# Why are pretty much all mass shooters male? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2020, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501 "2020-01-16T10:16:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![rosecoloredboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@rosecoloredboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rosecoloredboy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/61 "2020-01-20T04:58:27Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Another factor may also be a desire for fame, even if it’s the bad kind. Not that women don’t want fame, but this desire seems to be more intense among men. Many male shooters were no doubt inspired by a desire to go out in a blaze of media glory and societal notoriety. I don’t know if men/boys desire fame more than girls and women. What about all the “influencers” on Instagram - most of them are female. ---
**Author:** ![rosecoloredboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@rosecoloredboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rosecoloredboy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/62 "2020-01-20T05:01:50Z")
> [@pool](#): > > The alexithymia thing is interesting, I know there can be a correlation there with Autism disorders. > > I had read about Martin Bryant years ago but I kinda scanned over the wiki article again and saw he had been diagnosed with Asperger’s even though that now just falls under the diagnosis of Autism. I also thought it as interesting watching videos of him apparently he writes with his right hand but shoots with his left, the guy clearly also has absolutely no empathy for others. > > Adam Lanza the Sandy Hook shooter also was believed to have Asperger’s and was a social outcast. > > Now I don’t want to paint autistic people as dangerous because generally they are more likely to be the victim of a crime rather than perpetrate one. But I could see how maybe a higher functioning could feel the emotional pain of being a social outcast and loser that they might want revenge against “them” while also lacking any empathy for their victims. Just an interesting aside I think they are exceptions not the rules when it comes to mass shooters. As someone who is on the spectrum, I find that kind of disturbing. But hey, I’m not dismissing the possibility some shooters could be on the spectrum. Autism is more common in men, and tends to be more severe in men, so it could be that some shooters are autistic rather than narcissistic or psychopathic. Autistic people are often very lonely and if they’re more aware of their limitations this can lead to anger. ---
**Author:** ![rosecoloredboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@rosecoloredboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rosecoloredboy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/63 "2020-01-20T05:02:54Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > We’re not? News to me. Women tend to cry under emotional stress, including rage, more than men, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t fucking hate it. If you’re a rage-crier you find yourself in the situation of being seen as weak and needy when you’re actually having to remind yourself that hitting someone will hurt your hand a lot. > . I find the idea of crying when you’re angry sort of foreign as a man. I think I’ve only “rage-cried” once in my life, and that was when I realized my roommate was a huge asshole and I didn’t feel safe living with him anymore. ---
**Author:** ![rosecoloredboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@rosecoloredboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rosecoloredboy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/64 "2020-01-20T05:05:32Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > One discussion of mass shooters I recall reading was the discussion why so many were white guys. The suggestion went like this - the typical shooter has mental and consequently social problems; they can’t make friends or drive them away. The typical white suburban male with these problems gets to live in his parents basement and stew alone and ignore the outside world, getting more and more isolated and angry at the world. He watches TV or plays video games, which eliminates and face-to-face social interactions. For many modern families there are only one or two children, and family interactions like eating meals together happen more rarely. As one psychologist said about this - adolescence is a lesson in how to be a social human, and by bypassing these lessons, these people never learn to be a functioning member of society. If they do try to start a relationship with the opposite sex, they will come across as creepy or socially inept and fail. > > So why white? The typical black young male does not live in a well-off household. There is no basement to retreat to in isolation. They will have to go out in the world and work to help support their family and to pay for their own upkeep. They are forced to socialize to survive. I would suggest this also explains why mass killings by crazies (all-at-once blaze of glory killing, as opposed to serial stealth killings) is more of a recent phenomenon, even 60 or 70 years ago and certainly upto and during the depression and WWII it wasn’t financially or socially possible to “stew in your parents’ basement” for most young men, whatever ethnic origin. > > How does this relate for females? A girl is less likely to be asocial; even if they don’t seek out social interaction, they are more likely to be socially interacted with (accosted, propositioned, chased, however you want to characterize