LISA:
Welcome to Brainwaves, a podcast about big ideas, produced at the 麻豆影院.
I鈥檓 Lisa Marshall.
This week-- a topic that has become all too familiar.
[***POLICE SIREN***]
TV CLIP 1:
鈥淚鈥檓 Kristen Dlahgren in New York and we are coming on the air this hour with news of a school shooting in South Florida.鈥�
TV CLIP 2:
鈥淚鈥檓 Victor Blackwell in El Paso, Texas outside of a massive crime scene here where 20 people killed.鈥�
TV CLIP 3:
鈥淲e are interrupting this broadcast with breaking news. We have just learned of another mass shooting.鈥�
TV CLIP 4:
鈥淭he gunman鈥檚 rampage on Saturday covered miles before he was eventually killed by police.鈥�
LISA:
As of today, there have been 293 mass shootings in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
That鈥檚 more mass shootings than there have been days of the year.
In August alone, 53 people died in one.
Include other forms of gun violence, including suicide, and about 100 people die every day.
So who is a mass shooter? And what can we do to stop him or her?
Are the news media doing a good job covering these events?
We鈥檒l explore these questions and also look at a new tool aimed at stopping a different kind of epidemic--firearm suicides.
Is there some way to tell who might be thinking about carrying out the next mass shooting?
Could we stop a shooting before it happens?
Beverly Kingston says: absolutely yes.
She鈥檚 director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the 麻豆影院 and has spent the last few decades studying what drives youth violence and what works to prevent it.
Brainwaves鈥� Dirk Martin talked to Kingston to find out more.
Dirk:
Beverly Kingston, welcome to Brainwaves.
Beverly:
Thank you. Glad to be here.
Dirk:
Your research focuses on addressing the root causes of violence. Tell us more about that aspect of your research.
Beverly:
When you think about these - the mass shootings - we think about those as the is the tip of the iceberg. And the mass shootings, the violence that, you know, makes it on to TV. And underneath it tend to be a lot of hurting people. And so we look at some of the statistics about how many people are hurting. And so I'll just give you some of the numbers from that we look at from young people. We know that about 20 to 25 percent of middle school students have reported being bullied in the past 30 days. 麻豆影院 18 percent of high school students have reported seriously considering suicide in the past year. And about 23 percent have reported being in a physical fight. So that those are lower levels of violence than what we see in the mass shootings, but what we focus on when we talked about addressing the root causes are addressing those underlying risk and protective factors that contribute to violence. And our theory is that if we prevent violence we're going to prevent gun violence.
Dirk:
Researching the root cause of violence - designing ways to address violence is one thing but how difficult is it to implement these ideas and programs and are they successful?
Beverly:
You know, there's not just one simple solution to it to addressing the risk and protective factors that contribute to violence. So what's recommended by researchers, scientist, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, any rigorous research, they kind of come to the same conclusion - that we need to take a comprehensive public health approach to addressing violence. And, as you can imagine, that's a bit complex and it can be thought about as big but there's also some really Colorado practical things that can be done. So we work on helping to define what is a comprehensive public health approach to addressing violence. What can be done and how do you put those efforts into place. We have a project that we've been doing since after right after Columbine that's called The Safe Community Safe Schools Initiative. And so The Safe Community Safe Schools Initiative is all about taking what we know from the research and operationalizing it so that it can be translated into feasible solutions in schools and communities.
Dirk:
And what about other solutions people have proposed - metal detectors in schools or teachers carrying weapons?
Beverly:
Metal detectors detect metal. They don't prevent violence. There isn't any research to show that they will prevent violence. Maybe there will be a few less weapons in the school but it鈥檚 not getting to that root cause of preventing violence. Let me talk to you about about what we do know works more specifically. When we study mass shootings, when we study the research that's been done about mass shootings or averted school violence or averted mass violence, we see patterns of behavior. We see red flags and warning signs and and I'll give you a couple examples. There's a study that the Secret Service did and they found between 1974 and 2000, in 93 percent of those someone saw warning signs. Someone identified behavioral behavioral concerns about that perpetrator. And they also found that in 81 percent of those cases the perpetrator told someone what they were going to do - at least one person. Most often it was a peer. And that same pattern has been revealed in shooting after shooting, where people see actual patterns of negative behavior. So these are real behavioral patterns that start to emerge and because they are externally seen they become points of intervention. Points where we can do something about this. So a really critical strategy that I would almost call strategy to avert the violence. There's a few different areas on it about it but one is bystander response of reporting. So making sure that everybody knows these warning signs and has a place to tell them. So we saw in the Arapahoe shooting - our centerdid do a study on Arapahoe shooting that happened here in Colorado that left two people dead - in that shooting there were 27 missed opportunities to intervene with the shooter. Recently in a study from Parkland found that there were 69 missed opportunities to intervene. And in those some of the 69 people actually did report information but it didn't always go forward to a place where something got done. So there's lots of breakdowns and that intervention. But a first step is making sure that any kinds of safety concerns are reported. And in Colorado we have Safe2Tell, which is an anonymous bystander reporting system that was put into place after Columbine and that anyone can make a Safe2Tell report for any safety concern and it's completely anonymous and protected by law. So that's a great mechanism. Safe2Tell is also 24/7 and it鈥檚 answered by law enforcement. So we always suggest that we have systems in place for bystander response and reporting. And then we want to make sure that the information is shared within a school across teachers and administrators, school counselors and coaches. The information could, this is information about students of concern or warning signs, it could be shared between law enforcement Colorado so that that information doesn鈥檛 get lost.
