Following slew of ‘wrong place’ shootings across the nation, Chicago experts discuss alternatives to violence

CHICAGO -- In a country where mass shootings and gun violence have become daily occurrences, a fatal shooting in Antioch, Illinois, on April 12 during an argument over the use of a leaf blower stood out for its triviality.

But while shocking, the deadly dispute between neighbors was by no means unique in recent weeks, when guns have been used to end petty grievances: Knocking on a stranger’s door. Pulling into the wrong driveway. Accidentally getting into the wrong car.

All are examples of seemingly normal human interaction that left people shot, sometimes fatally.

These harrowing cases illustrate what a Loyola University psychologist calls an “emerging category of violence.” Most recently, a man in Texas used a rifle to fatally shoot five of his neighbors, including an 8-year-old, after the family had asked him to stop firing rounds in his front yard because a baby was trying to sleep inside their home.

“It could be (that) the more these kinds of killings occur, the more normative they become, as you can see with mass shootings,” said Art Lurigio, a criminologist and professor of psychology at Loyola. “We’ve had more mass shootings to date in 2023 than ever in United States history.”