You know how we always say “This time it’s going to be different” when there is a mass shooting? But then there really is no difference after that incident–until the next shooting when we say “This time it’s going to be different”? Well, in the case of yesterday’s school shooting in Florida, things will be very different–because this time, the shooter was taken alive.
Like capturing Al Qaeda or ISIS operatives, the arrest of Nickolas Cruz should give us incredible insight into the mind and thought process of a mass shooter that we could not gain after Columbine, Newtown, or Las Vegas–where the shooters either took their own lives, or were shot dead by police. And hopefully from Cruz we can learn the warning signs, tactics and steps to take to prevent the next mass shooting.
We already knew that Cruz had a history of erratic and violent behavior that had him in trouble at the school for years and ultimately resulted in his expulsion. Now is the time to figure out why he acted the way he did. How does he think his parents feel about him? How did his interactions with classmates make him feel–and how did he come to see them as people that needed to die? How did treatment by faculty and administrators fuel his anger? What kind of reaction was he hoping to get the first time he told friends he was going to “shoot up the school”?
Investigators can also get concrete evidence on how much time Cruz spent playing first-person shooter video games. When he started planning his attack on the school. How much research he did on previous school shootings. What he thought when he saw extensive media coverage of previous school shootings. How he plotted his attack to “maximize damage”. How he planned out the purchase of his gun, ammunition, and smoke bombs so as not to draw attention to himself. Did he know that there would be no resistance to his attack, as the school is a “gun-free zone” and that liason officers were removed because they “send the wrong message to students of color”? And why he chose the day he did for his attack.
Yes, this time is going to be different. This time we are going to learn why these school shooters do what they do. This time we are going to learn the warning signs and the behaviors that set these boys and men on the path to mass murder. And this time we are going to start treating those unstable individuals as the threats they are–and not just “troubled youth that need more love”.
