It it wth sadness, anger, and frustration that I read about teenage and young adult mass shooting murders.

Young mass murderers seem to simultaneously envy and despise the seeming happy normal lives of kids they see around them each day at high school. Profound envy, resentment, and hate are powerful motivators especially if other classmates have bullied or made fun of the future murderer. In their thought processes, they seek someone to blame for their plight in life as opposed to making what they can out of their life as it is. They are often cowards and seek targets where they can kill but probably won’t be killed. One exception is if they seek suicide by cop to punctuate their planned death. Often, they crave one moment of glorious fame in the limelight of their otherwise drab, sad lives. TV moments of fame provide seductive fantasies. Many teen mass murderers research other mass murderers’ acts and methods and sometimes it appears that they envision a sick maudlin competition with or bizarre fraternal relatedness to prior mass killers.

In reading and studying about teenage mass killer events I note that they often have not had mentors, teachers, coaches, or peers who they allowed to help connect them with God’s love and grace. They live in a society that has diminished God’s presence by politically correct separation of church and state and prohibition against prayer in schools. Public spoken prayer by respected teachers of any faith is a form of God’s tangible and therapeutic presence in schools. They intuit that our society worships celebrity and notoriety and choose only dramatic violence to secure fame. They know that TV news and films will repeatedly show their picture and thus elevate their sad meaningless lives to a peak of spurious recognition. Unfortunately, they are often poorly served by mental health professionals whose hands are tied by the HIPAA law’s (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) privacy and patient confidentiality requirements unless they name specific murder targets, so therapists are mandated to report them via Tarasoff legal requirements.

A final observation is that many of these young people are angry, bitter, unpleasant, and or threatening to be around. When they do not show up for or cancel appointments it is sometimes easy for the therapists not to actively follow up. These kids need active follow-up more than anyone. Many lives may depend on it.

Image: PickPik