The NRA published an article in the wake of three deadly mass shootings citing our op-ed from August 2019, “We Have Studied Every Mass Shooting Since 1966. Here’s What We’ve Learned About The Shooters.” From the NRA:
“Peterson and Densley wrote in the L.A. Times almost two years ago that, ‘most of the shooters had studied the actions of other shooters and sought validation for their motives. People in crisis have always existed. But in the age of 24-hour rolling news and social media, there are scripts to follow that promise notoriety in death. Societal fear and fascination with mass shootings partly drives the motivation to commit them. Hence, as we have seen in the last week, mass shootings tend to come in clusters. They are socially contagious. Perpetrators study other perpetrators and model their acts after previous shootings. Many are radicalized online in their search for validation from others that their will to murder is justified.’
Those words are unfortunately as true today as they were in 2019. Peterson and Densley explain that the contagion effect that contributes to mass shootings is similar to the copy-cat serial killers of previous decades. ‘After serial killing peaked in the late 1980s, it’s hard to know which faded first — the serial killers themselves or the public obsession with them. The same fear and fascination that created the serial killer panic is what drives the Columbine effect.'”