Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in September 2022.
The failure to prevent mass shootings has never been more costly – and the prospects for stopping them never more promising.
In his newest book, Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America, award-winning journalist Mark Follman chronicles the decades-long search for identifiable profiles of mass shooters and brings readers inside a groundbreaking method for preventing devastating attacks. The emerging field of behavioral threat assessment, with its synergy of mental health and law enforcement expertise, focuses on circumstances and behaviors leading up to planned acts of violence—warning signs that offer a chance for constructive intervention before it’s too late.
Mark Follman is a longtime journalist and the National Affairs Editor for Mother Jones. Since 2012, when he created a first-of-its-kind public database of mass shootings, his various investigations into gun violence have been honored with numerous awards. His writing and commentary have been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and many other outlets.