindle, Audible).

Take heart child of God.

For more great lifestyle content see here.