House Democrats introduced a bill Tuesday known as the “Identifying Mass Shooters Act” that will direct the National Institute of Justice to collect, study and analyze online content to identify potential mass shooters before they act, according to a copy of the bill obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The bill, introduced by Democratic Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume along with several other Democrats, will require the director of the NIJ to create and submit a report to Congress detailing the “content patterns” of mass shooters within two years of the legislation’s enactment. The bill claims that existing oversight and accountability measures for social media platforms produce an environment that fosters
hate speech, extremism, radicalization, and violence.”
The bill claims that perpetrators of mass shootings have “utilized various online channels” such as manifestos, blog posts, social media posts, and direct messages to announce their intent to commit violence. While creating the report, the director must review “linguistic patterns used by previous mass shooters” and “identify items for further study relating to the effectiveness of the best practices developed under subsection.”
Identifying Mass Shooters Bill by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd
The director must also “meet with and consider any facts and analyses offered” by law enforcement agencies and academic experts, according to the bill.(Related: Oregon Voters Narrowly Pass Highly Restrictive Gun Control Measure That Creates ‘Database’ Of Gun Owners)
The bill referenced mass shooter events that have had online warnings before the shooter carried out the attack, referencing the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter, who wanted to be a ‘‘professional school shooter.”
A representative for Mfume provided the DCNF with a copy of the bill, but Mfume was not available to comment.
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