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Threat Assessments to Reduce Mass Shootings

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by ursidman, May 23, 2023.

  1. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    I think almost everyone could support this approach to reduce mass shootings and to get help to would be shooters. Shooters typically have personalities and characteristics that indicate to a trained person that trouble is imminent. Training should be provided to school personnel to help prevent the next tragedy - and also a culture that encourages students to identify disturbing social media and conversational threats and “jokes”.



    https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/04/mass-shootings-behavioral-threat-assessment-oxford-high-school-trigger-points/


    Evidence emerged almost immediately that the shooter had been signaling rageful intent to peers and adults around him—warning signs of a bloodbath that could have been avoided.

    When prosecutor Karen McDonald announced murder and terrorism charges, she cited “a mountain of digital evidence” showing premeditation and planning by accused shooter Ethan Crumbley, who has pleaded not guilty and is expected to bring an insanity defense. The evidence includes an Instagram post where he boasted about the Sig Sauer pistol he used, and a drawing discovered by a teacher the morning of the attack in which the teen depicted a shooting and wrote, “My life is useless,” “Blood everywhere,” and “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
     
  2. wgbgator

    wgbgator Premium Member

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    Grim stuff, it says a lot that this is something to even consider
     
  3. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    Yep, and for adults there may be some civil liberties issues to work through but significantly reducing mass shootings will require many different tools and this looks to be one.
     
  4. l_boy

    l_boy 5500

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    Sadly I think we need to do it, but this will be difficult on certain people, like parents such as us that had 2 kids with different forms of mental illness. It isn’t uncommon for them, or even a depressed kid, to say things like they are going to kill themselves or others. It probably happens every day in a large school. There will be some who will be compelled to act or report on every such instance.

    Whenever we put additional rules and mandates on teachers, administrators or cops that if X happens you have to do Y, then Y will happen a lot more and a lot of innocent people get caught up in it.
     
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  5. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    Yep, overreactions and over sensitivity are bound to happen but one would have to say we are under reacting and not sensitive enough to warning signs at present
     
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  6. wgbgator

    wgbgator Premium Member

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    That's a mild way of saying we want to train teachers and kids to be cops and live in a police state so people can have their guns
     
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  7. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    Yes, one wonders if we can stop short of a police state. Maybe there is something between living in a police state and living in a shooting gallery.
    Maybe threat assessments could be done on purchasers of guns - that would suffice as a red flag identifier that many support.
     
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  8. wgbgator

    wgbgator Premium Member

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    Police states work best when they turn their citizens into enforcers and train them to treat everyone with suspicion, we are kinda there already informally (see the subway vigilante), but this type of training tends to reify it IMO. It may be effective, but its going to be even more effective at turning a kid into a shooting suspect in our zero tolerance culture when he posts about a breakup or something in a way a kid might over-dramatize.
     
  9. ncargat1

    ncargat1 VIP Member

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    The lawsuits will write themselves.
     
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  10. homer

    homer GC Hall of Fame

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    Yea it’s difficult to distinguish at times. Threat assessment isn’t easy.

    There have been some obvious and rather extreme examples where internet posting shows a distinct pattern. Then some disturbing comments in school settings. Maybe we need a block taught in schools that lets kids know that certain behavior will create monitoring? Problem I see with that is it lets kids know to be discrete about threats. Double edge sword.

    I’d start with a baseline and adjust from there as needed.
     
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  11. GatorFanCF

    GatorFanCF Premium Member

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    let’s see:
    1. Young male?
    2. Not socially connected?
    3. Posts anti-_______ on social media?
    4. Fired or not employed?

    Good news - the signs are fairly visible. Bad news - there’s about 20 million men who qualify on age for the above. God bless ‘Murica.
     
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  12. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    5 Anti-woman or no wife or girlfriend

    Can we come up with more
     
  13. ncargat1

    ncargat1 VIP Member

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    Um...does it not bother anyone that we are talking about Minority Report stuff? They are proposing taking children from their homes and away from their parents and, among other things, forced incarceration for what can be nothing more than teenagers being teenagers, more importantly before they have not done ANYTHING wrong?

    Sure, they picked on the one glaring example, but how many times have their (or will they) "threat assessors" removed kids from a home incorrectly and create the very same hate filled monsters they are supposedly "treating".

    All the while, completely ignoring the FACT that if this little f-tard did not have guns lying all over the house, NONE of this massacre could have happened (his parents deserve to thrown in prison for life without parole)?

    By G*D we will protect our rights to have easy access to machine guns and bazookas, but rather than dealing with that, we will go full Minority Report on our school children?

    If this profiling BS worked as well as the Mother Jones article is attempting to portray, why not use this to first screen our politicians and civic leaders and weed out the psychopaths, anarchists and wannabe tyrants among them?

    Yikes.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2023
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  14. citygator

    citygator VIP Member

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    IMG_0106.jpeg
     
  15. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    Yes, it bothers me a lot. Humans aren’t perfect and will make mistakes but there could be degrees of intervention, right? Some kids get counseling, some might get a more intrusive response. There are a whole lot of families missing their loved ones who wish someone had done something to the psychopath before he took a gun to school/work.
     
  16. WC53

    WC53 GC Hall of Fame

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    In many of the teen cases, they are documented in school files which stay private. People make crazy statements and undirected threats every day. The numbers are staggering. There are few laws to deal with those individuals. Make asylums great again?
     
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  17. l_boy

    l_boy 5500

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    In my case, I have significant reservations, but given the state of where we are I think it is worth a shot. I agree the whole guns thing is ridiculous but it isn’t changing any time soon. I don’t know that what you quoted was necessarily forced institutionalization. But to an extent that already exists. If you make specific threats, you can be committed to an institution without your permission as an adult. I think as a parent you can override it, but it is an uphill battle. Trust me, I speak from experience.