Mass Shooting Reduction

Note: This is a static version of a reddit comment by /u/sjalexander117. The original comment can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskALiberal/comments/ux2koc/gun_control_unnecessary_and_necessary_control/i9vcpbs/

Why do mass shooters do it?

4 common traits have been found:

1. Early childhood trauma and adverse childhood experience (ACEs)
2. "an identifiable crisis point in the weeks or months leading up to the shooting"
3. "[M]ost of the shooters had studied the actions of other shooters and sought validation for their motives... They [mass shootings] are socially contagious."
4. "[T]he shooters all had the means to carry out their plans."

Prevention

• Stronger, more holistic, and long term interventions for mental health issues
• Early identification of children who experience ACEs and particularly those that cope badly
• Long term support for talk therapy, psychiatry, and, critically,
• interventions during times of crisis
• 56% of mass shooters exhibited dangerous warning signs before shooting
• Universal background checks and closing background search loopholes
• Filling out a mental health questionnaire at point of purchase + immediate (non-punitive) follow on for those in crisis
• Waiting periods for guns
• Strengthening NICS data for gun vendors and FFL holders
• Funding gun violence research by public health professionals
• Stronger enforcement of existing laws
• 1/3rd of mass shooters were prohibited from legal firearm ownership
• Red flag laws (that provide support and temporarily restrict access to firearms)
• Preventing domestic abusers from access to and acquiring firearms
• "Every month, an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner"
• Opening up legal ramifications through criminal consequences and litigation to:
• Parents/ caretakers/ other authority figures adjacent to the shooter
• Manufacturers and sellers of guns
• Safe storage laws, particularly for students at public schools
• Gun theft is a major source of illicit guns
• Want your kid to attend this school? You need to disclose the presence of a firearm and prove that it is safely stored
• Changes in culture:
• Don't share or name articles about mass shootings (hurt the news media in their pocket books)
• Don't read their manifestos, don't share them
• Don't upload or watch videos of the shooting
• Stop hatred on the basis of sex, race, religion, etc. and don't allow people with hate crime convictions to get guns
• "Current federal and state gun laws do not adequately address the problem. While all felonies prohibit gun possession under federal law, most misdemeanors, including hate crime misdemeanors, do not"
• Change our culture of lax gun safety
• "If you see something, say something" for anyone with access to guns in your life
• "[In] 56 percent of [of mass shootings]... a shooter exhibited at least one dangerous warning sign prior to the shooting."

Reduction of Severity

• Enact magazine size limitations and restrictions on types of firearms
• "Assault weapons led to 6x as many people shot per mass shooting"
• "High-capacity magazines led to 5x as many people shot per mass shooting"
• Trauma care and medical coverage for victims, families, bystanders, first responders and caretakers
• Everyone involved in a mass shooting is horribly affected by exposure to it and this is damage that also needs to be reduced and minimized
• Drilling and preparing for mass shooting emergencies

Donate to gun research and anti-gun violence advocacy groups:

• The Trace
• Everytown
• Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
• The Brady Campaign
• Newtown Action Alliance
• Violence Policy Center