Police clear the area following a shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football Super Bowl celebration in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
The Superbowl’s delight was obliterated by bullets that struck 22 people, 9 of them children, and shattered the lives of countless others. There were 656 US mass shootings in 2023 – near to two per day. Kansas City is the 48th in 2024. Sympathy and prayer prevail. But what usually goes unsaid is what was not said.
I'm Dr. Lloyd Sederer, a psychiatrist and public health doctor. We can control mass shootings when we recognize these events as a deadly epidemic of rage, hate, and retribution.
Mass shootings are typically inflicted by young, white men, to go from being a bitter nobody out to settle a festering score to pursuing a dream to become a luminary who attracts our nation’s attention. Often, and without evidence, we hear claims that these events are by a person with mental illness. But hate and revenge are not mental illnesses. They are the awful workings of a deeply isolated person, who believes that murder is warranted for their real or imagined slights and injuries.
Our country has beat - in whole or in part - disabling or fatal epidemics like polio, tuberculosis, HIV AIDS, smallpox, motor vehicle deaths, and smoking.
As a former government official, I saw that a fuse had been burning for months, sometimes years. And that most times it was evident to those who lived or worked with the person who went on to kill. Those are not times to be silent, sit on the sidelines, or let fear freeze you. They are the times to courageously speak up with others who feel as you do. That’s called “prevention”.
Preventative actions may yet to be proven and feasible. But silence and inaction will never lead to success. Speaking out and insistently in a family, community, or to those charged with public safety is essential to stop the mounting mass shootings. By not turning away we can discover how to prevent this epidemic of unchecked and agonizing violence.
Click below for the three minute audio
Sederer’s Audiobook now available for purchase: