Why California shooting is rare among US mass shootings

New York, Dec 4 

 The deadly California mass shooting that left 14 people killed and 17 others injured marked the 355th mass shooting in the US in less than as many days in 2015, experts report.

As more details are yet to emerge regarding the gun violence at a holiday party, it is clear that these types of crimes are morphing and not abating.

“Shootings involving mission-oriented females may be a new threshold which should be concerning to all of us and the incident in San Bernardino might just be a hybrid, and a harbinger, of shootings to come,” said Mary Ellen O'Toole, director of forensic science programme at George Mason University.

A “hybrid” means a spinoff from other cases of mass murder.

“Like a cancer, this crime is moving and growing in insidious ways, and is resistant to 'treatment',” Dr O'Toole added.

As described in the article titled “The Mission-Oriented Shooter: A New Type of Mass Killer” published in the journal Violence and Gender, a mission-oriented shooter is a person whose mission is to kill as many people as possible, or to achieve maximum lethality.

These particular crimes are well planned and can involve months and even years of preparation.

In contrast to more recent mass shootings, the one that took place in San Bernardino is the first since Columbine high school shooting to involve more than one of these types of shooters and, perhaps more surprisingly, the first to have involved a female shooter.

“Guns, clearly, are the elephant in the room but from a behavioral perspective, the 'character' and morality of people in this country appears to be seriously degrading,” Dr O'Toole noted.

“The lack of compassion, lack of guilt and empathy, an embrace of violence as a method to handle world problems, and a generalised world hatred push those people towards guns to carry out their desire for human destruction,” the author wrote.

According to Jeremy Richman, director of the Avielle Foundation that publishes Violence and Gender journal, we must push for brain health advocacy and research as we are all responsible for meaningful change.

The Muslim Peace Coalition (www.MuslimPeaceCoalitionusa.org) condemned unequivocally the senseless mass shooting in San Bernardino yesterday that has killed 14 innocent people and injured many more. "Our sincerest prayers are for the victims and their families. Let us, as a nation. stand united and in solidarity with the victims," said Dr. Shaik Ubaid, the co-chair of the New York chapter of the Muslim Peace Coalition. The Coalition asserted that Islam denounces the taking of innocent lives, and teaches that the murder of one innocent person is like the murder of all of humanity.  

"The federal and local investigative agencies are working round the clock to determine the motive behind  the killings - whether it was a job dispute or ideological terrorism.  MPC appeals to the politicians and the media not to jump to conclusions nor to contribute to stereotyping or fear mongering. What ever the motive may be, the easy availability of guns, especially assault weapons, makes it easier for the angry or insane people to commit such heinous crimes. The whole nation should now come together to get these guns banned," stated Dr. Ubaid 

The Coalition has appealed to the Muslims in New York and across the nation to offer prayers for the victims during the early after noon Muslim Sabbath services on Friday.