Another mass shooting, this time in a Chicago suburb, at a Fourth of July parade. Once again an examination of the shooter's web presence reveals him to be a weird duck loner who has posted his weirdness for all to see.
There seems to be a pattern of such demonstrably kinked individuals deciding to take revenge on society. Nearly all of them have sent relatively clear signals online indicating they dream of or plan awful actions.
I suspect the very existence and anonymity of the web encourages people to explore "super-hero/super-villain" versions of self. This exploration leads some to become emboldened to try out those imaginings in person.
Has anybody done a survey of online postings to see how many potential mass murderers we may have in our midst? I wonder what percentage ever get around to carrying out their lovingly imagined dastardly deeds?
Doesn't it make sense for some organization to fund studying this phenomenon? Make an attempt to decipher the signals that suggest when they get serious about turning their imagined suicide death cult into reality?
I believe it would be possible to create AI to look for patterns of postings, key terms or ideas, and identify the really bent people for follow-up, for live investigators to "red flag" them for non-ownership of guns, maybe even for treatment.
Afterthought: Yet another "known wolf" killer.
