The Second Amendment and Targeted K-12 School Shootings: An American Dilemma

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A U.S. SECRET SERVICE ANALYSIS OF TARGETED K-12 SCHOOL VIOLENCE

In 2019, the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center studied 41 incidents of targeted school violence that occurred at K-12 schools in the United States from 2008 to 2017. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the motives, behaviors, and situational factors of the attackers, as well as the tactics, resolutions, and other operationally relevant details of the attacks.

Summary of Key Findings

• There is no profile of a student attacker, nor is there a profile for the type of school that has been targeted.

• Attackers usually had multiple motives, the most common involving a grievance with classmates. Attackers were also motivated by grievances involving school staff, romantic relationships, or other personal issues. Other motives included a desire to kill, suicide, and seeking fame or notoriety.

• Most attackers used firearms. The firearms were most often acquired from the home; many of the attackers were able to access firearms from the home of their parents or another close relative.

• Half of the attackers had interests in violent topics. For example, a student who is preoccupied or fixated on topics like the Columbine shooting or Hitler, as was noted in the backgrounds of several of the attackers in this study, may be the focus of a school threat assessment to determine how such an interest originated and if the interest negatively impacts the student’s thinking and behavior.

• All attackers experienced social stressors involving their relationships with peers and/or romantic partners. Attackers experienced stressors in various areas of their lives, with nearly all experiencing at least one in the six months prior to their attack and half within two days of the attack. In addition to social stressors, other stressors experienced by many of the attackers were related to families and conflicts in the home, academic or disciplinary actions, or other personal issues.

• Nearly every attacker experienced negative home life factors. The negative home life factors experienced by the attackers included parental separation or divorce, drug use or criminal charges among family members, and domestic abuse.

• Most attackers were victims of bullying, which was often observed by others. Most of the attackers were bullied by their classmates, and for over half of the attackers, the bullying appeared to be of a persistent pattern which lasted for weeks, months, or years.

• Most attackers had a history of school disciplinary actions, and many had prior contact with law enforcement.

• All attackers exhibited concerning behaviors. Most elicited concern from others, and most communicated their intent to attack. The behaviors that elicited concern ranged from a constellation of lower-level concerns to objectively concerning or prohibited behaviors. Most of the attackers communicated a prior threat to their target or communicated their intentions to carry out an attack. In many cases, someone observed a threatening communication or behavior but did not act, either out of fear, not believing the attacker, misjudging the immediacy or location, or believing they had dissuaded the attacker.

The Levin and Madfis Sequential Model for Mass Murder at School

In its report, the Secret Service conducted an analysis into the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School using the Levin and Madfis Sequential Model for Mass Murder at School.

Levin and Mafis proposed a Five Stage Sequential Model to explain what might lead students to commit mass murder at their schools. Each distinct stage is hypothesized as a necessary condition, but it is the cumulative strain where these different factors intersect and build on each other that is viewed as leading to a school shooting. The five stages are Chronic Strain, Uncontrolled Strain, Acute Strain, The Planning Stage, and Massacre at School.

Levin and Madfis’s first stage is Chronic Strain. Strain includes a range of negative experiences or events in social relationships at school, home, work, or in the neighborhood where the individual resides that result in anger, frustration, disappointment, depression, fear, and, eventually, crime.

When strain becomes intense and continues for a considerable amount of time, it becomes “Chronic Strain.” Chronic Strain appears to be a major factor for school shooters as most felt bullied, threatened, or injured by others and had a history of extreme depression and difficulties coping with significant losses. School shooters often have had stressful conditions at home or school. They found that school shooters felt chronic rejection in 13 of the 15 school shooting incidents that they analyzed.

Another source of strain for school shooters can stem from interpersonal relationships at school. Middle and high school students often measure their success in life in terms of their popularity with peers and, as their research noted, most school shooters felt bullied, threatened, or injured by others. Chronic Strain alone does not lead individuals to become school shooters. Many young individuals experience these forms of Chronic Strain and do not become attackers, and so other psychologically moderating factors must be in play as well.

Levin and Madfis’s second stage is Uncontrolled Strain, during which the strains of everyday life are left unchecked by the absence of conventional and/or prosocial relationships. Although it was noted that attackers ranged from socially isolated to popular among their peers, 34% of the attackers were characterized by others as “loners” or viewed themselves as loners. In an attempt to lessen the effect of the Chronic Strain, teens may externalize responsibility for failures that can then increase isolation.

Levin and Madfis’s third stage, Acute Strain, takes place when some loss is perceived as catastrophic by the attacker. Acute Strain consists of short-term, but especially upsetting, events that seem catastrophic to an already troubled and isolated individual.

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Acute Strain in the presence of long-term Chronic Strain leads the potential shooter to feel that there is nothing left to lose and leads to the fourth stage, the Planning Stage. Once the attacker decides to commit a massacre, some time is spent planning, as mass murder is not a simple criminal act. Most attackers develop a plan at least two days before carrying out the attack, and some spend much more time. For example, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold spent more than a year preparing for their attack at Columbine High School. Time was spent obtaining and modifying guns, and their attack was timed to be on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday.

School massacres are rarely impulsive or spontaneous attacks. School shooters also tend to not have histories of having had a mental health evaluation and to not be diagnosed with a mental disorder. This mental health background is consistent with the fact that school shooters do not suddenly “snap” and commit attacks but rather plan them out. The attack acts as a solution to the shooters’ most serious issues of damaged personal identity and self-worth. Attackers see the shooting as a means of forcing others to take notice of them. In addition, a school massacre is used as a way of asserting masculinity as much of Western culture associates violence with masculinity. Ultimately, ignored and emasculated young males believe that a massive shooting will help them regain lost feelings of power, pride, and masculinity, and may also have them achieve international attention.

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