The Aug. 28 shooting at a Bend Safeway was the 528th mass shooting in the United States in 2022, according to data website MassShootingTracker, which defines any incident of four or more people shot to its list of attacks. The list, as of press time on Sept. 5, is at 544 — an average of 2.18 shootings a day with 605 people killed and over 2,200 wounded.
The tracker strips ideological, motivations and casualty requirements, ending up with a much less conservative account of mass shootings. The Rockefeller Institute of Government reports 402 mass shootings between 1966-2020 — defining mass shootings as targeted violence at one or two locations and excludes gang violence, targeted militancy and terroristic activity. The “typical” hallmarks of a mass shooter is well known in the U.S. — someone who is isolated and experienced childhood trauma and bullying.
“Overwhelmingly the research says that that anger starts with early trauma. That trauma is typically violence in the home or—so often with school shooters, they are victims of sustained severe bullying. If that trauma goes unrecognized and untreated, it festers, causing depression, despair, hopelessness and a desire for control and revenge,” wrote Lezlie Neusteter, a Sisters-based researcher and founder of Prevent Mass Shootings Now, in a statement.
Using just the similarities to identify mass shooters is largely discouraged among researchers. There are many people who own guns, suffer from mental illness and are bullied who don’t commit mass shootings.
“The more time you spend trying to profile against these things, number one, you’re going to completely miss the needle in the haystack you’re trying to wade through, but number two, in doing so you’re basically criminalizing a haystack,” said Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut, an associate professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York at Oswego and executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
An alternative to profiling is threat assessment, which focuses more on pre-attack disturbing behaviors. Schildkraut says one of the most overt warning signs is leakage, when shooters either directly say their plans or hint at them. Though shooters are thought of as isolated, there are often warning signs expressed to people near them, or through an online presence.
“They tell pretty much anybody who will listen what they’re about to do. And in that respect, the number-one way that we can help to prevent these charges is from educating the public about what leakage looks like, helping to break down the bystander effect that we often see, which is where people have information and don’t come forward for one reason or another, and then providing them the mechanisms or outlets to do so like a community based anonymous tip line,” Schildkraut said.
The gunman in Bend posted a manifesto just before committing the attack, but had uploaded videos shooting an AR-15 and shotgun in China Hat in the weeks approaching the shooting. A former classmate of the shooter told the Associated Press that the gunman threatened to shoot him. Researchers say it’s rare that no indication is given of what’s being attempted.
“People do that for a reason, they communicate. We’re a species that communicates. And so this will all come out in the investigation. When people say, ‘He was a loner,’ or, ‘Nobody knew him,’ and then three days later, when the investigation starts to percolate, we find out, somebody did, and they didn’t pick up the phone,” said Joel Dvoskin, a forensic psychologist who’s evaluated mass shooters.
Mass shootings can tend to cluster, and it’s believed among researchers that there’s some contagion. The frequency of mass shootings has risen since they were first studied. Between 1966-1975 there were 12 mass shootings, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, and between 2011-2020 there were 160. A turning point for how we understand mass shootings is Columbine, which made the shooters household news over several days of nonstop news coverage.
“I think Columbine changed the way that our country understands mass shootings, because of the fact that it was the first time we pretty much ever watched it play out live on national television, the way that we’re very accustomed to now,” Schildkraut said. “A result of that is it basically glamorized and glorified those two perpetrators because it got so much attention, the likes of which had never been seen before.”
“Nobody knows for sure why it’s so much worse in America. But some of it is, it’s like a bad habit.”—Joel Dvoskin
Schildkraut recommends a no-notoriety protocol that elevates survivors, victims and heroes from a mass casualty event, rather than indulging the attention-seeking behavior of perpetrators by naming them. Mass shootings are becoming more of a distinctly U.S. issue, accounting for 73% of 139 incidents in developed countries between 1998-2019, according to a study in the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice. Researchers are wary to tie this to a single issue, but say ease of access to guns, reactionary politics and a precedent of similar attacks contribute to it.
“Nobody knows for sure why it’s so much worse in America. But some of it is, it’s like a bad habit. That we’ve had so many of them, that it’s right in everybody’s face if I get angry and decide that my life isn’t worth living, I’m going to take a couple people with me. And here’s how I do it now to make me famous. That’s one reason it’s American, our tradition of glorifying people who do this stuff,” Dvoskin said.
In Deschutes County crisis counselors are available at the Stabilization Center at 63311 Jamison Street in Bend, or through its 24-hour crisis line at 541-322-7500 ext. 9.
This article appears in Sep 7, 2022 – Sep 13, 2023.
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First off for whatever reason these people have mental issues, and they’re going to use anything or any resources they can find to hurt people, it doesn’t necessarily have to be guns, it could be knives, can be cars, hammers, machetes, homemade bombs whatever.. you can’t just say there’s a gun problem, because they’re not that easy to get, they do a massive background check in order for you to purchase one, and they usually give you a gun if you have NO prior incidences. We as a society need to stop blaming the gun and start blaming mental illness for all of this!! If a gun is stored it doesn’t hurt anybody!! It just sits there!! Europe Banned guns, but The crazy people use knives or bombs to hurt people, they have a lot of jihad in Europe, and that’s what they use swords and knives. The gun is not the issue, 99.99% of the people that own guns use them to protect their families, hunt and government tyranny. This liberal approach to gun control is absolutely pathetic
The school systems need to do more period. They are a major point of contact for these children experiencing trauma and special needs. We need to invest in our education system. There should be a number of skilled psychologists in every school who should be trained with non-violent communication methods or restorative practices and working along with speech pathologists and at least one SLP on staff at every school, not one for three schools. In our society now we have more children than ever with special needs and who have learning differences and these children are often bullied and their needs are not being met. In our public school sector, a child needs to be two standard deviations below the norm to receive public school services. We have so many BPLS students who really need services but don’t qualify and many whom their parents can’t afford private therapy. We as a nation need to really start looking at this. When I first started my career as a speech pathologist, it was 1 in every 100 children were diagnosed with autism, now it’s 1 for every 44 children according to the CDC and these are children who have been identified. So with this said, instead of BPLS spending money on brand new IPADS this year for a primary learning tool, I say hire some experienced professionals in your district and get rid of standard deviations in order to get services. Figure out your budget to make it work that our children are getting the help they need. I have personally reported incidences where I think a child needs help and should be monitored. There is a lot of bullying going on in our schools, there are a lot of children not knowing how to deal with children that may be different and seeking attention and those children with differences end up being isolated and bullied. Our children need to be nurtured. School should be a safe place for them both mentally and physically and a place where their educational needs are being provided.