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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
The ‘serious red flag’ for a potential school shooter? An obsession
with other mass shooters
By Eric Levenson, CNN
Updated:
8:14 PM EDT, Sun September 7, 2025
Source: CNN
The shooter wrote in a journal they were “morbidly obsessed” with
mass shootings and had a “deep fascination” with the Sandy Hook
school shooter.
On the firearms and magazines used in the attack, the shooter scrawled
the names of other mass killers, ranging from the Unabomber to the
Columbine attackers to the Tree of Life synagogue shooter. The goal was
to “honor past killers,” the shooter wrote in the journal.
The killed two schoolchildren – ages 8 and 10 – and wounded 21
others, including students and elderly parishioners.
The writings indicate the shooter had what described as a “deranged
fascination with previous mass shootings.” It’s a characteristic
that makes the shooter “like so many other mass shooters that we have
seen in this country, too often, and around the world,” he added.
Indeed, many mass shooters show a similar fascination or fixation on
other mass shooters and their lives, according to experts in the
psychology of school shooters.
“For people who want to go down this pathway, they go out of their
way to learn about previous attackers, to find role models,” said
Peter Langman, a psychologist who has written several books about .
“They’re drawn to that.”
But why that fascination? Experts on the psychology of school shooters
in particular say the reasoning is an extremely disturbed version of
something altogether human: a need to feel understood, to have role
models and to be part of a community.
Understanding that mindset can better help the public spot warnings and
concerning behaviors before they turn violent, as potential school
shooters often exhibit “leakage,” a term for their specific hints
or comments about their violent plans. While journal writings may be
viewed too late, other hints may come in the form of a comment at
school or in a video game chat online.
“We often say one of the greatest red flags is an unhealthy obsession
and fascination with past mass shooters,” said James Densley, a
professor of criminology at Metro State University in Minnesota and
co-founder of .
History of fascination with mass shooters
From Columbine to Annunciation, many mass shooters have explicitly said
in journals or interviews that they drew inspiration from other mass
killers as murderous role models.
The are a particular source of obsession. A subculture of people online
known as “Columbiners” even romanticize and idealize a mythologized
version of the shooters as hero outcasts, offering odes in the form of
memes, and .
Some school shooters have even been members of online forums that
discussed their fascination with other mass shooters. The Sandy Hook
shooter, for example, was part of an online community of mass murder
enthusiasts for several years before the attack, .
Others have copied and adapted other mass shooters’ writings and used
them as part of their own.
“This is not a new phenomenon, just in the last year or two, this has
a long history,” Langman said. “People find role models to validate
their own violent urges.”
Adam Lankford, a professor of criminology at the University of Alabama,
said he in his studies on school shooters that so-called “copycat
shooters” are often personally similar to their role models in terms
of age, sex, race and country of origin, as well as in the target of
their violence.
The psychology behind this obsession
One key reason for this fascination is their desire to feel understood
and to connect with a broader group of people.
“It’s a case of identifying people who are just like them,”
Densley said. “It’s almost to a point where they feel like these
are the only individuals who are truly like them or would understand
them, and they want to feel part of something bigger. It’s that sense
of belonging that is often missing from their everyday lives.”
This obsession with other shooters can even make them feel validated
and even inspired.
Mass shooters “very often want to follow in the footsteps of a
previous attacker,” Langman said. “These are people who feel
powerless and insignificant, and they want to feel powerful and
significant, and they want to make a name for themselves.”
There is also a desire for infamy and to have their names and faces
splashed across the internet and newspapers for a spurt of violence.
“A lot of shooters study other shooters and want the same
notoriety,” Langman said.
Lankford likens this fascination with past mass shooters to
“celebrity worship,” in which people with problems in their
personal lives develop a fixation on certain celebrities.
“The celebrity worship is filling a void for them, and I think it’s
clear that it’s the same thing with people who become mass
shooters,” he said.
What you can do about it
Given this background, the experts said to be on the lookout for
children with a fascination with school shooters or incidents of mass
violence.
“That’s a serious red flag. A healthy child should not be
fascinated with these things,” Densley said.
The challenge is that many of these online communities discussing these
topics are unmoderated and anonymous. He recommended parents try to
better track what their children are doing online and learn more about
online forums that may discuss mass shooters.
“A lot of this is really just educating parents, teachers, community
members to become a little more literate with the way in which the
internet works, the way in which these apps work, so that they can
better moderate whether their children are using them,” he said.
In addition, experts in recent years have recommended the news media
adhere to “No Notoriety” guidelines by avoiding glorifying the mass
shooter or featuring their name or image more than is necessary. But
with the rise of social media and anonymous forums, that may be
trickier on the modern internet.
“We’ve made some progress in that regard, but nowhere near
enough,” Lankford said.
Further, many school shooters confide in others or drop hints about
their violent plans or interests, the concept known as leakage. This
can take the form of conversation with peers, school assignments,
online behavior or interaction with parents, according to Langman.
Which brings us back to the Annunciation shooter. Before the attack,
the shooter wrote in about several instances in which they “dropped a
few warning signs to a few people.”
The journal also details an incident around seventh grade in which the
shooter claimed they were after discussing school shootings with
classmates.
“We don’t know what kind of indications the perpetrator gave in
this recent incident, but based on the writings, it sounds like some
kind of leakage was disclosed,” Langman said.
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