The recent shootings in El Paso and Dayton raise questions about the motivations of mass shooters. Munk Senior Fellow Christian Leuprecht spoke to Global News about the complexity of analysing this phenomenon.
Mass shooters are normally young males with a range of issues. As Leuprecht notes, they often have “trouble in school, they have trouble with friends, they are having trouble holding down a job, they often have mental health struggles.”
Compounding this issue is US gun culture and availability. Yet mass shooting are also not unique to the US – as shown in the mass shooting in a mosque in Quebec City.
Leuprecht also points out that attempts to stop hate speech on social media have proven difficult: “By virtue of the Dark Net and the ability to hide on the Internet, if you know what you’re doing you will always be able to escape these types of mechanisms.”
