“As somebody who comes from multiple communities with mass shootings. This changes things for people. It changes the way people live their lives. It changes the way it changes communities.”
-Jaclyn Schildkraut
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The topic of mass shootings and gun violence have become far too familiar.
After Saturday’s tragedy in Buffalo, N.Y., SUNY Oswego Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and national mass shooting expert Jaclyn Schildkraut, shared her frustration.
“I’m frankly sick and tired of having to text my friends to make sure they’re not dead,” she said, “I had to text my friends who lived in Sacramento. I had to text my friends yesterday who live in Buffalo. We don’t have to live like this.”
As someone who studies mass shootings, it is a pattern she is far too familiar with, and as she says, sad to say, not surprised by.
“Certain people, this was something that was planned well in advance,” she says, “And what we know about mass shooters is they follow a similar trajectory of behaviors where they go from some type of agreement, in this case, hatred for non white races to idolizing and having this sort of violent ideation about it. And then they make a decision that they’re going to do what they did.”
After an incident like this Schildkraut says that while the victims and their families feel unimaginable pain, the footprint the event itself can have on a community is much larger than we might think.
“This is going to ripple outwards to all who are involved, the neighborhood homes and the families within them,” she said.
“People knew each other. And when we talk about something like a mass shooting, it’s not a small impact.”
