The US is often known globally for its shocking levels of violence, but acts of “family annihilation” or “familicide” rank among the most disturbing of crimes.
asserted
acts → know → crimes
They occur when an assailant kills four or more of their own family members and often see the killer also kill themselves.
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killer → occur → themselves
These types of crime have increased dramatically this year, according to data from Northeastern University.
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types → increase → University
The still rare but shocking mass killings have occurred across the country, including one this week in Texas, in which an alleged shooter killed four adults in a family that had taken him in, and one last month in Montana, in which an assailant killed eight relatives, including four children.
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assailant → occur → children
After six such attacks occurred last year, the lowest number in at least two decades, there have already been at least 17 this year.
Experts say they often occur after family estrangement or due to financial stresses, often on a father, or marital disputes.
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they → occur → father
But, crucially, in the United States, the perpetrator is more likely to have easy access to a gun than many other parts of the world.
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perpetrator → have → world
Such familicide is preventable, experts argue, but happens, in large part, because of the country’s high gun ownership rate and lack of firearm regulations, which makes it more likely that an assailant will impulsively shoot their family.
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assailant → argue → family
“There are way too many guns around and easy to pick up, and when someone is in some sort of a rage place, guns get picked up in anger,” said Jacquelyn Campbell, a Johns Hopkins University professor of nursing who has studied domestic violence homicide.
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who → be → homicide
In June, a domestic dispute occurred in Muscatine, Iowa.
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dispute → occur → Muscatine
Ryan McFarland had previously been charged with child endangerment resulting in a death; neglect or abandonment; armed robbery and burglary; and fraud, according to WQAD-TV.
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McFarland → charge → TV
After the dispute, McFarland shot and killed his wife and five family members before killing himself.
“I just wanted to say that I will forever love and miss my mom, Lesa, my sister, Ryle, my four brothers, Dakota, Austin, Mark and Ryan,” Jonathan McFarland, the sole surviving family member, said, according to KWQC.
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McFarland → shoot → KWQC
In another case this summer, in Billings, Montana, Alan Smith’s parents had asked him to move out.
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parents → ask → him
Weeks later, he killed four generations of his family at a Sunday dinner.
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he → kill → dinner
The father of two of the children killed told the Associated Press that Smith had been verbally abusive and a hermit.
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Smith → kill → Press
“There were many red flags and many people spoke out,” said Brad Ireland, the father.
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Ireland → be → ?
“No one listened.”
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one → listen → ?
The most common triggers for such events are relationship estrangement, including a recent divorce or separation, said Katherine Keyes, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University and author of a 2025 murder-suicide study.
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Keyes → include → study
“Often in the intimate partner situation, it involves things like jealousy and just the kind of psychic pain involved in suicidal crisis overall,” Keyes said.
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Keyes → involve → crisis
But while the rate of intimate partner violence is similar across all high-income countries, according to a study published in the Lancet, gun ownership and deaths are much more common in the United States than other developed nations.
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ownership → accord → nations
When a domestic abuser, who is typically a man, has access to a gun, the victim is five times likelier to be killed, according to a study in the American Journal of Public Health.
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victim → have → Health
In the United Kingdom, for example, which has stricter gun laws and lower gun ownership, the number in 2021 was 0.7.
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number → have → 2021
“There is a particular lethality and a particular impulsivity and a particular level of threat that occurs when a firearm is present, and right now in America we have more firearms than people,” said Doreen Dodgen-Magee, a psychologist whose sister-in-law and three nieces were shot and killed by her brother-in-law.
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sister → be → law
As such, reducing access to lethal means, like guns, “is one of the most effective and evidence-based suicide prevention and violence prevention interventions”, Keyes said.
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Keyes → reduce → interventions
Twenty-two states have red flag laws, which allow people, typically law enforcement or family members, to petition a judge for an emergency order that would temporarily remove firearms from a person found to be at risk of harming themselves or others.
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that → have → themselves
Meanwhile, six states have passed bans on such protective orders, and three are considering doing so, according to the Trace, a news organization that covers gun violence.
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that → pass → violence
The National Rifle Association also previously expressed support for red-flag laws but later reversed its position.
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Association → express → position
Such laws “strip away gun owners’ rights without due process”, Randy Kozuch, an NRA lobbyist, wrote in a Daily Caller column.
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Kozuch → strip → column
Nathan Dahm, a Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma, which has among the nation’s highest suicide rates, sponsored the country’s first anti-red flag law.
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which → have → law
When the Trace asked him about the connection between firearms and suicide and a colleague who had killed himself with a gun, Dahm said: “Everyone dies.
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Everyone → ask → gun
That’s life.”
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That → ’ → ?
But there is evidence that red-flag laws can prevent suicides.
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laws → be → suicides
The risk factors for suicide, such as psychiatric disorders, particularly depression, are often similar to those for homicide-suicides, Keyes said.
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Keyes → say → suicides
After such mass murders, the shooters often kill themselves.
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shooters → kill → themselves
A study published in January in the journal Jama Health Forum examined four states that passed such laws and eight that did not, and found that they reduced firearm suicides by an average of 3.79 incidents 100,000 people.
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they → publish → incidents
Dodgen-Magee also does not accept the argument often used by gun rights advocates that firearms help people, including women, protect themselves.
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people → accept → themselves
Given the number of firearms in the United States, “if that were true, we would be the safest country to live in”, said Dodgen-Magee, who advocates for stricter gun safety laws.
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who → give → laws
Three decades ago, her sister-in-law and nieces left their home because they no longer were safe living with her brother-in-law.
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they → leave → law
Despite a restraining order against him, he was able to purchase a gun and drove to Dodgen-Magee’s mother-in-law’s house where he killed his wife and children.
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he → purchase → wife
She thinks a red-flag law and a measure that forced the vendor to run a background check before selling the gun to him could have prevented the shooting.
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that → think → shooting
Dodgen-Magee remains traumatized by it.
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Magee → remain → it
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
