Mass shooting(s) after Orlando (amended title)
Moderator's Note
Thread opened for maximum visibilty with No.3 post and first two posts moved from the main thread on Terrorism in the USA, into which one day this thread is likely to be merged:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=24078
Thread title changed to Mass shooting(s) after Orlando (ends).
Another mass shooting, this one determined to be a 'lone wolf' attack with the perpetrating having ties to radical Islamism:
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Approximately 20 people are dead inside Pulse, a gay nightclub, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said Sunday morning, just hours after a shooter opened fire in what authorities are saying is a domestic terror attack.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orl...club-shooting/
The use of the term 'lone wolf'. I personally dislike it as it implies that incidents of these types are unrelated and therefore there is not a strategy to counter them. Often these attacks are related in both means (i.e. guns) and motive (i.e. ideology). Combating either is an opportunity for risk reduction. Note that the attacker in this case had both guns and a explosive device, which apparently did not detonate. Guns will continue replacing bombs as the most reliable weapons of terror, especially in scenarios where there is not a sophisticated network in operation.
Note: The Independent is reporting that over 50 people have been killed.
Orlando shooting: more of the same or different?
Is this massacre at a gay night club in Orlando, Florida a "lone wolf" attack or an act of Jihadist-inspired terrorism or yet another mass killing?
The second link refers to
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Mateen's father Mir Seddique told NBC News that the incident had nothing to do with religion, but may have been triggered by the sight of a gay couple kissing in Miami.
I say another mass killing prompted by:
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According to the Mass Shooting Tracker, the US last year suffered 372 mass shootings, defined as a single incident that kills or injures four or more people. Some 475 people were killed and 1,870 wounded.
I have only read two BBC reports:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36511778 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36512308
That the target premises was a well known gay night club earlier today led to speculation that is what made the premises a Jihadist target.
IIRC in the UK we have had Jihadist, both "lone wolves" and organised groups, plot to attack night clubs - to achieve mass casualties. Notably the two VBIEDs left outside a London night club in 2007. There was a another VBIED left near the route of a Gay Pride March around the same time IIRC.
Six things Americans should know about mass shootings
Islamophobia: the catalyst for radicalisation?
An article that is topical and the sub-title says:
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The evidence shows that alienating an entire religious community, as Donald Trump has done, will make us less safe. There are better ways to fight extremism
Link:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/13/radicalisation-islamophobia-orlando-shooting-florida-muslims-trump?
Pay More Attention To The Father
IMO there is more to the father then is being presented.
Why mass killings are increasing?
I spotted this article via Twitter and it's application is general to US society, not just these murders:https://warisboring.com/what-on-kill...0f1#.6hssdabyf
It starts with:
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Dave Grossman’s 1996 book
On Killing is a landmark and studied account of how — and why — human beings have inhibitions toward killing others, and how the U.S. military turned its soldiers into far more lethal killers with intense conditioning following World War II.In an updated edition, he warns that these same psychological inhibitions are eroding within American society, but with fewer safeguards, allowing sociopathic tendencies to arise and enable mass violence.
(
Later the author asks) But the question we need to ask is, What makes today’s children bring those guns to school when their parents did not? And the answer to that question may be that the important ingredient, the vital, new, different ingredient in killing in modern combat and in killing in modern American society, is the systematic process of defeating the normal individual’s age-old, psychological inhibition against violent, harmful activity toward one’s own species. Are we taking the safety catch off of a nation, just as surely and easily as we would take the safety catch off of a gun, and with the same results?
A UK academic psychologist offers a viewpoint:https://theconversation.com/can-we-predict-who-will-become-mass-shooters-60969?
America in the Age of Active Shooters
From The Soufan Group:
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Bottom Line Up Front: • A September 26 shooting in Houston, TX, that left 9 wounded and the shooter dead is just the latest in a surge of active shooter situations.
• Three days earlier, a man killed five people in a Burlington, WA, mall with a rifle, forcing an evacuation and calls to shelter in place.
• Law enforcement procedures for active shooters were altered in the wake of the Columbine High School shooting to reflect the urgent need to neutralize the threat as quickly as possible.
• With the confusion inherent in any report of shots fired—coupled with a country on edge over terrorism—active shooters present a massive challenge for law enforcement.
Link:http://soufangroup.com/tsg-intelbrie...tive-shooters/
Pointer to info source and views
There have been mass shootings all to often since the last post in September 2016; some may have appeared on the Terrorism in the USA thread. Just checked there was no Forum post on the Las Vegas shooting of six hundred people.
Following the Texas church shooting I read a number of articles and this one stuck in my mind as a useful source of information - partly due to clear graphics. Secondly it takes a public health approach.
The Key would not copy for the below maps; situation in 1991 (left) and today (right). Red for Allowed and grey Not Allowed.
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphic...ncarry-720.png
Link:https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/06/opinion/how-to-reduce-shootings.html?
This thread did have 8,458 views just over a year ago and today has had 42,869 views - another indicator of use to readers, even if no discussion has ensued.
Meet Mrs Straight Up Accomplice to Murder
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The wife of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen told the FBI in the hours after the 2016 massacre that she knew he was plotting "to do something bad" and that he revealed, "This is my target," according to a new court document.
The 12-page statement that authorities say Noor Salman gave was released late last month as part of the case against her. Federal prosecutors initially said during a hearing early last year that Salman had known ahead of time about Mateen's plans and even helped him to scout Pulse, a popular gay nightclub, as the location for his rampage.
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/or...tement-n835221
Why Lone Wolf Attacks Are So Hard To Predict
A good article after this week's shooting in Florida:
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merging these disparate pieces of data together to fuel a global, real-time threat screener that can be applied to the population at large will remain impossible for all practical purposes
Link:http://www.defenseone.com/business/2...redict/118279/
Now it does not help when the FBI get a citizen's call and appear to have dismissed it as a credible pointer.
How school shootings catch on.
One of the better articles I have read since the latest shooting and the author is Malcolm Gladwell; he does not refer to the latest shooting.
He ends with:
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The problem is not that there is an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. It’s worse. It’s that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts.
Link:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...s-of-violence?
Seconds mattered: How BSO's response at Parkland went wrong in 11 minutes
A detailed report from the Miami Herald on the shooting and what went wrong. It is not an easy read and the blame does not rest with the Schools Officer present.
Link:http://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article209887469.html?
FBI Releases Study of Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters
Captured via Twitter this 28 page report, mainly from their Behavioural Analysis Unit (BAU) and sub-titled:
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This report, covering active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013, examines specific behaviors that may precede an attack and that might be useful in identifying, assessing, and managing those who may be on a pathway to violence.
Link:https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/...-2013.pdf/view
It is the second part of a research programme, Part One was published in 2014, which had a different focus.
National security in a nation of mass shootings
From The Soufan Group and more direct than normal. BLUF:
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- On November 7, a man with a handgun murdered 11 people inside a bar in Thousand Oaks, California.
- The Thousand Oaks shooting was the fourth such case in the U.S., with ten or more killed, since the start of 2018.
- The rate of these high-fatality attacks has increased, while overall crime trends remain low throughout most of the country.
- The U.S. is the only developed nation that produces and experiences this level of mass shootings as well as overall gun deaths.
Link:http://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrie...ass-shootings/
The School Shooter –A Quick Reference Guide from the FBI
This is a one page summary of the work by the Behavioral Analysis Unit, dated March 2018. More of a starting point, even a poster / aide memoir for LE and others: https://info.publicintelligence.net/...renceGuide.pdf