Well, according to MtnGoat of RCGroup blog ... those common threads have one disturbing source:
Top Five Mass Shootings share another common thread
by MtnGoat, rcgroups.com -- Jan 22, 2013
[...]
1) Ft Hood: Registered Democrat/Muslim.
2) Columbine: Too young to vote; both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals.
3) Virginia Tech: Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff.
4) Colorado Theater: Registered Democrat; staff worker on the Obama campaign; Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal.
5) Connecticut School Shooter: Registered Democrat; hated Christians.
Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive liberal Democrats.
Well ain't that something? Too bad MtnGoat's source for this has a decidedly
right-wing radio slant.
One of MtnGoat's commenters goes on to suggest:
Time to lock up white male democrats for safety.
Apparently that's their solution to everything.
Lock em up. Shut down any rational debate.
Here's a more scientific, clinical view of this difficult topic:
Mass Shootings: Why It's So Hard to Predict Who Will Snap
by Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer -- 23 July 2012
[...]
"Each one is a recipe with some common ingredients, perhaps, but then ingredients that differ," Farley told LiveScience [Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University and the past president of the American Psychological Association]. "For example, many are white males between 20 and 30. On the other hand, there are millions of such males in this country."
And there are exceptions to every trend. Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 during a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech in 2007, was of Korean descent. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., were 18 and 17 years old, respectively. In a relatively rare case of a female perpetrator, University of Alabama, Huntsville professor Amy Bishop has been charged with killing three and injuring three more during a workplace shooting in 2010.
Mass killers can target strangers, coworkers or family members, Muscari said. A common motive is revenge, she added.
[...]
In other words, many mass shooters, rather than wanting to be alone, have a history of struggling to connect. They experience rejection by their peers or they draw back from potential friendships, assuming they'll be rejected if they try. They believe they're perceived as insignificant, Newman told LiveScience.
"They want to be seen as notorious, and unfortunately, there's a lot of social reinforcement for the glamour of being notorious," she said. "They imagine how cool it will be when everybody knows their name … I know this sounds absurd, but in some ways, revulsion or notoriety is preferable from their point of view from anonymous and insignificant."
[...]
OK that's interesting. And disturbing too, all at the same time. Sounds a lot like they are describing an over-the-top lash-back response,
to constantly being the victim of Bullying behavior. Eventually something just snaps in these social outcasts. Eventually some mis-directed/random rage is employed as some sort of final payback, towards their perceived oppressors.
If only Guns weren't so easily available, at such snapping points -- for them to so easily stake their claim to hateful fame. To claim their Fifteen Minutes of nationwide Notoriety. To make their inexplicable statement of fear and horror to those they happen to run into, in their uncaring world.
If only 'taking Revenge' weren't portrayed as an acceptable, and sometimes even noble, societal solution to so many kinds of human conflict. Maybe these extremely troubled young men (and occasional women), would not see Rage and Revenge as an "acceptable" solution, to their lifelong anti-social torments, too.
Then again, some people are just born and raised to be mean. And nothing much will help them -- except for maybe genuine human friendships. Acceptance, trust, growth. What Springsteen calls that Human Touch.
If you have time read the article, there's more to it, than what I posted here. There usually is. We each are a complex story waiting to be told. As if ... the opportunity abounds, in the modern Twitter-world.
And we do each live and try to survive, within a complex social fabric, composed of many different and sometimes-quite-fragile human threads.
It's best to be kind to others, whenever possible. That's my theory, anyways.
That alone would make the world a "better place" ... in no time flat. Said the progressive idealist, to no one in particular. Love is far better, than Hate. A handshake's far better, than the point of a gun.