The day after: did they fit the mold of the typical mass killers? Was it terrorism or workplace grievance? Is the media partly to blame? Was it preventable? Is it ever preventable? Former Massachusetts Public Safety Secretary Andrea Cabral and Northeastern's Jack Levin discuss.
Syed Farooq and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, fired between 65 and 75 times at the Inland Regional Center, using two assault rifles and two handguns. All of the weapons were purchased legally, but two were bought by someone else.
They also left a device at the center, which was made up of three connected pipe bombs and a remote control, which apparently did not work.
The pair had more than 16-hundred bullets with them when they were killed during a shootout with police. And at home, they had more than 3-thousand rounds of ammunition, 12 pipe bombs, and tools to make improvised explosive devices.
Farooq is a U.S. citizen and Malik came to the U.S. from Pakistan on a fiancee visa in 2014.
Farooq was an employee at the Inland Center, and there are reports he left a holiday party there angry. Some outlets like CNN are citing sources saying he’d been communicating with more than one person under investigation for terror links.
"Most mass killers are loners," said Levin. "They don't bring their wife in on it, they don't have children at home. So this is different." On the question 'was this terrorism', Levin said, "Yes. Those killers that use explosives attempt to kill as many people as possible."
Cabral believes that gun control is necessary to stop mass shootings, along with addressing mental health issues. "There ought to be less focus on violence. We need to address it as a public health issue."
"It shouldn't be this easy to do it," said Cabral. "No one needs an assault rifle."
