Institute’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium will analyze warning signs from prior mass shootings and develop training materials to promote awareness and reporting of potential threats
Albany, NY — The Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government announced today that it has received a $450,000 grant from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to analyze mass public shootings and develop public awareness and bystander intervention training programs to prevent future tragedies.
Although mass public shootings in the US are statistically rare events, they continue to increase in frequency. One of the most effective strategies for preventing mass shootings is through identifying “leakage”—the communications and behaviors that indicate a perpetrator’s intentions in the lead-up to a shooting. Despite leakage by nearly all perpetrators of mass public shootings, failures to recognize and report these behaviors persist.
Through the support of the grant, Consortium researchers will conduct the first systematic evaluation of leakage in mass public shootings from 1999 to 2024. Findings from this analysis will support the development of training programs for specific audiences (i.e., students and staff in K-12 schools and colleges and universities) and the general public. As part of the project, these trainings will be piloted across the nation, including 10 school districts in New York and 3 universities in New York, Texas, and Massachusetts, before being made available to the public.
“The recent mass shooting at a school in Winder, Georgia, serves to reiterate the importance of using the tools at our disposal to prevent these tragedies,” said Rockefeller Institute President Bob Megna. “We are grateful to DHS for supporting our efforts to mitigate this terrible aspect of the nation’s gun violence crisis and believe that the nation-leading gun violence experts in the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium can equip the public with the tools it needs to stay safe.”
“Many mass public shootings could be prevented if people were more aware of how to recognize the warning signs and take action,” said Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium. “This project will help us develop effective training programs that can be used nationwide to help prevent future tragedies before they occur.”
The awareness campaign will seek to help members of the public understand:
- what the concept of leakage is and how associated warning behaviors precede mass public shootings,
- how to identify these warning signs, and
- how and where they should be reported.
The proposal, “Understanding the Leakage That Precedes Mass Public Shootings and Its Utility for Prevention Efforts Through Public Awareness,” will be led by principal investigator Jaclyn Schildkraut (Executive Director, Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium), co-principal investigator Hunter Martaindale (Director of Research, Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training [ALERRT] Center & Associate Professor of Research at Texas State University), and co-investigator Emily Greene-Colozzi (Assistant Professor, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell).
Members of the media and the public can sign up for updates on this project on the Consortium webpage.
View the DHS award announcement.
About the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium
The Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium is a coalition of more than 125 gun violence researchers and practitioners that seeks to inform policymakers and the public by providing evidence-based, data-driven policy recommendations to disrupt the cycle of firearm-involved homicides, suicides, and injuries.