Yet Another Mass Shooter ‘Known to Law Enforcement’

On the menu today: The mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., raises questions about the culture of angry young men in America, and we take a quick look at the Illinois gubernatorial race.

Horror in Highland Park

Yesterday’s horror at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade is yet another case of an angry and seemingly disturbed young man “known to law enforcement” whose social-media feed “videos foretell his alleged violent acts.” In one, he “appears to dramatize a school shooting. In another video, [he] appears to animate his own demise in a confrontation with police.” He “left a long trail of tributes to mass shootings and public killings on social media platforms, according to numerous profiles that appear to belong to him.”

This is going to spur yet another round of arguments about gun control, but many of us who don’t hang around angry young men are left wondering about a separate issue: How many guys like this are out there? How many social-media accounts feature “long trails of tributes to mass shootings and public killings”? Just how many posts along those lines does a person have to publish before the company that operates the social-media platform contacts law enforcement? (Doesn’t this put the suspensions of the parody site the Babylon Bee, which seem to occur with metronomic regularity, in perspective?)

Are there far too many social-media accounts with material glorifying mass shootings to investigate? Is this just a way people strike rebellious poses or try to be edgy these days?