it). If the problem is inability to start a relationship, men have this harder than women. Women have the opposite problem, often it’s hard to get the men to leave them alone. > > You can’t really compare European rammings with American shootings; as someone once pointed out about assassinations, Americans suffer from crazies, the rest of the world from politically motivated attacks. Many of the rammings in Europe were socially politically motivated (disguised as religious). Here in Toronto, we had one which is more attributable to the socially inept white male crazy, appropriately because guns are not easily obtained here. The idea that white men are more likely to be shooters than men of color is a myth. It fits well with the idea that shootings are caused by entitlement and privilege, but it’s not true. White men do make up more than half of shootings in America, but that’s only because more than half of men are white. Other races are equally or more represented among the shooters. I notice too when there’s a shooter who’s mixed race the media wants to say they’re white - Elliot Rodger was half Chinese, but was often referred to as white (even though in America he would be considered Asian by most people), and although he wasn’t a mass shooter George Zimmerman was also considered white even though he’s half Hispanic. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/65 "2020-01-20T18:52:40Z")
> [@rosecoloredboy](#): > > The idea that white men are more likely to be shooters than men of color is a myth. It fits well with the idea that shootings are caused by entitlement and privilege, but it’s not true. White men do make up more than half of shootings in America, but that’s only because more than half of men are white. Other races are equally or more represented among the shooters. > > I notice too when there’s a shooter who’s mixed race the media wants to say they’re white - Elliot Rodger was half Chinese, but was often referred to as white (even though in America he would be considered Asian by most people), and although he wasn’t a mass shooter George Zimmerman was also considered white even though he’s half Hispanic. To follow up on your point - my analysis dealt more with socio-economic circumstances that attribution by race. I’m sure there are plenty of Asians, Hispanics, and African-Americans (and mixed) who can stew in their parents’ basement, especially today. There are plenty of white people who are forced by economic circumstances or family/social life to be regular active social participants. But in general, to make my point, modern non-ethnic family life seems to less centered around socialization. So it’s not entitlement so much as the ability to live isolated (and the enabling) that causes the problem. (Recall some émigré to Mexico remarking how Mexicans think Americans typically ignore family ties more and are “cold fish” compared to Mexican family ties; not to mention social participation with neighbours. The “I don’t know my neighbours” thing more applies to North America.) Unfortunately, unless the media dwells on a particular topic (Sandy Hook?) it’s hard to gauge how often these looney “something snapped” mass shootings fit the “basement loner” stereotype. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/66 "2020-01-20T22:11:49Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Still, I’ve read of folks raising their kids with opposites of gender stereotypes, so little boys are given tea sets - which they use as weapons - and little girls are given tool sets - which they arrange in tea parties. So I dunno whether nurture trumps nature. > [@Velocity](#): > > One anecdote I read of was: Teachers took everything in the school away from boys that could be used as toy weapons. The boys then resorted to “biting their lunch sandwiches into the shape of guns and pointing them at each other, bang-bang!” Neither of those is a valid experimental comparison of “nature” and “nurture”, of course. Children are constantly being subjected to gendered expectations about their behavior, and even parents who think they’re giving their kids a truly “gender neutral” environment are affected by unconscious gender bias. And it goes without saying that the world in general is absolutely saturated in gender bias, and kids inevitably perceive it. As for the OP’s question, yeah, there are a lot of different factors involved, from hormonal differences to socialization about violence to the fact that boys are more likely than girls to be taught firearms use. I’m not sure it can be boiled down to a simple answer. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/67 "2020-01-21T12:45:00Z")
I have heard (but don’t really know) that most shooters are male, but most poisoners are female. Female serial killers tend to be “black widows” who do it for monetary gain, whereas male serial killers don’t. (There’s a different term for male multiple murderers who do it for profit, but they’re lumped in more with Pretty Boy Floyd than with Jeffrey Dahmer.) Killer nurses are a whole separate breed of female killers, and I think they are true serial killers whereas “black widows” really just want the money. Also, identical actions are attributed to different motivations for different demographics, for reasons I don’t understand, maybe because they are easier to sell to a jury: White male mass shooter=spree killer or serial killer, muslim mass shooter=political terrorist, black or Hispanic mass shooter=drug or gang related. Wayne Williams and John Muhammad/Lee Boyd Malvo escaped this classification, mainly because their crimes were well known before they were. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/68 "2020-01-21T21:41:51Z")
