Mark Follman: Stopping Mass Shootings in America

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.

SPEAKERS

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

The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum 📣, bringing together its 20,000 members for more than 500 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy.

Founded in 1903 in San Francisco California 🌉, The Commonwealth Club has played host to a diverse and distinctive array of speakers, from Teddy Roosevelt in 1911 to Anthony Fauci in 2020.

In addition to the videos🎥 shared here, the Club reaches millions of listeners through its podcast🎙 and weekly national radio program📻.

[stregalilith]

Thank you Monica and the Commonwealth Club for this great interview. And yes, I just bought the book on Audible. But can you answer this: How does a boy who is embittered by poverty (Cruz, Ramos) get ahold of one or more weapons of war (Aks, etc) that cost over $2500 each?

[agondonter]

Any notion that the epidemic of mass shootings in America can be effectively addressed without first addressing the role of gun violence as portrayed in mass media is, of course, ludicrous.

[Postmodem]

Changing something about the culture of gun violence in the Americas or elsewhere will happen incrementally at the right time, and with cross-generational political affirmation and consensus on the matter, even more focus needs to put on the radicalization of individuals who develop misperceptions/opinions that reinforce their actions.

[dianabraley]

And its been 3 more since this talk (April 2022- July 2022). The racist in Buffalo, the murderer in Uvalde and the most recent on July 4th. This needs to stop. These young men need to find themselves and figure out their purpose - because amassing guns is not a career or life purpose.