Curb Mass Shootings with the “Good Politic”

Is there anything we can do to stop or reduce mass shootings? Assembling a list of probable causes from news and social media, we find there is typically more than one social phenomenon at play. There is also a link between and among factors that can lead to both social tragedy and good. Social scientists call this the “interaction effect” (Gantner & Kerschbamer, 2018).

We call positive interaction effects “synergy," e.g., orchestrated music. Hard scientists call negative interaction effects ‘entropy.’ For example, your car will rust and fall apart. Social and psychological entropy occur when negative interaction effects are manifested in our personal lives, work, and in society such as mass shootings (Hirsh, Mar, & Peterson, 2012).

The following list of purported causes for these shootings is neither comprehensive nor cumulative: absent working parents x affluence or poverty x parental permissiveness x 50% divorce rate x nihilism x racist hate crime x fatherless homes x domestic and sexual abuse x unemployment or underemployment x early substance abuse x mental illness x violent Hollywood films and video games x social media x news media x closing mental health facilities x bullying x social isolation x failure of citizens to report leads x failure of authorities to follow leads x access to weapons without a waiting period even if someone is untrained, a criminal, and mentally unstable = mass shootings. Not a cumulative effect, one problem is multiplied times another, creating a fatal interaction effect in certain individuals. Psychological entropy.

And because all of the shooters to date are young males, let’s add what Stanford social psychologist Phillip Zimbardo calls the “demise of guys” (2012). This rapidly spreading phenomenon of social displacement, he argues, is destroying young men world-wide. They have lost their place and are falling behind in establishing their identities, education, careers, and effective skills in relationships.

Criminology researchers Jillian Peterson and James Densley have studied all mass shootings in the U.S. since 1966, uncovering the following four causes or correlations: 1) early childhood trauma and exposure to violence, 2) an identifiable crisis point before the shooting, 3) learning the actions of other shooters through the media, and 4) the means/opportunity to carry out the plan (the Violence Project).

Early childhood trauma can include exposure to abuse, suicide, bullying, neglect, and lead to depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. Crisis points may be job termination, relationship rejection, and or loss accompanied by noticeable changes in behavior. Ready access to 24-hour-media can feed information about other shooters can create social contagion accompanied by an imagined opportunity for notoriety. Finally, there is access to weapons and an available shooting site (opportunity). The large majority of weapons are obtained from family members (Peterson and Densley).

The good news is that there can also be intentional synergy, i.e., positive interaction effects that exponentially improve situations. Let’s start with personal intervention, i.e., identifying and engaging young men who suddenly change their behavior or who are headed toward isolation. A medical doctor recently reported to a neighbor that a young man in his early twenties was despondent and intimating suicide. Within five minutes, the doctor and his colleague co-created a pizza party intervention, adding to the list of guests, positive friends and family members. Two hours later, the young man was smiling and engaged. In conversation, one of the party members discovered the young man’s vocational interests. They suggested that he apply for a position in which he is now happily contributing and making a living. At work or home, YOUR INTERVENTION AND INFLUENCE MATTER.

At the community level, let’s consider the possibility of the “good politic.” Not an oxymoron, the good politic is “civil people of good-will co-creating integrated, sustainable solutions to multi-faceted challenges for a purpose greater than themselves”.

Pastor Douglas Jones of Pontiac, Michigan is a positive leader who started the Greater Pontiac Community Coalition (GPCC) in 1994. Currently, under the banner of the Oakland University Pontiac Initiative and with the support of Pontiac Mayor Dr. Deirdre Waterman, he is hosting the Talent Development Coalition (TDC), a consortium of twenty-seven committed organizations including government agencies, businesses, non-profits, schools and colleges, and professional associations, unions, and foundations. TDC’s members cross, not only organizational silos, they cross all backgrounds and political boundaries. Their goal is to solve underemployment, a shortage of trained construction workers, and the need for affordable housing.

In the summer of 2019, the TDC created the Alliance for Construction Education. Tim Ruggles, the innovative CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County agreed to hire un- and under-employed workers to renovate or build affordable homes. These pre-apprentices are paid above minimum wage by Michigan Works! (a state work force program). They are enrolled in a work-learn program hosted by Oakland University. The tuition is covered by the Pontiac Promise Zone fund. Residential construction companies help recruit, mentor and offer the learners jobs at above a minimum wage. All who finish the 12-week Alliance program are automatically employed at a living wage, are encouraged to join an apprentice program, and they qualify for a Habitat home. Some of the participants will be returning and recovering citizens.

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So, what does this project have to do with mass shootings? First, the TDC model shows how the greater ‘WE’ can “meet the need ..solve the problem” (Jones, D). Any community could use a similar model to reduce the possibility of mass shootings and do a world of good. Second, is it too simplistic to say that young men who are in healthy communities, gainfully employed in meaningful training and work for a purpose greater than themselves, are far less likely to commit suicide or mass shootings? As a rule, they are too full of purpose, too engaged in their work, too satisfied with their lives, and too connected with others to be a shooter.

Can community workforce development play a role in reversing the demise of guys (and gals)? Using their political power, could organizations collaborate and coordinate their resources? Could the greater WE at least “move the needle” on this difficult challenge through innovative, good-willed, positive interaction effects? Let’s say ‘yes’ to personal intervention and the “good politic.” It doesn’t get any better than that.

What do you think?