Dirk:
As someone who studies violence prevention what goes through your mind every time these tragedies happen?
Beverly:
I鈥檓 just remembering after the Newtown Sandy Hook school shooting and I was asked to, again, talk to the media right after that and what actually went through my mind was that U2 song - 40 - you know, 鈥楬ow long do we sing this song?鈥� I think it's the line. 鈥楬ow long?鈥� And that U2 song, 鈥楬ow long do we keep kind of do we keep going like this,鈥� will pop in my head after each of these shootings. I'll find that that that comes in and then each time I'm struck with tremendous sadness and some anger and frustration because we've been saying pretty much the same message for the last 20 years about what we could be doing to prevent violence. You know I have kind of all that, like, go through my head and then, I guess, what goes next is I'm going to keep going. And we do know what works. There's a lot we can be doing to prevent violence and I'm going to keep saying it no matter how long.
LISA:
If you鈥檝e ever read the comments section of a news site鈥檚 Facebook feed in the wake of a mass shooting, you鈥檒l notice a lot of critiques.
Some people want less attention paid to the shooter; others want more info about the shooter.
Some want the media to talk more about gun control, Colorado others say that鈥檚 disrespectful to the victims.
So, what鈥檚 the right way for media to cover a mass shooting?
Brainwaves Executive Producer Andrew Sorensen talked to a couple of people very tuned into this topic.
One is a journalism researcher, another, the brother of a mass shooting victim.
ANDREW:
Hi, Malcolm?
MALCOLM:
Yes, how can I help you?
ANDREW:
That鈥檚 Malcolm Graham.
We first met on very hot, very tragic June day in South Carolina.
I was a young TV journalist, I had just driven three hours from Charlotte to Charleston in the early hours of the morning after reports of several people shot at a church.
ANDREW:
So, it鈥檚 been about four years since we last talked. How have things been going for you?
MALCOLM:
Well, you know. We鈥檙e taking one day at a time. What we do is remember how Cynthia lived, versus how she died.
ANDREW:
Malcolm鈥檚 sister, Cynthia Graham Hurd, a local librarian, was one of 9 people killed in Charleston鈥檚 Emanuel AME Church during a bible study.
Malcolm was a former Charlotte city councilman, a state senator, he even ran for congress.
Basically, people knew Malcolm Graham.
MALCOLM:
Well, it started out with a simple phone call. Steve Krump, at the WBTV affiliate in Charlotte鈥�
ANDREW:
Krump, like most reporters in Charleston that day, was operating with little information in a chaotic vortex of rumors, trying to accurately report the facts and the feelings of the moment.
But he knew Malcolm was originally from Charleston, he was someone who could give reaction and context to the shooting.
But once the dots were connected鈥�
MALCOLM:
The phones just started blowing up.
ANDREW:
This is while Malcolm is trying to get his own answers, deal with this horrible news, and protect his family鈥檚 privacy.
We reached out because Malcolm is one of the few people in a position to really assess how the media does with handling these incidents.
MALCOLM:
It was surreal and somewhat overwhelming.
ANDREW:
Was the media aggressive, or you know, were they caring? How did you find that interaction to go?
MALCOLM:
I found it to be very human. There were reporters that were crying. There were reporters that understood what we were going through, and was very sensitive about their inquiries, at the same time, understanding that they needed to do their jobs.
ANDREW:
There was one piece he didn鈥檛 like.
During a court hearing-- a family member said they forgave the shooter, a white supremacist, who intentionally picked a black church.
To Malcolm, the headlines essentially sounded like: 鈥淎ll of the victims and their families forgive him.鈥�
MALCOLM:
It was just too easy of a sound bite to run with. And you know, once you print it, once you say it, it became this international story, and then that itself took on a life of its own.
ANDREW:
Malcolm says he still hasn鈥檛 forgiven the shooter.
He gets why reporters latched onto that, but he wishes they asked around for other opinions.
Liz Skewes hears a lot of complaints like that.
She鈥檚 chair of the journalism department at CU 麻豆影院鈥檚 college of media, communication, and information.
She鈥檚 writing a book, interviewing people impacted by school shootings, in particular, And the journalists who covered them.
She started with the UT Austin shooting in 1966.
Eighteen people died, 31 were injured.
LIZ:
Most of the victims in that shooting were reduced to baseball style agate type with their name and their condition in the hospital.
