A disproportionate number of mass shootings are committed by transgender people, a new report suggests.
The Crime Prevention Research Center defined a mass shooting as a single shooting incident that is not gang- or drug-related in which four or more people are killed.
Two of the 37 public mass shootings identified from 2018 through 2023 were carried out by a transgender person, according to John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, per The Epoch Times. Three additional shootings were carried out by gender-confused individuals that resulted in fewer than four victims.
This accounts for more than 5% of mass shootings, as noted by The Epoch Times, despite transgender people making up less than 1% of the population. Three other shootings were committed by someone with gender dysphoria in this same period that did not qualify as a mass shooting.
Kathy Platani, the director of the Southwest Ohio Critical Incident Stress Management Team, said that not everyone who suffers from gender dysphoria is violent, but she commented on the possible connections between using transgender hormones and the potential for violence.
“Hormones change brain chemistry,” Platani, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, told The Epoch Times. “And if you change brain chemistry, you might just be changing behavior.”
“They want to pay back the world for either bullying them, disapproving of them, or completely abandoning them. And this is how they make a statement,” she continued. “Once you feel ignited by this, and you’re already angry at the world, this is a perfect storm.”
A 2020 analysis of studies on transgender people found “increasing aggression when initiating testosterone therapy.” The study notes the historic connection between aggression and male hormones, which are often given to transgender men, as reported by The Epoch Times.
Alan Hopewell, a neuropsychologist, similarly noted the impact of hormone usage on the brain. He said transgender people who eventually decide to get surgery still may feel unsatisfied with their transition, which increases their anger.
“And what happens is they get to the end of the road, where there’s nothing else that can be done,” Hopewell told The Epoch Times. “They come to the realization that ‘I’m just as mentally ill as I’ve ever been, and I’ll never be a real woman or a real man.’”