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The Jordan Harbinger Show

1140: Mark Follman | How to Stop Mass Shootings in America

15 Apr 2025

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Why do mass shootings occur? Trigger Points author Mark Follman explains warning signs, behavioral assessment, and how to stop attacks before they happen.Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1140What We Discuss with Mark Follman:Mass shootings are not random events, but involve a "pathway to violence" where perpetrators plan their attacks over time, showing warning signs that create opportunities for intervention.Mental illness is not the primary cause of mass shootings. While mental health issues may be present, perpetrators are typically making deliberate choices driven by factors like anger, isolation, and perceived grievances rather than psychosis.Many mass shooters seek notoriety and are influenced by previous attackers through emulation behavior — they want to transform from nobody to somebody through violence and media attention.Warning signs that appear before attacks often include threatening communications, research/planning behaviors, significant life stressors, and social isolation — but these must be evaluated collectively rather than as a checklist.Behavioral threat assessment teams offer an effective prevention approach by bringing together mental health professionals, law enforcement, and educators to identify at-risk individuals and provide constructive interventions like counseling, education support, and family involvement — showing that these tragedies can be prevented with the right collaborative approach.And much more...And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/dealsSign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom!Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Full Episode

0.129 - 2.471 Jordan Harbinger

Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show.

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3.552 - 23.108 Mark Follman

Why do mass shooters look to previous shooters for inspiration and sometimes for tactical ideas to what I call in the book emulation behavior? It's known as the copycat problem. But they're also looking for a way to get attention. They want notoriety. They want to be known. They want to be a somebody instead of a nobody because they feel like nobody.

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27.182 - 38.967 Jordan Harbinger

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75.327 - 95.52 Jordan Harbinger

Today, my guest Mark Fulman on school shootings and other mass shootings. This is a horrific problem. It's kind of a little bit of a depressing topic to do a show on. I was a little hesitant at first. Actually, this conversation turned out amazing. It's an almost uniquely American problem, or is it? Either way, this problem isn't or shouldn't be as impossible to solve as it seems to be.

95.96 - 107.968 Jordan Harbinger

Turns out that gun control is not the whole story here. Today on the show, we'll discuss predictive measures, such as what to look for in a potential shooter, how we could even potentially profile these people, or maybe not quite that, before they become violent.

108.268 - 131.379 Jordan Harbinger

We'll also explore why target hardening measures, which is mostly what we do now, right, adding different doors or barricades or security, isn't actually working, and how social media might actually be able to help us not only predict, but actually prevent violence. Here we go with Mark Fulman. I can't even remember how I found the Mother Jones piece. It was probably mass shooting of the week.

132.039 - 152.777 Jordan Harbinger

And I just was like, why does this keep happening? And I still don't know, but your article did shed some light on it because everybody remembers Elliot Rodger, who we'll get to in a bit. Everybody remembers the Columbine shooting. That wasn't the first, but it was the first big school shooting, at least of my lifetime. And that really just changed everything for a lot of people.

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