Mass Murderers are Angry People

I was curious about the characteristics that those who commit mass murder share, so I have been compiling a list of such criminals and their crimes from information on the web.  It is depressing work and I have not yet finished, but one thing is clear.  The one thing that links all of them together is anger.  The target of their anger differs, the reasons for their anger differs.  Sometimes the anger is justified (not the way they acted on it of course), often it is not although they clearly felt it was.

The types of criminals can be split into

1) Random killers; they are angry at society in general and sometimes at a specific group.  These killers include those who commit hate crimes.  The victims are generally not known to the killers.  The killers life had often just unraveled (another common characteristic shared by many of these killers), they are either unemployed, about to lose their jobs or have lost quite a bit of money.   I am guessing that they feel that society in general, and specific groups are responsible for what is going on in their lives.    Some but not all have a history of mental illness, some get their guns legally, some don't.   Some are married with kids, some are single.

2) Hate crimes; this is really a subset of 1, but here the targets are a specific race, religion, gender or ethnicity. This includes perpetrators of all races.  However, many hate crimes with multiple victims (minority) are not always listed as mass killings.

3) Spousal abuse; the main target in these crimes is the current or former love interest of the perpetrator.  Some are still married, or currently in a relationship, others have not been in relationships for years.  In these cases extended family and children are often killed as well.  Again it seems that these people (all the ones I know of are male), see their lives unraveling around them, they are either in divorce proceedings, about to lose custody of their kids (or think they are), or they have just lost or about to lose their jobs or a large amount of money.

4) Workplace violence; again the main motive here is anger, but it is directed against current or former co workers, clients or people that they have received services from.   The person feels (sometimes correctly) that they have been victims of discrimination, or that they have been unfairly treated (sometimes they have been, sometimes they have not been).  They have often either been terminated, or will be terminated or have just lost a large amount of money.

5) University violence; This is really a subset of 4 and the motivations are usually the same.  Here the person has either just been terminated, or they have been dismissed from the school. 

6) Youth mass violence: Schools are typically the locations of this type of crime, the perpetrators are typically teens or very young adults.  Anger is involved and usually there is more than one perpetrator.  The Sandy Hook violence is a little different than previous crimes at schools in the US, but is similar to at least 3 Chinese mass violent attacks at elementary schools.

While white males represent the majority of perpetrators, minorities including blacks and Asians have been involved in mass murder and in one case a woman was also a perpetrator. The perps have been outgoing, introverted, married, single, with kids, without, non immigrants, and immigrants.  Some were never treated for mental illness, some appeared to have mental illness but were never treated, others had been treated for mental illness.  Some came from broken families with history of abuse, other did not.

The only two things that all of them had in common was that they were all very angry and they all had guns. Some of those guns were purchased legally, some were not.  We live in a society that sees those who are 'different' as dangerous and bad, while those who are like 'us' are good and safe.  When we talk about keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill (different from us, but less than we think), that is mostly our prejudice talking, as they are not the only ones responsible for these types of crimes not by a long shot, most crime is committed by the criminally sane.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_School_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro_McDonald%27s_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Iowa_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_California_Street_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Ferguson_%28mass_murderer%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Johnson_and_Andrew_Golden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Johnson_and_Andrew_Golden

http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/

http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_O._Barton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Gene_Ashbrook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Felton_Parish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakefield_massacre#Fatalities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Weise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covina_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupertino_quarry_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_University,_Fullerton_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oikos_University_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Seal_Beach_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Gravure_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Grand_Rapids,_Michigan_mass_murder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_bombing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binghamton_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sherrill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Kinkel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Nickel_Mines_School

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_Square_Shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Jewish_Federation_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Seattle_cafe_shooting_spree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Ratzmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crandon,_Wisconsin_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westroads_Mall_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_Distributors_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Sikh_temple_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Minneapolis_workplace_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Azana_Spa_shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Tulsa_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_IHOP_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage_nursing_home_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Essex