Chapter 4 Serial, Mass and Spree Killing

Question 1

Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984

Answer 1

Imposed a mandatory minimum 15-year prison term on a convicted felon who had three previous convictions for robbery or burglary and who possessed or received a firearm

Question 2

Assault Weapons Ban (AWB)

Answer 2

A congressional act that banned 19 weapons that looked similar to military weapons, including AK-47s and Uzis; the act was largely symbolic because the banned weapons were rarely used in crimes

Question 3

Boston Gun Project

Answer 3

An interagency, deterrence-based project that includes the Boston Police Department; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Massachusetts Department of Parole; the Boston school police; and a research team from Harvard University. All program participants communicate with one another to share intelligence on a regular basis in order to try to meet the project’s goal of preventing violence in inner-city neighborhoods through heightened surveillance, rapid identification of violence and violent groups, and swift sanctions, such as arrest and conviction.

Question 4

Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Bill) of 1993

Answer 4

Mandated criminal history background checks on persons applying to purchase firearms from federally licensed firearm dealers

Question 5

BTK Killer

Answer 5

Stands for bind, torture, and kill; Dennis Rader was a serial killer in Wichita, Kansas. He was convicted of killing ten people over the course of 30 years beginning in 1974.

Question 6

Bump Stock

Answer 6

Allows a shooter to fire a semiautomatic weapon almost as fast as an automatic weapon

Question 7

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

Answer 7

The federal law enforcement agency authorized to grant licenses to dealers and manufacturers and to enforce the other requirements of gun control legislation

Question 8

Comfort Killers

Answer 8

Persons who murder for creature comforts, such as financial gain

Question 9

Defensive Gun Use

Answer 9

Self-protective behavior involving guns

Question 10

Federal Firearms Act of 1938

Answer 10

Intended to decrease gang-related violence and also to control the illegal distribution of alcohol by taxing it heavily

Question 11

Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1968 (FOPA)

Answer 11

Passed with the backing of the National Rifle Association to prohibit the federal government from centralizing the records of firearm owners or firearm transactions and allowed federal firearm licensees to sell arms at temporary locations, such as gun shows

Question 12

Gun Control Act of 1968

Answer 12

Passed in the wake of urban rioting and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; its five objectives included prohibiting interstate firearm sales, prohibiting sales to an expanded list of “dangerous people,” adding other “dangerous devices” to the prohibited weapons list, prohibiting the sale of “Saturday Night Specials,” and prohibiting the importation of surplus military weapons.

Question 13

Gun Control Legislation

Answer 13

Has been introduced at federal, state, and local levels

Question 14

Handgun Homicides

Answer 14

Homicides with handguns; the increase in gun violence in the late 1980s through mid-1990s is attributable to handguns

Question 15

Hedonistic Lust Killers

Answer 15

Killers distinguished by their effort to obtain sexual pleasure from killing; the lust killer derives direct sexual satisfaction from murdering his victims or by having sex with the corpse or by mutilating or cutting off sex organs

Question 16

Homicidal Triad

Answer 16

Histories of serial killers frequently include these three behaviors: bed-wetting past an appropriate age, cruelty to animals, and fire-setting

Question 17

Mass Murder

Answer 17

Generally understood to have taken place when someone kills four or more victims in one location at one general point in time. The killings may stretch over a period of hours, but they are all part of the same emotional experience.

Question 18

Militia

Answer 18

A term in the Second Amendment that is a source of confusion; it’s not clear whether the amendment refers to a select group of citizens who serve as soldiers who have the right to bear arms or if all citizens have that right

Question 19

Mission Killers

Answer 19

Killers on a mission to rid the world of a group of people they perceive as unworthy or inferior in some way

Question 20

Multicide

Answer 20

The killing of more than one person in mass murder, spree murder, or a serial murder

Question 21

National Firearms Act of 1934

Answer 21

Intended to decrease gang-related violence and also to control the illegal distribution of alcohol by taxing them heavily

Question 22

National Rifle Association (NRA)

Answer 22

Perhaps the most powerful lobbying organization in Washington, DC; it claims that any legislation aimed at controlling the possession of guns by citizens infringes upon their rights

Question 23

Power/Control Killers

Answer 23

Murder to obtain a sense of domination and total control over their victims. Although sex is sometimes involved, the pleasure is primarily derived from the complete control the killer has over his victim.

Question 24

Second Amendment

Answer 24

Inextricably linked to our current gun culture debate: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Question 25

Self-Protection Argument

Answer 25

When private citizens have weapons in their homes or are able to carry concealed weapons, they are less likely to be successfully targeted by criminals

Question 26

Semiautomatic Weapons

Answer 26

These weapons fire more rounds than regular handguns and now account for 80% of all handgun wounds; allow offenders to inflict multiple wounds

Question 27

Serial Murder

Answer 27

Occur when a murderer kills on at least three occasions, with an emotional cooling-off period between the incidents. This cooling-off period can last days, weeks, months, or years.

Question 28

Spree Murder

Answer 28

Involves multiple victims at multiple locations with no emotional cooling-off period between the murders

Question 29

Thrill Killers

Answer 29

Killers who derive pleasure from torturing, dominating, terrorizing, and humiliating their victims

Question 30

Visionary Killers

Answer 30

Killers who perceive voices or images that command them to kill. This type of killer is rare because they suffer from some sort of psychosis.