1. Recognize the patterns beforehand
Before carrying out the deadly attack, the Oxford High School shooter made a series of violent posts online as well as recorded a cellphone video in which he spoke about his desire to kill his classmates. Posting violent content online is often one of the many signs of potential school shooters.
Mia Bloom and Volkan Topalli, both scholars of criminal justice at Georgia State University, explain how online violence can transform into real-world violence.
“Our own assessment of what is publicly known about this material suggests striking similarities between [the Oxford High School shooter’s] behaviors before the shooting and the types of radical online content – manifested in memes, images and gaming platforms – most often associated with violent extremist groups that target and recruit young people,” Bloom and Topalli write.
Other patterns include exhibiting disturbing behavior like drawing violent images in journals, as well as a focus on “perceived enemies.”
“Identifying and getting to would-be shooters before they can move from the hypothetical online world to the physical real world is critical,” the authors write. “Reading those signals and setting up early warning interventions before they turn into a tragedy is critical work for those in public safety and academia.”