Why does a normal person suddenly snap and commit acts of violence that appear to be senseless? For example, why did Major Nidal Hasan decide one day to shoot and kill 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas?

It is reassuring to dismiss the assumption that the person was normal to begin with. Typically, journalists and psychiatrists rummage around the person’s history, collecting life-details like a traumatic childhood, a drinking habit or terrible shyness around women. But next to no one would appear normal if their lives were held under microscopic scrutiny and, yet, shooting sprees are rare. If a person without a record of violence is normal enough to hold down a responsible job, etc., then the question should not be dismissed due to the presence of emotional problems that most of us have at some time.

So why does a statistically normal person suddenly snap? (BTW, it is annoyingly necessary for anyone who seriously explores the question to state clearly…”I am not apologizing for nor justifying in any way acts of violence.” Quite the contrary. I need to understand where such horrifying violence comes from so that, perhaps, it can be prevented.)

A specific set of circumstances seem to be a common theme. They include:

1) A personal injustice has been committed against the individual. With Hasan, I suspect he thought American soldiers were murdering people like him (Muslims) and he could not stand the imminent prospect of being forced to serve in Afghanistan – that is, of being forced to participate in the slaughter. The more personal the injustice, the more likely the eruption of violence. Frankly, this is an aspect of anti-male bias in the family court system that worries me. Good fathers are often stripped of all access to children they adore and, yet, at the same they are forced to pay ruinous, unreasonable child support. I frequently receive emails from fathers who are ½ heartbroken, ½ enraged…all of whom feel so helpless that they are writing to a stranger (me).

2) An inability to rectify the injustice through non-violent means. Often the person has gone through the court system – spending immense time, money and emotional reserves – only to be dismissed or further victimized. In the case of alienated fathers, the court system itself is the enemy. The person comes to believe “there is no justice” and, so, stops looking for fairness. The injustice has to be both big and blinding enough for the person to be unable to ‘move on.’

3) The injustice is continuous. That is to say, it does not happen once or twice but becomes an integral part of daily life and, so, it is impossible to “wait out” or avoid. I suspect the situation is similar to that in which people commit suicide; they lose all perspective and no longer have the ability to see a future that isn’t defined by “the blackness.” Indeed, in becoming a ‘shooter’ instead of committing suicide, the person may be expressing the opposite extreme reaction to the same devastating bleakness. But they direct the rage outward rather than in.

4) Factors that would restrain an act of violence are absent. When a person opens fire at a school, workplace etc., he demonstrates a willingness to throw away the rest of his life in exchange for one brief episode. A person who has something positive to live for – a child, a spouse, a cause – will not make that trade-off.

5) There is a sense of collective guilt directed at those who are targeted for violence. No one except a sociopath will kill people he views as innocent. A ‘shooter’ will target fellow-students who have tormented him…even if the specific students shot are strangers; to him, all are responsible for his misery, not merely the individual students he knows. Or all women. Or all soldiers, etc.

The foregoing is speculation, of course. Like most people, I do not really understand so-called ‘senseless’ acts of violence. But we are fast becoming a less civil, more violent society in which injustice is rampant and often committed by the institutions (police, courts) that are allegedly there to protect us. “There is no justice”…is an increasingly pervasive attitude. Which makes me think acts of ‘senseless’ violence will become more common. I intend to stretch my limited capacity to understand them as far as I can.