Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings

by Louis Klarevas

In the past decade, no individual act of violence has killed more people in the United States than the mass shooting. This well-researched, forcefully argued book answers some of the most pressing questions facing our Why do people go on killing sprees? Are gun-free zones magnets for deadly rampages? What can we do to curb the carnage of this disturbing form of firearm violence?Contrary to conventional wisdom, the author shows that gun possession often prods aggrieved, mentally unstable individuals to go on shooting sprees; these attacks largely occur in places where guns are not prohibited by law; and sensible gun-control measures like the federal Assault Weapons Ban-which helped drastically reduce rampage violence when it was in effect-are instrumental to keeping Americans safe from mass shootings in the future.To stem gun massacres, the author proposes several original policy prescriptions, ranging from the enactment of sensible firearm safety reforms to an overhaul of how the justice system investigates potential active-shooter threats and prosecutes violent crimes. Calling attention to the growing problem of mass shootings,Rampage Nationdemonstrates that this unique form of gun violence is more than just a criminal justice offense or public health scourge. It is a threat to American security.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, True Crime, Sociology

340 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2016

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mass shootings. An extremely polarizing topic that often has no single definitions used by any person or group discussing them. No single definition, very little hard data compiled together, and people on both sides of the debate who are unwilling to listen to any argument but their own. It's no wonder that very little honest and open conversation has been done. In "Rampage Nation", Louis Klarevas seeks to have that open and honest conversation, using data he painstakingly collected. Central to his conversation is his idea of the "trinity" - the three components put together that equal an act of violence, any of which - when removed - could prevent that act of violence.

Klarevas has written an *extremely* compelling book. Even though it is filled with charts and data, it is also extremely readable. In fact, in one spot after quite a few charts, he reverts to plain language for us non-"data wonks". I found the book fascinating, terrifying, and hopeful - almost in equal measure. Fascinating, for the information and the history given throughout, terrifying for the picture that emerges, and hopeful for the fact that he actually gives solid recommendations to help break the trinity.

This book should be recommended reading for everyone - and required reading for anyone of influence who weighs in on this debate. Maybe then the conversation could be less about "us vs. them" and more about working together to help us all.

[Taikein Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was heavier on data than I’d prefer, but it’s an important read at this juncture in American history. Klarevas exposes many of the partisan talking points and gives us viable solutions to decrease gun violence in America.

[Patrick Touart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Data driven and deeply analytical, this work by Dr. Louis Klarevas is the most thorough I have found on the cause of mass shootings. His narratives of the events of Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Aurora, and the Washington Naval Yard are intensely dramatic and horrifying in their detail.
His "Trinity of Violence" makes for a compelling case for the reasons mass shootings occur and how to prepare for their response and ultimately bring about a reduction in their numbers.
His chapter on Prescription: The Bad Man's Awe will run the most afoul of gun right's advocates and unfortunately he does not engage in any counterpoint to the inevitable arguments against his proposals. However, his data is compelling and the book could not be more timely having been written just prior to the Orlando nightclub shooting, the Baton Rouge and Dallas murders of police officers, the Las Vegas massacre and most recently Parkland.

[Gerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Worthy Objective

I chose this book after watching Susan Orfanos' statement following her son's murder at the Thousand Oaks nightclub, the same son who survived the shooting rampage in Las Vegas. I cannot forget her words and profound loss. Securing America from Mass Shootings is indeed a worthy objective, achieving the objective will require objectivity from highly emotional parties on both sides of the issue to develop workable solutions.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klareves makes a compelling argument in support of his thesis concerning mass shooters. He reviews the data he collected from a review of 111 mass shootings over the past half century. Setting aside the most common just event, a domestic killing in which a man kills his wife and children before killing himself, Klarevas lays out a model of 3Ps: predisposition, provocation, and priming. He argues that mental illness, in its broadest meaning, is the predisposition. The provocation comes from these individuals have a fragile overly hing sense of self worth that can be easily challenged resulting in a perceived provocation. Priming comes from owning and handling guns.

He points out that rampage killings have become more frequent and more lethal over the past 10 years because of the introduction of "America's gun," the AR-15 and other assault rifles, as well as semiautomatic handguns. Add to this, the introduction of plastics in the production of these guns and we have the perfect storm for mass killings.

If you read this book, don't get bogged down by the data, it's the result of exhaustive research.

[Robert S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rampage Nation dives into the copious amount of data out there about gun shootings to draw some horrifying conclusions about mass shootings in the United States today. Klarevas brings home the discussion about how even the definition of what constitutes a mass shooting is up to debate and that definition skews the numbers all over the place in this contentious debate.

I did feel that sometimes the author did get a bit too much "in the weeds" in some parts so to speak where there was so much data being discussed that it overshadowed the conclusions being made. However, this is definitely a book worth reading for those interested in the debate.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klarevas writes a compelling book about how mass shootings have impacted the US. Using what he calls the Trinity of Violence, he focuses on the various mass shootings that have occurred and the conditions and elements that caused them and contributed to mass deaths. He provides a thorough history of the gun industry, America's love for guns and offers a prescription for breaking up the trinity to prevent further violence. A victim of gun violence himself, Klarevas' writing is easy to understand, engaging and well researched.

[Swarmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent analysis of the Gun Violence problem in America. Great rebuttals to common arguments. The author creates his own data set that actually makes sense for analyzing this subject. This is an engaging and informative read.

[Josh Reuss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book sensibly examines the gun control debate and draws well thought out conclusions from carefully examined data. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who speaks about gun rights.

[EinsteinzVice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic Info!

[Yuri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great data, criticizes other major sources on gun violence, does good in depth analysis of major events, has concrete and realistic policy proposals.

[Bookphile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was excruciating. I don't think the details are gratuitous, but if you read them and feel nothing I'd take that as a very worrying sign. Complete review to come.

Full review:

Fair warning: the beginning of this book is extremely difficult to read. I mean, gut-churningly, nausea-inducing hard to read. Klarevas launches his thesis about what can be done to mitigate gun violence in the U.S. by providing a very detailed accounting of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and it is a devastating read.

While I don't think Klarevas is gratuitous with the violence in his book, I do think it's there for a very important reason: I think he wants his readers to feel the utter brutality of what happens during these mass shootings. Before reading this, I was already on the side of sensible gun laws and regulations, so he didn't change my mind about anything. However, I thought I had some sense of how horrifying the many, many mass shootings plaguing our country have been. I knew nothing.

I've no doubt that plenty of people are going to debate the statistics Klarevas presents in this book, but that's sort of his point. We have no reliable database for collecting information about gun violence, and it really makes me wonder what the NRA is trying to hide. Why wouldn't we gather that information, use it to find patterns that might help us come up with more targeted forms of gun control? I think Klarevas does an excellent job of dissecting the reasons behind why we don't have such a database, and how this lack of clear, consistent information is used by both sides to help form their arguments. I've no doubt in my mind that it's crucial that the CDC be allowed to collect information on gun violence as it's clearly an enormous public health risk. As Klarevas illustrates, many mass shootings never get the kind of press coverage that Columbine or Newton or Orlando (typing this list depresses me) have gotten because the definition of what constitutes a mass shooting is so nebulous. Is it four or more deaths or four or more casualties? Is it appropriate to include so-called domestic incidents? Does it make sense to include rampages that play out over large geographical areas? How will we ever know until we actually start collecting some data?

Given this, Klarevas constructed his own set of standards, and the statistics he presents are not only sobering, but terrifying. It's hard to look at his charts and graphs detailing things such as which weapons are most often used, trends in massacres versus the number of gun owners, etc. and not feel alarmed. He isn't making an argument for taking all guns away, but for taking a very granular look at the intersection of a variety of factors: who commits these attacks, what kind of weapons do they use, do they work alone or with other assailants? This book makes it quite clear that the "lone wolf" attack has enormous potential for destruction. (This was made evident by the recent Orlando attack, but this ARC doesn't include that attack because it happened after the advance copy was printed. Let that soak in for a bit.)

At the core of Klarevas's argument is what he terms the "trinity of violence": a perpetrator, a target, and a weapon. He posits that if you negate one point of this trinity, you render the attack impossible. It's a theory that I think holds water, and just looking at the three factors should make it pretty evident what the easiest method for minimizing these kinds of attacks is. Short of becoming a sort of Minority Report state, it's going to be rather hard to identify perpetrators ahead of time, and even when we do (as was the case with the Orlando shooter, who was already on law enforcement's radar), it often still doesn't prevent these attacks from happening. I think it's also obvious that trying to mitigate these attacks by protecting the target is a pretty impossible thing. That leaves the weapon, and it seems like a no-brainer that this is the first method lawmakers would jump to when trying to protect us from these types of assaults. I'm sure I don't need to get into how unsuccessful that avenue has been.

The problem with this book is that I feel it's more or less inevitable that Klarevas will be preaching to the choir. The people who need to read this book and consider what it has to say are the people who won't read it. For some reason, the gun discussion is highly emotionally charged, to the extent that it prevents any sensible, sober conversation about what we as a country can do to eliminate this scourge. It doesn't have to be this way, and this book presents a compelling argument for why it's entirely possible for us to ensure that it isn't this way for future generations.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings by Louis Klarevas covers the recent history of mass shootings (excluding Orlando) from a data set assembled by the author. The author points out the problems in trying to discuss mass shootings is the lack of clear definitions and he gives his making the data set reproducible. (in fact I was able to reproduce his data set almost to the number with the exception of mass shootings that occurred after the data he likely assembled his). The book provides heart wrenching details at times of the various mass shootings and puts a very human face on an otherwise statistical account. For those who have lost someone to gun violence this will be a hard one to read and for those willing to defend their right to own military grade hardware under the second amendment it will likely be brushed off. While the author’s position is clear I find this book takes a more balanced approach in its arguments and nowhere does it really state the answer is to ban all guns. It looks at realistic solutions to what is becoming an epidemic issue and as quoted by the author from President Obama “the new norm”. This is a great books for sparking reasoned debates and while I think the authors arguments would have been enhanced by addressing the second amendment issue; (beyond just the NRA as one of the most effective lobbying groups in the country) overall there is a lot of really well thought out and well presented information here.

[lmv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched. An important, and occasionally difficult (for the nature of the subject matter), read.