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Why are mass shooters getting younger and deadlier? Experts have theories

Experts say pressures on youth have been amplified over the past decade by internet and social media platforms where bullying and aggressive marketing of hateful ideologies – and weapons – is rampant.

Josh Meyer
USA TODAY
  • Mass shooters are rapidly becoming younger and deadlier in the U.S.
  • Law enforcement agencies and experts say research lags behind the causes of it
  • New solutions are needed for a rising threat that often lurks within online chats and social media

Some do it out of a perverse desire to make a difference in the world. Others are driven by mental illness, pandemic isolation or social media influences that turn them into hateful and sadistic monsters.

But there's one increasing commonality among America’s mass shooters: their youth.

Robert “Bobby” Crimo, the man accused of firing on an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, is 21.

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