> [@Yakamaniac](#): > > Mass shooters tend to be loners, isolated and unsocial. There are notable exceptions, but the majority of mass shooters are not in relationships, nor have been for a long time, if ever. > [@md2000](#): > > The suggestion went like this - the typical shooter has mental and consequently social problems; they can’t make friends or drive them away. I wonder about this. These statements have been accepted as fact in this thread without any cite, and I probably would have accepted them myself were I not reading \*Columbine \*right now. The book talks about how the shooters at Columbine were described as loners and victims of bullying, but if you took a closer look at their personal lives, it actually wasn’t true. And I wonder to what extent (a) we’re assuming that shooters cannot develop or sustain friendships when it’s simply not true, and (b) to what extent those who know the shooter are looking for confirming evidence after the fact. In other words, if they know that shooters are isolated, then finding out a guy went haywire triggers a memory they had of the guy sitting alone at a lunch table one time, but does not trigger any memories of the guy having a good time with a group of people, even if both things happened. I will also say that if you were to ask me to name specific killers who were known to be isolated loners, I could not name a single one for you. I can certainly remember some famous mass shootings (perhaps not the name of the shooter, but at least the location of the shooting), but I really couldn’t tell you any details about the personal lives of the guy who did the shooting. (Apropos of nothing, just because I feel compelled to say it: The single most memorable thing I remember from any mass shooting is that the shooter in the Aurora movie theater shootings did not kill himself. That was such a break from the “mass shooting template” that it stuck in my memory.) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/69 "2020-01-21T23:44:50Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I have heard (but don’t really know) that most shooters are male, but most poisoners are female. [Apparently false](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-equation/201207/psychological-profile-poisoner): > [@](#): > > Contrary to popular belief, the majority of convicted poisoners are men, overwhelmingly so when the victim is a woman. When the victim is a man, the poisoner is equally likely to be male or female. As with other methods of murder, perpetrators rarely cross racial lines […] On average, a homicidal poisoner is 5 to 10 years younger than his/her victim. > > Career-wise, homicidal poisoners are over-represented in the medical (doctor, nurse, laboratory professional) or care-taking professions (wife, mother, nursing home attendant), where they have easy access to both the means to kill and a bevy of vulnerable victims. Of course, the vast majority of poisoners knock off someone s/he knows, such as a child, spouse, friend of acquaintance. But AFAICT poisonings have a high likelihood of going unsolved, so maybe the male poisoners are just the ones who get caught: > [@](#): > > Experts believe the number of convicted poisoners is just the tip of the iceberg and that, in comparison to other crimes, what we don’t know about poisoners is 20 to 30 times higher. […] > > Given that 1 out of 5 verified murders by poisoning is never solved, it’s hard to draw a definitive psychological profile of the typical poisoner. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/70 "2020-01-22T06:56:43Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > I wonder about this. These statements have been accepted as fact in this thread without any cite, and I probably would have accepted them myself were I not reading \*Columbine \*right now. The book talks about how the shooters at Columbine were described as loners and victims of bullying, but if you took a closer look at their personal lives, it actually wasn’t true. And I wonder to what extent (a) we’re assuming that shooters cannot develop or sustain friendships when it’s simply not true, and (b) to what extent those who know the shooter are looking for confirming evidence after the fact. In other words, if they know that shooters are isolated, then finding out a guy went haywire triggers a memory they had of the guy sitting alone at a lunch table one time, but does not trigger any memories of the guy having a good time with a group of people, even if both things happened. > > I will also say that if you were to ask me to name specific killers who were known to be isolated loners, I could not name a single one for you. I can certainly remember some famous mass shootings (perhaps not the name of the shooter, but at least the location of the shooting), but I really couldn’t tell you any details about the personal lives of the guy who did the shooting. > > (Apropos of nothing, just because I feel compelled to say it: The single most memorable thing I remember from any mass shooting is that the shooter in the Aurora movie theater shootings did not kill himself. That was such a break from the “mass shooting template” that it stuck in my memory.) Off the top of my head, the Columbine pair were social outcasts. The Sandy Hook guy, ditto. Remember, we’re talking about mass shooters (or killers) people who snap and suddenly commit a large massacre, not stealthy serial killers. The Texas Tower killer, the oldest that came to mind, apparently had mental problems and speculation is that a brain tumor was the cause. The San Ysidro McDonalds massacre, the perp also had problems: > [@](#): > > Huberty was a sullen child with few friends, whose primary interest was target practice.