Officials worry about copy-cat shootings in wake of Newtown school massacre

John Miller is a former assistant director of FBI. He has been talking to his law enforcement sources about Friday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

(CBS News) There have been two deadly shooting this week, the other at a shopping mall in Oregon.

This is the kind of thing that always puts the profilers who study the offender characteristics of these shooters on alert.

They're worried about what they call the Werther Effect. It's a copy-cat mechanism and they say their studies show it's particularly powerful on adolescents.

So in a case where you'll see someone commit suicide in a high school, it's not unusual to see two or three more in a cycle like that.

What they believe is it's entirely possible that the Oregon incident most of us found disturbing and troubling, an individual like this might have found that challenging to not just imitate it but to go forward with this plan.

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They also observed that the fact he killed his mother and then went about the other crimes - CBS News believes he killed his mother at the house - shows that this was planned out from the beginning. This was a calculated crime.

We tend to think of these offenders as being crazy. It doesn't mean they're not disturbed, but they are rational enough to act out these plans, even under tremendous pressure and during the chaos of their own actions.

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[InGodWeTrustAllOthersNot]

Good can imagine Evil, but Evil cannot imagine Good. ~ W. H. Auden

The town officials are responsible for the students safety and yesterday they ALL failed to provide security. If there was but one entrance (called an ECP entry control point) and an armed security officer screening (handbags, backpacks and even trench coats, etc.) each and every person who entered our schools, this could have been prevented by this first line of defense. Police are NOT proactive, they are reactive. Police can not be everywhere 24/7 to protect and serve, though they may try. There is a second line of defense but no one wants to know what it is. Your prisons, court rooms, police stations have better protection than schools, movie theaters, malls, beaches, etc. Police have protection, everyone else... you're on your own.

[CBScomments1000]

Protect your Children!

Melt all the guns
and build cars in Detroit and sell them to help the economy....
OR
Use
The Military, NRA activists, Veterans, ex Cops,
parent groups to arm
themselves
and patrol the schoolyards, malls, and public areas
so that
if someone wants to go out in a blaze of Glory in a suicide...
they can do
it on the OUTSIDE of the building..

But stop talking and DO something to protect your
children

The firearm debate was a 1/4 Billion guns ago.

[bobnjersey]

[Officials worry about copy-cat shootings in wake of Newtown school massacre]
------------------------------------------------
keep covering these stories w/ endless remotes, a new online angle every 30 minutes, and every station w/ wall to wall repetition of the same little info ... and they'll be copy-cats for sure.

suicide is known to have a 'contagion' dynamic associated with it ... where one leads to another ... and add to that these 'go out in a blaze of glory' pre-ambles to offing yourself ... and it will most surely amplify the effect.

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

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00031539.htm

[Nikos_Retsos]

Oh, Yes! It would certainly happen again. For many psychopaths and lowlifes, it is the only fame they can have. And that is quite attractive, and quite exhilarating to become the center of global attention for a few days - even at the cost of their own lives! For them, infamy is as good as fame. That is why Al Capone has still many admirers, and that is why drug traffickers in Mexico and South America (remember Pablo Escobar?) are idolised and idealized in songs and music!


Let's face it: In the 21rst Century, Mother Theresa doesn't make the cut of fame. Osama bin Landen did, and Mexican drug lords do nowadays. I am sure Timothy McVeigh still has many admirers in Michigan, and many school boys may see the shooters in schools as brave! We need to ask ourselves the question: "What country have we become?" If I had to risk an answer, it will be: "We have become so berserk with cellphones, iPods, and other values in consumerism, that we have forgotten to nurture our civility! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

We as a country, adults and parents are suppose to be the protectors of our children but republicans and the NRA blocks every attempt to protect them.

My condolences to the families of this tragedy. We have been thru this too many times and we must begin to address this. However, do not expect any help from republicans as they are in the pockets of the NRA and other entities hostile to ordinary Americans. Republicans must be voted out to remove their obstruction to making progress on this and other issues. Elections have consequences, and electing republicans to control congress will result in no movement to begin to address this or other issues America so desperately needs to address.