Thread by @markfollman

“School shootings season.”

That’s what some threat assessment experts call this time of year, as I detail in TRIGGER POINTS. The heightened danger is fueled by the "copycat" effect—and #Columbine, 23 years ago today, remains a big part of the problem harpercollins.com/products/trigg… 1/x

The extent of it is sobering: I documented more than 100 Columbine-inspired plots and attacks in the US in the two decades since the massacre.

“I’m thinking about doing my school the same way,” said one teen who planned an attack for April 20. “Everybody will know my name.” 2/x

Perverse myths about #Columbine went global—just as the offenders wanted. We all need to stop citing “Columbine-style attacks” and reusing shooter images, which further stirs troubled youth to plot violence and even travel to the school, including this recent chilling case: 3/x

Here's more of my research on the insidious “Columbine effect,” as I came to call it, in this 2019 @MotherJones story. I include a lot of further reporting in Trigger Points about this problem—and what more we can do to bury it, long overdue. motherjones.com/crime-justice/… 4/x

In conclusion: honor the victims and survivors, and otherwise stop talking up #Columbine! The news media, public officials...and all of us on social media.

Much more on this—and what more we can do to reduce our nation's epidemic of mass shootings—here 👉🏼 harpercollins.com/products/trigg…

These are the names and faces to remember. #Columbine (via @9NEWS)