Extremism runs rampant throughout America and leaves citizens in the all too familiar cycle of grieving children lost in another school shooting and pleading with lawmakers to enact change. 

Most recently on March 27, six people, including three children were killed at the Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.

To halt the phenomenon of individuals using guns that should not be in their possession in the first place to massacre innocent citizens, identifying the root cause is integral.

Extremism and gun violence have a distinct and severe link; the number of mass killings related to extremism, specifically right-wing extremism, has drastically grown since the 1970s, according to apnews.com.

From the 1970s to the 2000s, between two and seven extremist mass killings occurred every decade. In the 2010s, this number flew to 21. 

For example, a 19-year-old white gunman killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery store in New York on May 14, 2022.

“I shot and killed people because they were Black,” the shooter said, according to nbcnews.com

He “studied” previous mass shootings and hate crimes and posted a disturbing manifesto online saturated with antisemitic and racist ideology.

The shooter remarked that he was “bored” during the COVID-19 pandemic and that 4chan — an imageboard website used mostly by young males — radicalized him.

This reveals an unsettling aspect of mass shootings and their perpetrators — the commonalities between them and the manner in which they spawn.

Online forums like 4chan and Reddit foster environments where right-wing extremists are comfortable sharing radically intolerant beliefs.

An unsettling chunk of mass shooters associate with these principles and work to copy acts of terrorism committed by previous extremists.

The Buffalo shooter even cited another white supremacist mass shooter who frequented 4chan  as inspiration for his crime. 

Forums on 4chan dedicated to sharing gory content desensitize susceptible users to violent imagery. 

Gore forums and extremist circles play a devasting role in the radicalization of mass shooters.

Therefore, it is pertinent that law enforcement cracks down on online subcultures that encourage mass murder and extremist propaganda through content moderation.

According to splcenter.org, youth radicalization experts Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Brian Hughes believe the government and law enforcement is not doing enough to prevent tragedies like the Buffalo shooting.

They argue that instead of pouring more money into programs that focus on how to handle a shooting as it is happening, officials should address problems at the source.

The Buffalo shooter received a psychiatric evaluation after threatening to commit a murder-suicide in June 2021. 

However, no further action was taken because his threat was deemed not specific enough. 

He later told a private Discord channel that he got away with it because he told officers it was a stupid mistake and is “still able to purchase guns.”

If the police had properly intervened, the shooting may have never happened.

Miller-Idriss and Hughes argue that schools should implement a curriculum that provides tactics to identify far-right online spaces and practice digital and media literacy.

While the Nashville shooter’s motives are not yet clear, acknowledging the power online forums have to radicalize individuals is crucial when planning prevention.

Mass shootings will continue to plague America so long as their origins are not considered.