What the Mom of This Mass Shooter Can Teach Us

On May 23, 2014, Elliot Rodger fatally stabbed his two roommates and one of their friends in their Santa Barbara-area apartment, then went on a driving and shooting rampage through nearby Isla Vista, California, killing three more people and injuring 14 others before taking his own life. In the aftermath of the horrific crime, the 22-year-old became the face of the "incel" movement, short for "involuntary celibates," the violent, angry men who blame women for their lack of sexual and romantic success. But in a lengthy piece at Mother Jones, Mark Follman argues the media simply latched onto that narrative because it was the easy one. The truth is far more complicated, and to get at it, Follman spoke extensively to Rodger's mother, Chin Rodger, who has devoted her life since the massacre to trying to help others understand the warning signs she missed.

In 2014, threat assessment was little-known even in mental health and law enforcement circles. Today, it's commonly used, and Follman argues that with lessons like those gleaned from Chin Rodger, it can effectively intervene before a person turns from disturbed to violent. A key quote from the piece: "From a threat assessment perspective, Elliot's hyperbolic misogyny is better understood as the particular way he found to channel his long-brewing suicidal despair." The full piece delves into Chin Rodger's final interactions with her son, the ramping up of Elliot's aggressive behavior in his last days, his long history of developmental and social problems and the extensive help his parents tried to get him, how gun laws changed after his shooting spree, and what this all means from a threat assessment perspective. Read it at Mother Jones. (More Elliot Rodger stories.)