Want to prevent mass shootings? Look to the use of behavioral threat assessment teams

Every time it happens, we know it won’t be the last, and we wait with dreaded anticipation for the next slaughter by guns. When we first hear of a mass shooting, we reach for ways to comprehend what just happened. We name the culprit: the gun, mental illness, vengeance, bullying, political alienation, to name just a few.

Mass shootings are becoming more frequent and more deadly, according to The Violence Project, a comprehensive mass shooter database, even though we assume it will always happen someplace else, certainly not in our town. But in Boise, where gun violence occurred at its mall last year, we can’t be so sure anymore.

We live in a state governed by state officials in the executive branch and an overwhelming majority in the legislative branch of government who reject just about every conceivable solution that would limit access to weapons that cause such mayhem in our communities.

But there is a proactive strategy that has shown some success in identifying mass shooters before they strike. Behavior threat assessment programs attempt to stay ahead of the next mass shootings by identifying distinctive characteristics and behaviors of those who may morph into mass shooters.

In a recent Reader’s Corner interview about his book, “Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America”, Mark Follman explains the work of behavior threat assessment teams, community-based groups of school officials, police departments, corporate and city officials who meet to review cases of individuals whose warning behaviors may require intervention by professionals. He highlights the work of the Salem, Oregon, school district that created the Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment Team, steering struggling or wayward students in a better direction.

It is reassuring to learn that we are not as helpless as it seems when we first hear the news about another mass shooting. What research and the active cases underway on any given day in America shows is that professionals can account for cases where individuals with dangerous behavior patterns and who were alienated from friends and family turned their lives around once experts helped them work through their behaviors and set them on a course of improvement.

In short, lives have been saved from gun violence and can be saved in the future. However, if we are to make progress in identifying troubled individuals who are potential mass shooters, the challenge is two-fold.

First, there must be the organizational resources to monitor an environment like a school district.

Follman tells us about one student who was successfully identified and treated in an Oregon school district, but then he moved to a rural Idaho school district that had no program in place for behavioral threat assessment.

Given how recently these behavioral threat assessment teams have been in play, it will take time to spread the word to local communities which can then build a team and make sure it meets regularly to decide when to intervene in the life of a person in crisis.

Second, it is also essential for bystanders to report individuals who exhibit behaviors that lead to gun violence. Just since the Uvalde shootings, Follman claimed in a recent article for Mother Jones magazine that the Uvalde shooting did not have to occur.

Although most of the emphasis in Uvalde has been on the lengthy period police officers failed to intervene, a Texas legislative committee report found several serious behavior patterns of the shooter that friends and family saw and heard. If this behavior had been reported and then reviewed by a behavior threat assessment team, it is entirely possible that shooting could have been avoided.

The Violence Project, which developed a Mass Shooter Database, identifies increased agitation, abusive behavior, isolation, mood swings, among several stress signals. And contrary to the conventional wisdom that these shooters just flip one day and start shooting, many have planned their deadly attacks for some time. Time that increases the opportunity for someone to identify and report predictive and dangerous behavior patterns.

We would like to think that the police can intervene for us in violent situations and make us safe. But too often with mass shootings, by the time the police arrive it is too late, and the shooter commits suicide, his plan all along.

The increase in the number of mass shootings now requires us to be on alert and pay attention to the people around us, whether at home, at school, in the workplace, in the mall, or other public places. It will take a robust campaign in the media to focus us on stepping up and identifying troubled individuals and then reporting them.

The drivers for this change in our daily routines are school boards who make policy regarding the safety of their students. The Idaho Education Association can advocate for a statewide protocol for every school district in Idaho to protect its teachers and their students. In Idaho, the superintendent of public instruction can provide leadership on this issue for elementary and secondary education. With a campaign underway for this fall’s election of the next superintendent, this is the perfect time for the candidates to weigh in on how they would use the authority of their office to promote and adopt a statewide protocol of behavior threat assessment. The Idaho State Board of Education can provide oversight and accountability for its universities and colleges.

This is also a conversation for chambers of commerce and nonprofit organizations that can bring the news of behavior threat assessment to workplace settings and other public places. Finally, the governor and mayors of our cities can use their offices to promote behavior threat assessment teams to identify and treat troubled individuals in a state of crisis. Finally, in some states, the legislatures have required behavior threat assessment teams in their schools and that also makes sense.

A good place to learn more about behavior threat assessment programs is Mark Follman’s book, “Trigger Points” and the work of The Violence Project, with the book of the same name.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Reader’s Corner on Boise State Public Radio and he writes a biweekly column for the Idaho Statesman. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.