[77] A family acquaintance would later describe him as a “queer little boy who practised incessantly with a target pistol.” By his teens, Huberty was something of an amateur gunsmith.[78][n 4] > > Due to his limp, his family’s extreme religious beliefs, and his reluctance to socialize with his peers,[79] Huberty was frequently targeted by bullies at Waynedale High School.[80] An average scholar, he graduated 51st out of a class of 77 students in 1960.[81] The Luby’s shooting: > [@](#): > > Hennard was described as reclusive and belligerent, with an explosive temper. He had been pushed out of the Merchant Marine because of possession of marijuana. Numerous reports included accounts of Hennard’s expressed hatred of women.[1][2][3] An ex-roommate of his said, “He hated blacks, Hispanics, gays. He said women were snakes and always had derogatory remarks about them, especially after fights with his mother.”[3] Survivors from the cafeteria said Hennard had passed over men to shoot women. 14 of the 23 people killed were women, as were many of the wounded. He called two of them a “bitch” before shooting them.[ The most memorable mass shooting in Canada, the Montreal Polytechnic massacre, was again against women: > [@](#): > > Lépine was considered bright but withdrawn, and had difficulties with peer and family relationships. He legally changed his name to Marc Lépine at the age of 14 giving “hatred of his father” as the reason. > > Lépine’s application to the Canadian Forces was rejected, and in 1982 he began a science program at a college, switching to a more technical program after one year. In 1986, he dropped out of the course in his final term, and was subsequently fired from his job at a hospital due to his poor attitude. He began a computer programming course in 1988, and again abandoned it before completion. Lépine twice applied for admission to the École Polytechnique, but lacked two required compulsory courses. Lépine had long complained about women working in “non-traditional” jobs. After several months of planning, including the purchase of a semi-automatic rifle, he entered the École Polytechnique on the afternoon of December 6, 1989, separated the men from the women in a classroom, and shot the women, claiming that he was “fighting feminism”. He then moved into other parts of the building, targeting only the women, before killing himself. His suicide note blamed feminists for ruining his life. Same with most others I google. So most shooters (oddly enough) have serious mental problems. This contributes to a difficulty being part of the social community. No surprise that odd or insulting behaviour turns off people they meet. The joke about “going postal” was based on the fact that it seemed more postal workers than others would also snap and seek out their co-workers or boss for revenge. But again, human behaviour can be varied. Who knows? Wasn’t the song “I Don’t Like Mondays” based on some girl who also at one point snapped and started shooting up her school? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/71 "2020-01-22T15:28:01Z")
Wiki on [I Dont Like Mondays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays). > [@](#): > > According to (Bob) Geldof, he wrote the song after reading a telex report[6] at Georgia State University’s campus radio station, WRAS, on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children in a school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, on 29 January 1979, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime; her explanation for her actions was “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day”. ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/72 "2020-01-23T23:53:09Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Wasn’t the song “I Don’t Like Mondays” based on some girl who also at one point snapped and started shooting up her school? Brenda Spencer’s history included suicidal ideation and depression. She also had TBI (traumatic brain injury): “…during tests while she was in custody, it was discovered Spencer had an injury to the temporal lobe of her brain. It was attributed to an accident on her bicycle.” TBI probably happens to men more often than women (contact sports, fighting, reckless driving). Charles Whitman is also known to have had organic brain damage: “It has been suggested that Whitman’s violent impulses, with which he had been struggling for several years, were caused by a tumor found in the white matter above his amygdala upon autopsy.” (Quotes are from Wikipedia.) ---
**Author:** ![rosecoloredboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@rosecoloredboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rosecoloredboy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501/73 "2020-01-29T02:07:32Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > [Apparently false](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-equation/201207/psychological-profile-poisoner): > > But AFAICT poisonings have a high likelihood of going unsolved, so maybe the male poisoners are just the ones who get caught: I also wonder if the proportion of women who commit attempted, unsuccessful murders is higher than the portion of women who complete a murder. In America about 12% of murders are committed by women, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the proportion of attempted murders by women is considerably higher. Maybe men are “better” at murder? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pretty-much-all-mass-shooters-male/846501.md?page=3)