Following the most recent string of mass shootings in the United States, the Secret Service released a 60-page report Wednesday detailing trends in mass attacks in public places in order to share patterns with community leaders who can help prevent the next tragedy.
Although personal grievances were the most common motivation, one-quarter of the attackers studied from 2016 to 2020 were motivated by conspiracy theories or hateful ideologies.
The agency, which is best known for protecting presidents, has established a National Threat Assessment Center to monitor trends in violence that may endanger the people it protects as well as the general public.
From 2016 to 2020, the report details 173 attacks that injured three or more people in public places, including churches and schools. According to Lina Alathari, the chief of the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, the trends could help community leaders identify red flags before the next mass attack.
Anti-government, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic ideologies were among those that motivated the attackers. The authors also discovered that nearly one-third of all attackers planned their attacks.
According to the report, the typical attacker was a 34-year-old man motivated by personal grievances rather than ideology.
According to Alathari, the complaints could be “perceived wrongs, most often related to personal issues, maybe a health or financial issues, workplace issues, as well as issues with family and romantic partners.”
According to the report, firearms were used in more than three-quarters of all attacks, and more than 80% of gun-related attacks resulted in at least one death. The majority of the attackers used handguns, but one-third of them used “long guns,” which include automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Attackers who used weapons other than guns killed victims in less than half of the cases.
The attackers possessed firearms illegally in more than one-quarter of all mass shootings.
“Our research informs policy, and we really hope communities take preventative action to make sure that they are mitigating any possible risk of a tragedy like this happening again,” Alathari said when asked if the trends called for gun reform.
