Seattle1
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Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist who studies mass shootings and intervention methods, said that to understand the contagious nature of these high-profile events, it helps to think of it like a disease.
For mass shooters, he said, exposure often comes from hanging out in online chat rooms where people discuss and glorify past mass shooters. Susceptibility might come from a perceived grievance — something they believe is unfair in their life — coupled with past trauma, like being bullied, he said.
Mass shooters are frequently obsessed with large, deadly rampages. They carefully follow traditional news coverage and social media posts of such events. They study the mechanics of how past shooters planned their attacks. They hang out in chat rooms where they talk about the affinity they feel with past shooters. This fuels a contagion, experts say, that can sometimes agitate for years within shooters before they act.