Secret Service: School Shooters Exhibit ‘Concerning Behavior’ Before Attacking

A U.S. Secret Service study examining school shootings between 2008 and 2017 shows that all shooters “exhibited concerning behaviors” prior to carrying out their attacks.

The study shows, “All attackers exhibited concerning behaviors. Most elicited concern from others, and most communicated their intent to attack.” Moreover, “Most of the attackers communicated a prior threat to their target or communicated their intentions to carry out an attack.”

How were the threats perceived? The Secret Service says, “In many … cases, someone observed a threatening communication or behavior but did not act, either out of fear, not believing the attacker, misjudging the immediacy or location, or believing they had dissuaded the attacker.”

On October 31, 2019, Breitbart News reported Andrew Pollack’s warning that “politically correct policies to decrease juvenile arrests” and other leftist school policies endanger children by ignoring or overlooking threats. Pollack’s daughter, Meadow, was killed in the February 14, 2018, Parkland, Florida, high school shooting.

The Secret Service study also notes that nearly all school attackers acquired their guns from home. The study notes that “many of the attackers used unsecured firearms, others were able to gain access to firearms that were secured in a safe.” This means point of sale of gun controls, like universal background checks, would not prevent school shootings, as so many of the attackers are getting their guns the way the Sandy Hook Elementary School attacker got his–by stealing them from his mother.

The study also notes that a characteristic common among school attackers is that they have experienced a breakdown in their families. Over 70 percent of the school shooters examined in the study came from homes that had witnessed a divorce or separation.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.