Readers React: Focus on the ‘how,’ not the ‘why,’ after mass shootings

To the editor: The Op-Ed article by Matthew Goldenberg, a Yale University School of Medicine psychiatry professor, is a valuable contribution to a balanced and thoughtful discussion of mass shootings and mental illness. (“Can we pick out the mass shooters before they kill?,” Op-Ed, Sept. 10)

The coverage immediately following mass shootings is typically focused on motive or a psychological profiling of the killer, which is often purely speculative and may never be known. Rather than asking “why,” we should focus more on “how.”

Goldenberg accurately points out that the “why” question is a distraction from looking at the role that stricter public policy can play in significantly reducing incidents of mass shootings as well as the daily occurrence of gun violence in our nation.

Virginia Classick, Woodland Hills

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