On Sept. 4, 14-year-old Colt Gray armed himself with an AR-platform gun and shot and killed four individuals and wounded another nine at Apalachee High School near Winder, Ga. Is there a way that another senseless tragedy like this can be avoided?
I decided to investigate mass shootings myself using some basic research skills and good old common sense. In the Violence Prevention Project database, which contains information on nearly 200 such events, I began my search for answers.
After reading newspaper articles, video clips and online entries, I noticed a basic pattern: A person turns homicidal, easily procures firearms and catches the police unprepared.
This seems obvious, but there was a non-obvious connection of each event to a gun policy: Gun rights (“Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”), gun control (“Yes, but guns are the instruments of death.”), anti-gun violence (“Gun violence endangers public safety.”).
It was not a stretch to attach a gun policy to a political party’s explanation for mass shootings: Republican (mental illness), Democratic (assault rifles), independent (absent law enforcement).
So far, so good. But to understand what connected these to each other, I had to delve into criminal justice literature. To commit a crime, you need three causes: motivation (like an incentive), ability (like an enabler) and opportunity (like a chance). Take any one of these away, and a crime will not be committed.
This framework explains the pointless bickering in Washington among Republicans, Democrats and independents. They think they are talking about the same cause when in fact they are really talking about three different causes.
Republicans obsess over the motivation-based mental illness, Democrats obsess over the ability-based assault rifles and independents obsess over the opportunity-based absent law enforcement.
These parties should talk to each other, but instead they talk past each other — or they don’t talk at all.
But almost by definition, a mass shooter is a homicidal maniac who brandishes a loaded AR-15 and catches the cops flat-footed. You need all three simultaneously, not just any one or two. This, I believe, is the real source of frustration and confusion on Capitol Hill.
Despite these insights, the strong solidarity needed in Washington today to combat this issue is not within our ken because it requires a level of teamwork that, for political reasons, we cannot even consider. We cannot wait for Washington. Can we hold out for a “silver bullet” at the state or local levels?
Consider this. The Sheehan-Homicidality Tracking Scale (S-HTS) is a 16-question test that detects homicidal thoughts. Think of it like those “field sobriety tests” employed by police officers when they suspect DUI. Even clever drunks give themselves away because they cannot walk a straight line, stand on one foot or gaze at a moving object, no matter how hard they try.
Similarly, homicidal gun applicants are completely stumped by the S-HTS when they try to conceal their murderous intentions over the course of 16 hard-charging, probing questions. Administered at gun shows, brick-and-mortar dealerships and online retailers, the S-HTS would cancel out the beginning observation.
Fail homicidal test-takers on the spot, alert the merchant not to sell them guns and notify the local precinct of these persons of interest. And all before a crime is committed! By disrupting mass shooters’ three causes — their motivation, ability and opportunity — all in one fell swoop, the S-HTS sends them packing straight to Hell. And that’s the silver bullet we need.
Can we test people for their right to bear arms? It would seem unconstitutional. However, this country has a longstanding prohibition against the mentally ill and felons who are dangerous from owning guns. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that firearm regulations must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition, tradition speaks to stopping these two homicidal types from gun ownership. Let us reach back to our country’s founding to move forward to a better, safer, future.
Jason W. Park, a mental health advocate based in Los Angeles, earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of the memoir, “Bliss + Blues = Bipolar: My Memoir of My Ups and Downs Living with Bipolar Disorder.”
