From the start, I had an image in my mind of who would do such a thing as what happened in San Bernardino yesterday: a white man, probably fair-haired and certainly crazy-eyed. As in the case of, you know. Planned Parenthood. Charleston. Sandy Hook. Santa Barbara. Any number of shooters behind double-digit death tolls. (Insane that we barely register the firearm killings with body counts of four or five -- this is the 355th mass shooting this year, remember -- but that's another story.)
We aren't wrong to link homegrown mass killing behavior with men. The stereotypes are accurate; a 2009 study in theJournal of Police and Criminal Psychology entitled "The Nature of Mass Murder and Autogenic Massacre" notes, "Methods most prominently used include firearms by males who have experienced challenging setbacks in important social, familial, and vocational domains." Men … with guns … and frustration.
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