Criminology and public-policy professor James Alan Fox of Boston’s Northeastern University in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” implored the media not to refer to mass shootings as the biggest of their kind, the No. 1, the worst, etc., as such superlatives, in the depraved mind of a would-be killer, may serve as additional motivation.

3% Proportion of people who own half of the country’s guns, according to an unpublished Harvard/Northeastern University survey result summary. Anchoring this group are America’s gun super-owners – an estimated 7.7 million Americans who own between eight and 140 guns.

Thousands of Americans fit the profile of a mass shooter. Seemingly straightforward strategies for deterring would-be killers have their weaknesses, writes Northeastern professor James Alan Fox.

“We don’t know if these folks are overwhelmingly pro-statehood, or pro-commonwealth…. We have no idea who’s leaving the island,” said Amilcar Barreto, an associate professor of political science, international affairs and public policy at Northeastern University.

That initial confusion is common during mass shootings, said James Allen Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist. Locating a gunman is even more challenging when he is perched above the ground, in a building covered in blinding gold windows. “He was camouflaged,” Fox said. “It would be hard to find him at such a high profile.”

Northeastern University’s Jack Levin has been studying mass murder and serial killings for years. He says we may never know the reason why Stephen Paddock went on a rampage in Las Vegas Sunday night, but he did offer some explanations.

“People shouldn’t avoid Las Vegas because this shooting happened there,” Northeastern University criminology professor and mass shooting expert James Alan Fox said in an interview. “You’re more likely to die on the way to a casino in a car accident.”

James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston, is concerned about those sources that use a broader definition.

Some researchers on mass shooting, like Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, have even incorporated in their studies several types of multiple homicides that cannot be defined as mass shooting: for instance, familicide (a form of domestic violence) and gang murders.

Northeastern University terrorism expert Max Abrahms said the bloodshed could pull ISIS followers off the sidelines.

Two of the biggest concerns are whether a region that already has lots of tech companies can provide enough quality workers, and is there enough housing for them. But Northeastern University political economist Barry Bluestone, who joined WBUR’s Morning Edition, says these are challenges that can be solved.

“I really can’t recall another case where one has been used,” said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist who studies mass shooters and believes Paddock was armed with an automatic weapon when he killed at least 59 people and set off chaos that injured more than 500.