"UW law professor Michael Scott has looked at the psychological profiles of the gunman in these mass shootings."

"By Scott’s count, there have been about 75 mass shootings in the United States since the University of Texas killings in the 1960s."

He qualifies most as "disturbed" in one way or another, with a number of them seeking vengeance for some perceived alienation from society.

"Predicting future activity and future dangerousness is inherently difficult, but nonetheless, we can identify people who are in some form of mental crisis and try to intervene early on," Scott explained....

Scott said part of the solution is paying more attention to mental health and helping these individuals before their actions turn deadly....

Can we do a better job of noticing future killers?  Mass murderers make a spectacle of themselves. There's no hiding, no evasion of responsibility. These are young men who choose to flame out. There's nothing complicated about dealing with them. We brand as evil monsters, and if they haven't already killed themselves, we suppress them forever, executing or imprisoning them for life.

What is difficult is finding those who will act in the future, but here, not only are we uncertain who will end up where in the future, but there's a limit to how much you can intervene with someone who has not yet committed a crime.

And yet, there must be many things that we as a community can do for kids who become alienated and vengeful. At any school, the majority of children form circles of popularity, identifying normality in each other, and defining some as outsiders. This is a natural dynamic, but maybe, for our own protection, we should become more conscious and wary of it.

It's also natural for the weird kid to withdraw, to have his mother as an ally as he retreats into home-schooling, video games, and solitude. The "normal" kids are relieved to have him removed from their presence, and they don't know if he's off somewhere, hating them and plotting their murder.

I realize there's a risk of overreacting anyone who is introverted or awkward, but there must be ways to become more generous and inclusive toward the young outsider — ways that don't display fear or demand conformity.