Missing the point on terror threat

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer ‘misses the point’ with his vow to change terror laws to deal with lone killers following the tragedy in Southport perpetrated by Axel Rudakubana.

The UK has had several lone-wolf attackers in the last few years who were not part of any organised group or ring.

Mass killing attacks that target schools are a planned show of expressive transformative violence. The attacker is determined to literally show the public that their lethal actions mean they are not ‘losers’ or ‘nobodies’ but in fact competent and dangerous people to be reckoned with.

The killing is partly performative to demonstrate they have ‘transformed’ from nobody to somebody. To them, the deaths are justified.

Studying those perpetrating such attacks reveals that the attacks are rarely done with the aim of spreading ‘terror’ or delivering a message or viewpoint.

Where Starmer’s analysis is correct, however, is on the common use of the internet by attackers, such as Rudakubana, to obsess and study other mass killing cases; to access prohibited materials, to acquire weapons; and to spread any legacy items or ‘manifestos’ to justify their violence.

With the strictest firearms laws in the world, mass shootings still happen in the UK, but many attackers must be inventive in acquiring their weapons. Several foiled plans by would-be attackers in the UK show this.

Eighteen-year-old Mick Piggin (Loughborough, 2012) and 14-year-olds Thomas Wylie and Alex Bolland (Northallerton, 2017) all stockpiled weapons and planned to attack their former or current schools. They even had hit-lists of their intended targets.

Both attacks were modelled on the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.

Thirty-two-year-old Reed Wischhusen (Somerset, 2022) also stockpiled firearms and a police uniform in order to target his former school.

All of these attacks were foiled, but Piggin and Wischhusen were both close to the point of attack when apprehended.

None of these individuals were motivated by religion or politics. In each case, they were individuals who were angry outsiders, who felt their lives were not where they should be, and they held grudges against individuals from their former schools, believing them to be the source of their unhappiness.

The planning and preparation of the attack was also rewarding for them – and they felt that their anger and frustration justified the violence, therefore public vigilance is imperative in preventing these attacks.

Craig Jackson, who has studied mass killings, is Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at Birmingham City University.