Northwestern University mass shooting expert Lori Post has some availability to speak to reporters this week about the latest mass shootings in California.
Referencing her database of public mass shootings that dates back to the 1960s, Post can provide insight on the murders, including the older age of the shooters; how these shootings were thoughtful and premeditated rather than snapping and killing multiple people at random; how the Lunar New Year holiday served as a prime time to commit the massacre because it was meaningful to the victims and known to the preparator; and why mass shootings tend to happen in clusters.
"'Contagion effect' was likely at play with the Half Moon Bay shooter, meaning the first attack may have triggered the second one," said Post, the director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "There are multiple pending mass shooters waiting months or years to commit their massacre. The second shooter may have been inspired by the first. They seem to come in clusters because other mass-shooters-in-waiting had been planning their massacre."
