Frazier Glenn Cross was known by authorities as an anti-Semite and white supremacist with a history of making death threats before he allegedly shot and killed three people at Jewish institutions in Overland Park, Kansas last weekend. But his hateful history didn't necessarily make it predictable that he would one day turn to violence, says Dr. Michael Brannon.
"Most people who threaten don't follow through on threats and we like to live kind of in a bubble that tells us other people won't do bad things to us or to other people," Brannon, a forensic psychologist, told John Bachman and J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV. "The other thing is that prediction of who's actually going to do this is not very accurate, even the best of professionals have a very difficult time predicting who will actually act upon those threats or that hate speech, if you will."
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Equally as hard to determine is what makes someone capable of committing such an act, but Brannon said it is often a result of someone being raised to hate specific people or groups of people. It is also often influenced by an experience with, or interest in, violence. Isolation, too, is an important factor.
"Before most people kill, they rehearse those things especially those who are agenda based; they rehearse them in their brain," he said. "'This is why this is justified, this is what I'll do, this is why I think I should continue to do those things,' so those who are more isolated have less of a chance of getting talked out of those things, if you will, or hearing contradictory viewpoints."
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