Who Are Mass Murderers
and Why Do They Kill?

From DRGO. September 27, 2018>

[Ed: Continuing with our presentations at the 2018 Gun Rights Policy Conference, this is Dr. Young's talk, somewhat expanded here.]

I thought we might talk about mass murderers, who they are and why they kill. Most use firearms, but the issues are the same regardless of the methods. This is not a major cause of mortality, but worth addressing just because everyone is talking about it.

First, some perspective. The FBI defines mass murders as 4 fatalities (not including the perpetrator) killed in one episode by a stranger. This excludes domestic violence, family slaughters and less accomplished attempts at mass murder. (Multiple family murders are different in that they are crimes of violence.) There is controversy about how many fatalities, injuries or circumstances should be defined as mass murder or attempts, but the FBI definition clearly includes unequivocal mass murder, whereas lesser events can sometimes be interpreted in other ways.

There have been on average well under 100 fatalities from these per year in the U.S. since 1982 (2017 is an outlier with 117). This represents less than 1/3% of all deaths by gunshot, and less than 1% of all homicides--not a significant risk by any standard. .......

DRGO Editor Robert B. Young, MD is a psychiatrist practicing in Pittsford, NY. He goes into considerable detail on the subject of mass murderers, looking at the many factors that he considers contribute to the problem, of which there are potentially a great many - one notably being the 'gun-free-zone'.
It is predictable that when these murders occur with a firearm they consistently provide the classic call for more 'gun control', which logic tells us is not the answer at all and can only penalize the law abiding citizen.

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You just have to love freedom.

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