Take violence against women seriously. It’s a red flag.
There is one thing, though, that an alarming number of the recent mass shooters in the United States share: A history of aggression and violence toward women. Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in the horrific massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007, had been previously investigated for stalking two female classmates. Elliot Rodger, who killed six and wounded 13 in Isla Vista, Calif., in 2014, was obsessed with perceived rejection by women, and not long before the shooting had thrown coffee on two women at a bus stop because they failed to smile at him... Hodgkinson fits the same pattern. In 2006, police records show, Hodgkinson went to his neighbor’s house looking for his daughter and forced his way into the home, using “bodily force to damage” a door. A police narrative on file with the St. Clair County, Ill., Sheriff’s Department says witnesses said he grabbed his daughter by the hair, chased her to their neighbor’s car and used a knife to cut her seat belt off so he could pull her out. Police records say he also punched his neighbor in the face after she told him she would call 911... Hodgkinson appeared in court and had screaming outbursts that caused him to be removed. Nonetheless, the judge apparently dismissed his case after a witness accidentally failed to appear at a rescheduled hearing... at least 54 percent of mass shootings — or 85 out of 156 incidents — involved a current or former intimate partner or family member as a victim... domestic violence is a form of violence, just one that we don’t always take as seriously as other kinds.. People who are likely to act violently often start with those nearest to them, who are vulnerable due to proximity, and who are often financially, emotionally or legally dependent on their abuser.