America’s Epidemic of Loneliness Part 2: The Connection to Mass Shootings
So far this year the US has averaged almost two mass shootings a day.
It’s shaping up to be another big month for mass shooters in the U.S.
Over one 72-hour period in early July, there were 20 shootings in which four or more people were killed or injured with guns. During the first half of 2023, the Gun Violence Archive counted 330 mass shootings – a record pace,- and, if past years are any indication, three-quarters of world total. Does any of that shock you? If not, psychologists have a term to describe why. They call it “learned helplessness” – when it appears we can’t do anything about a problem, we eventually stop trying.
We seem to have reached that point of surrender to mass shootings. Most of these events nowadays are barely reported beyond the local area. The few that we hear about nationally elicit a familiar set of responses. Gun reform advocates call for tougher gun laws – more registration, age limits, mental health checks, something. The NRA screams no — this shooting proves we need more guns so that by standing citizens can kill mass shooters. And nothing changes. After a few days, the news cycle moves on.
Maybe there will be a breakthrough soon that will end these mass shootings – maybe because of an act so horrific that the equation changes. I’m not hopeful (fool me 330 times, shame on me).
But while we are arming ourselves for the next round of that shootout, it might be useful to try to understand something about who these mass shooters are, and what’s going on in their lives before they do it.
When I was a reporter, one of my most frequent (and least welcomed) assignments was to talk to the neighbors of people arrested for murder. And the most common description they gave of the suspect went almost exactly like this: “Quiet. Kept to himself. Didn’t get out much.”
A new study suggests that description is more than anecdote. Jillian Peterson and James Densley took a deep look into more than 180 mass shootings in the US over the past 50 years; their findings suggest there are a few common elements at the root of almost every one of the acts.
Here are some excerpts from news reports, public documents and conversations Peterson and Densley had with friends and neighbors of mass shooters:
“He* was broke and blamed himself for getting fired from his job.” (killed 5 in Orlando)
“He had been depressed.” (killed 6 in Kalamazoo)
“He was withdrawn and quiet, with no friends.” (killed 9, injured 8 in Roseburg,Oregon)
“He lost contact with his family and refused to talk to an old boss.” (killed 4, injured 2 in Herkimer, NY)
In these portraits of the shooters, it’s hard not to see the recurring words of loneliness and despair. “There’s this really consistent pathway,” Peterson and Densely told Politico. They have some early childhood trauma, and “then you see the build toward hopelessness, despair, self-loathing, oftentimes rejection from their peers.” If we can get better at identifying loneliness, we may be able to help defuse some potential mass shooters.
The researchers also find most mass shooters intend their attacks as an act of suicide as much as homicide. “These are public spectacles of violence,” they write, “intended as final acts.” (This, obviously, argues against the idea that arming everyone would be a deterrent.)
There are many reasons, even beyond basic human decency, to care about America’s epidemic of loneliness (see Part 1).
· It can make us sick, increasing our rate of premature death more than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
· It can make us sad, doubling adult rates of clinical depression.
· It can make us suicidal, doubling rates among men living alone (more on that in Part 3).
And those facts alone should be enough to get serious about the problem. But if you need one more, consider what Peterson and Densley’s study suggests – getting serious about identifying and addressing loneliness might have prevented a lot of those 330 mass shootings this year.
-Leslie
*Yes, they were almost all “he”s” – 98% of murders – and 96% of mass shootings – are committed by men (the majority were also committed by whites, and more than half either in school or work settings).
Note: Part 3 of this series will focus on the link between loneliness and suicide.
References:
Running tally of mass shootings in the US: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting
US share of global mass shootings: https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/us-accounted-for-73-percent-of-global-mass-shootings-12787908
Peterson and Densley on causes of mass shootings: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/27/stopping-mass-shooters-q-a-00035762
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/01/26/opinion/us-mass-shootings-despair.html
Mass shooting data: https://rockinst.org/gun-violence/mass-shooting-factsheet/
https://www.theviolenceproject.org/mass-shooter-database/
Analysis of methodology for computing mass shooting statistics: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/mass-shootings-by-country