Pre-attack behavior report

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Having worked in a university and come across a few suspect actors, plus being a psychologist - this is very interesting.

https://www.police1.com/active-shoot...e84c8-83999136

Had a few that I thought that could be threats and one that did make such but never realized, thank God.

[Totem Polar]

Interesting read, thanks.

[RJ]

Thanks Glenn, good info.

Could you elaborate on “ideation”? I saw that term used but wasn’t sure exactly what it meant in this context. Example was “ideation of suicide.”, I guess meaning they had thoughts of suicide?

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Yeah, dwelling on thoughts of suicide. It's thought that some active shooters are:

1. Suicidal
2. They dwell on their death and the form of it.
3. They want the death to have meaning
4. They want to die a 'warriors' death.
5. That's because they don't want to be seen as a lone loser who just kills him or herself.
6. Thus, they want to attack and probably die in the fight and the fight:
a. gets revenge for some slight
b. will make a point that might institute some societal change for the issue that they feel affected them. This is a form of pro-social behavior, they are changing society for the good. Sometimes called reciprocal altruism.
7. Thinking about the act and their death and the results gives them an imaginary thrill called vicarious reinforcement.
8. Watching and studying previous attacks gives them ideas as to methods and fuels their vicarious reinforcement. Thus, criminologists and psychologists tear their hair out over the extreme coverage of the emotional aftermath. Crying relatives, etc. - hey, I want my act to produce the same grief in the relatives of the people I dislike. Tracy and Chad were wonderful kids, on the teams, blah, blah. Now they are gone.

That's one picture, there are others. Most attacks have a high probability of being caught and shot. If you just wanted to kill, like the DC snipers there are better ways. Thus, the idea of their ideation.