Focus on US mass shooters’ political beliefs undermines fight against gun violence

Leaning so heavily on politics to understand mass violence fails to capture rapidly changing landscape of radicalization

It's a common feature in the response to the high-profile acts of gun violence in the US: among the first, if not the first, element in a shooter's background to be scrutinized is their political beliefs.

The recent spate of mass shootings has followed this same playbook. After Charlie Kirk's shooting, Republican officials, including Donald Trump and JD Vance, were quick to paint the suspect as a radical leftist", even when little was known about his background. When a young man opened fire at a Texas Ice facility last week, killing two detainees and injuring another, authorities and the media quickly turned to the question of which political camp the suspected attacker belonged to.