Trigger Points

Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America

By: Mark Follman

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

""An urgent read that illuminates real possibility for change.” —John Carreyrou, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Blood

For the first time, a story about the specialized teams of forensic psychologists, FBI agents, and other experts who are successfully stopping mass shootings—a hopeful, myth-busting narrative built on new details of infamous attacks, never-before-told accounts from perpetrators and survivors, and real-time immersion in confidential threat cases, casting a whole new light on how to solve a grievous problem

It's time to go beyond all the thoughts and prayers, misguided blame on mental illness, and dug-in disputes over the Second Amendment. Through meticulous reporting and panoramic storytelling, award-winning journalist Mark Follman chronicles the decades-long search for identifiable profiles of mass shooters and brings readers inside a groundbreaking method for preventing devastating attacks. The emerging field of behavioral threat assessment, with its synergy of mental health and law enforcement expertise, focuses on circumstances and behaviors leading up to planned acts of violence—warning signs that offer a chance for constructive intervention before it's too late.

Beginning with the pioneering study in the late 1970s of ""criminally insane"" assassins and the stalking behaviors discovered after the murder of John Lennon and the shooting of Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, Follman traces how the field of behavioral threat assessment first grew out of Secret Service investigations and FBI serial-killer hunting. Soon to be revolutionized after the tragedies at Columbine and Virginia Tech, and expanded further after Sandy Hook and Parkland, the method is used increasingly today to thwart attacks brewing within American communities.

As Follman examines threat-assessment work throughout the country, he goes inside the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit and immerses in an Oregon school district's innovative violence-prevention program, the first such comprehensive system to prioritize helping kids and avoid relying on punitive measures. With its focus squarely on progress, the story delves into consequential tragedies and others averted, revealing the dangers of cultural misunderstanding and media sensationalism along the way. Ultimately, Follman shows how the nation could adopt the techniques of behavioral threat assessment more broadly, with powerful potential to save lives.

Eight years in the making, Trigger Points illuminates a way forward at a time when the failure to prevent mass shootings has never been more costly—and the prospects for stopping them never more promising.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

insightful and informative

This book was very well put together and presented, offering insightful and informative insights about the issues surrounding massing shootings and their perpetrators.

Very informative.

Great reading, great voice and perfect emphasis. Does not highlight the shooters themselves for more than a few seconds each and really places the value on the victim. Well done to the author!

shocking, inspiring, and profound resilience

This guided walk through the history of school and workplace shootings and the struggles to change laws and cope with their aftermath is awe inspiring

Thank You!

Thank you for all of the research, time, and effort that was put forth to write this necessary book. I have recommended it to many of my friends and family read, and or, listen to.

Good but left Slanted

The books message is good and very valuable to those of us who work in the field and are developing Threat Assessment Teams. However, this is the second book In a row in which a leftist has to sling their political message into the book. Just leave it out the politics and provide the information.