About three-quarters of mass attacks in the U.S. between 2016 and 2020 involved firearms, according to a landmark Secret Service report released Wednesday, and one-third of mass shootings in that period were carried out by people legally prohibited from possessing guns.
The study, by the agency’s National Threat Assessment Center, analyzed 173 domestic attacks to identify signs that could predict a person’s potential for violence. The NTAC found that most attackers exhibited behavior that elicited concern from family members; half were motivated by personal, domestic, or workplace issues; and one-quarter subscribed to a conspiratorial belief system or hateful ideology. The report concludes that behavioral threat assessment — a strategy to assess and intervene with a person who may pose a danger — is integral to community violence intervention efforts.
Get the Bulletin in your inbox. Sign up for our newsletters here.What to Know Today
Violence among young people has dramatically increased since 2020, reversing a decadeslong decline. In many cases, kids are killing other kids. [The Wall Street Journal]
In 2022, the U.S. saw its first mass killing on January 23. By the same time this year, there had been six. [Associated Press]
The National Rifle Association joined a federal challenge to an Illinois assault weapons ban, the latest in a number of suits from firearms groups and gun owners seeking to overturn the nascent law. Two lawyers who helped win Bruen will make the NRA’s case. [Chicago Sun-Times]
A Philadelphia anti-violence program grant is the subject of at least two investigations for improperly funneling $76,000 to city Police Department staffers. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Before this week, immigrants in California were already more worried about becoming victims of gun violence than those born in the U.S. Back-to-back shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay have heightened some immigrants’ fears. [Reuters]
Three people were killed in a shooting at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington. Police haven’t identified a motive — the suspect didn’t conceal his identity or try to take anything from the store. [Yakima Herald-Republic]
In the five hours it took police to warn the public that the Monterey Park shooter was on the loose, 26-year-old Brandon Tsay disarmed the gunman and prevented an attack on his family’s dance studio. As mass shootings become an everyday occurrence, are Americans trained to “Run, Hide, Fight” increasingly opting for the latter? [Associated Press/The New York Times]
Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, introduced legislation to end “qualified immunity” for police. This would make it easier for Robb Elementary School families to sue law enforcement officials over the botched response to the massacre. [The Texas Tribune] Context: Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that shields police from civil rights lawsuits over their actions on the job.
Gun violence isn’t rare near MacArthur Boulevard and Seminary Avenue in East Oakland, California, where a teenager was killed in a mass shooting this week. Community members are frustrated with the episodic violence, but also don’t want the neighborhood defined by it. [The Oaklandside]
Data Point
41 percent — the proportion of people who carried out a mass attack, between 2016 and 2020, who had a history of domestic violence. [National Threat Assessment Center]