ANDREW:
While the shooter got the front page.听
It鈥檚 one of the first examples of what Graham is pointing out. Time crunches leading to unpopular news decisions.
Media鈥檚 learned since then, covering the victims and their families more.
LIZ:
But it all comes at a cost, media are living in an era where they have very constrained resources, and as we cover victims more, we cover other things less.
ANDREW:
Like possible public policy changes that could actually stop mass shootings.
It may not be the media鈥檚 role to solve mass shootings, but Skewes says it is their role to lay out all of the solutions.
LIZ:
And it may be some gun control, and it may be more mental health, and it may be more education in schools, and it may be more SAFE2TELL programs like Colorado has, but put all of that on the table. Because this is a multipronged problem, and it needs multipronged solutions.
ANDREW:
To do that, Skewes says, will take some resources, and more intentional focus on what we鈥檝e learned after the fact.
There is some of that going on.
Malcolm Graham is still in the media talking about all of this.
He鈥檚 written op-eds for national newspapers talking about gun control, racism, and he talks a lot about his sister, Cynthia Graham Hurd, the librarian.
MALCOLM:
Just recently we had an amateur tennis tournament in Charlotte that got great media attention. A media station in Charleston, WCNC for four years in a row now has joined with the foundation to do a community-wide book drive, and over the last four years we鈥檝e collected some 70,000 books.
ANDREW:
And that鈥檚 another place journalism can fill a need-- helping secure victim鈥檚 legacies, so they鈥檙e not just another number on a long list of American shootings.
For Brainwaves, I鈥檓 Andrew Sorensen.
LISA:
Mass shootings aside, guns are involved in a huge number of American deaths each year.听
Suicide accounted for six in 10 U.S. gun deaths in 2017, according to the Pew Research Center
Stats like that, gave Sara Brandspigel an idea.
She鈥檚 the assistant director for the Program for Injury Prevention, Education and Research at the Colorado School of Public Health.
Brainwaves鈥� Cole Hemstreet has that story.
While there鈥檚 talk of a national 鈥淩ed Flag Law鈥� which would let law enforcement take guns from someone in distress, legislation might not be the only way to keep guns from being tools of gun violence, including suicide.
Sara Brandspigel is an epidemiologist with the Colorado School of Public Health.
She sees guns as a potential public health issue.
SARA:
So, we developed this gun storage map over the summer, it鈥檚 the first map of its kind in the country. And it鈥檚 really a pretty simple idea, which is: based around the fact that has a very high rate of suicide, we have the tenth highest rate in the nation, and firearms are involved in half of all suicides in Colorado. And one of the strategies to help prevent suicide is temporarily reducing access to firearms and other lethal means of suicide when someone is at risk.
But if someone鈥檚 looking for a place to store guns in a crisis, for a loved one at risk or even themselves, it can be tough to find places to do that.
SARA:
So, what we wanted to do was support members of the public and clinicians and others who might be looking for gun storage when someone is at risk of suicide. Or really there鈥檚 lots of other reasons someone might be looking for gun storage--someone could be travelling, their grandkids are coming to visit, we just know anecdotally there鈥檚 lots of scenarios but we were really coming at from a perspective of suicide prevention.
COLE
It uses the same technology as google maps and Brandspigel says it鈥檚 designed to be pretty straightforward.听
SARA:
It鈥檚 a web-based map that you can go to and search for your part of the state, your city or county and see options that include guns shops and shooting ranges as well as law enforcement agencies that are willing to consider requests for storage. We give information about some questions you might want to ask if you鈥檙e seeking storage; like what are the costs, how long do they provide storage, do they have limits on how many firearms they can store, are background check required to return the gun? Things like that, we wanted to have that contact information easily available for people.
COLE
Even though the program has only been online a couple months, 鈥渢he Colorado gun storage map鈥� is already seeing plenty of people get on board.听
COLE
So we have more than 60 locations around the state, and we鈥檙e continuing to add more. So since we launched the map we have heard from a few more that would like to be added and we鈥檙e hoping to just keep it updated as more places, learn about the map and want to provide storage to the community.听
COLE
And it seems to have an even brighter future.听
SARA:
So we鈥檝e gotten a really positive reception, we鈥檝e from nine or ten other states that are interested in having something similar in their state and so we are going to try to help support partners in other places who are going to try to build something out in their area as well.听
COLE
You can find a link to the gun storage colorado.edu/today/Brainwaves
For Brainwaves, I鈥檓 Cole Hemstreet听
听
LISA:
If you, or someone you know is considering suicide, please call the national suicide prevention lifeline.
That鈥檚 at 1-800-273-8255.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Brainwaves.
Next week, we鈥檒l focus on the state of schools.
I鈥檓 Lisa Marshall.
This episode was produced by myself, Dirk Martin, Cole Hemstreet and Andrew Sorensen.
Andrew is our executive producer.
Sam Linnerooth is our digital producer.
See you next time on Brainwaves.