The rising incidence of mass shootings confronts the nation with an unrelenting public safety emergency. The assumed responsibility for these devastating attacks falls on failures to address the mental health crisis or enact policy to restrict access to weapons. In addition, critics say media sensationalism exacerbates the social and cultural upheaval surrounding the aftermath. However, redirection of our focus from misguided blame to the emerging field of behavioral threat assessment might provide the remedy to an enduring epidemic.
In his new book Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America, San Francisco-based award-winning journalist and editor Mark Follman details the discovery of a breakthrough in threat prevention. He identifies the "warning behaviors" that signal a mass shooter and provides an insider account of the search for a revolutionary method for thwarting deadly attacks. Through interviews with threat assessment practitioners, defendants in insanity cases, and victims of attacks, Follman creates an insightful and comprehensive narrative of the story toward progress.
Join us as Follman takes us deeper into his 8-year project and how behavioral threat assessment is forging the race to stop planned acts of violence ahead.
MLF ORGANIZER
George Hammond
NOTES
MLF: Humanities
Mark Follman
National Affairs Editor, Mother Jones; Author, Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America; Twitter @markfollman
In Conversation with Monika Bauerlein
CEO, Mother Jones