Could Your Neighbor Be The Next Mass Killer?

Killing sprees in which lone perpetrators brutally slaughter people, it seems, have become just another part of life — a part of life that, though it never becomes less shocking, is no longer surprising. 

• Dylann Roof killed nine black parishioners in a Charleston, SC church in June 2015.
• Anders Breivik, from Norway, murdered eight people by detonating a van bomb and then massacred 69 participants of a Workers' Youth League summer camp in July 2011. 
• Robert Bardo executed actress Rebecca Schaeffer in October 1991. 
• Richard Farley's carnage left seven people dead and four more wounded at ESL, the company he worked for, in February 1988.
• Kip Kinkel, an expelled student, murdered his parents before perpetrating the Thurston High School shooting that left two students dead and 25 more wounded in May 1998.
• James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a Century Movie Theater in July 2012.

Then, of course, there was the infamous psychopath Ted Bundy, with his chilling quotes: "I didn't know what made people want to be friends. I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions," and "I don't feel guilty for anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt," among others. 

I could go on — there was Elliot Rodgers, who killed and wounded women because they didn't want to go out with him, there was Kim De Gelder, who fatally stabbed two babies and a daycare worker at a Belgian daycare center, and there was, well — there were, numerous others.

Does It Matter Whether Mass Killers Are Insane?

James Holmes, who became one of America's worst mass murderers when he fancied himself the Joker and opened fire on a crowded movie theater, might have plead not guilty by reason of insanity, but he was still found guilty of first-degree murder. Concerns over Holmes' mental health probably saved his life, however: he'll spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, but he will not be executed.

Vince Li, a man who beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in 2008, didn't have Breivik's motivation to be considered fully accountable for his crime. He was found not criminally responsible for the murder he committed. Instead of being sent to prison, he was ended up at a mental health facility, from which he is now getting day passes for unsupervised visits to the rest of society — as long as he carries a working cell phone. In time, the Manitoba Review Board — which is responsible for deciding his fate — says Li may be able to live in a group home. 

READ Study: 20 American Kids Injured By Guns Daily

Whether someone who commits heinous crimes is considered legally insane or not holds the potential to have a very direct impact on the fate of such a mass killer — and with that, on the rest of society too. In that context, it's very important to decide exactly what makes someone insane.