Associated Press, May 20, 2016
On Thursday, Cinemark Theaters won the lawsuit that had been filed against them by 27 plaintiffs — survivors and families of people killed arising out of the 2012 Batman movie theater shooting. The jury quickly decided that “there was no way the company could have safeguarded against the attack” and is not responsible for victims’ injuries.
But such cases are exceedingly hard to prove, as mass violence is difficult to predict, even for mental health professionals, said John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. His research found that 60 percent of the 25 mass public shootings since 2009 involved gunmen who were under mental health care.
“I know of no successful suit that’s been done on this,” Lott said. “They’re going to have a very difficult time proving the psychiatrist didn’t meet proper standard of care.” . . .
During the interview I also pointed out how these mass public shooters are such a tiny fraction of those with mental illness. Many fewer than one out of every 100,000 schizophrenics is involved in these attacks. Even nationally recognized experts on mental illness failed to identify their own patients. Not one of the mass public shooters since at least 1998 who was seeing a mental health expert was identified as a danger to themselves or others before their attack. It is very easy to see the significance in certain behavior after the mass shooting occurs, but those events can be very difficult to discern at the time.
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