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The Wednesday massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead and 14 others wounded is the eighteenth school shooting in the last 45 days. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect armed with an assault rifle, was charged with 17 counts of murder in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

According to research, those with mental illness - about 18 percent of adults, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation - are no more likely to commit violent acts. But the fact remains that when you look at the modern era of mass shootings - including but not limited to the recent horrific events in Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida - there are certain common mental health factors and motives that define the mind of a mass shooter, according to Alan J. Lipman, Ph.D., J.D., professor at the George Washington Medical Center and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Violence in Washington, D.C.

In most cases, these troubled individuals have an obsession with guns and killing.

Dr. Lipman, who is an expert on the psychology of violence and has been following cases since 1998, said that most mass killers fall into three categories. They can either have one or a combination of these traits.

1. A young male between the ages of 16 and 25 who is depressed and has a fascination with violence. Their depression is either undiagnosed or untreated. Cruz received mental health therapy, "but it was brief and there was no follow-up," said Lipman. Had Cruz continued treatment, "it's more than likely this would never have happened."

But depression itself, or any of the other two conditions, does not motivate someone to carry out an overwhelming, vengeful act of violence that destroys innocent lives. There is usually a triggering event. In Cruz's case that event was being expelled from school for disciplinary reasons, said Lipman. (There were also reports that he was shunned by a romantic interest.)

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A major experience like that in an already-depressed person causes a great deal of anger and rage; a serious break that fuels their viciousness. "This person, who already sees their life as having no value, now feels it's even more worthless, and they look to express their rage in the most violent way possible." Because their own life lacks value, so does the life of others.

2. A psychotic individual. The National Institute of Mental Health defines psychosis as a condition "where there has been some loss of contact with reality." Along the spectrum of psychosis is schizoid (personality) disorder and schizophrenia. This person may have trouble distinguishing truth from reality; suffer from hallucinations and delusions (false beliefs). "This was the case in the Virginia Tech shooter, who thought people were out to get him," Lipman explained. Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 in two separate attacks on the same day in April of 2007. Although people who suffer from psychosis are usually not violent, "there is a small subset of psychotic people who are implicated in shootings. Such was also the case with Jared Loughner, who shot U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed and wounded others in Tucson, Arizona in 2011, Lipman says.

3. A sociopath or psychopath. Known as antisocial personality disorder, this person disregards, or violates, the rights of others, having little to no conscience or regard for societal laws, with no remorse. While they may sometimes appear charming, they're typically manipulative, reckless and aggressive, irresponsible and often antisocial, prone to emotional outbursts and fits of rage.

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Inside the mind of Nikolas Cruz and other mass school shooters

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The Wednesday massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead and 14 others wounded is the eighteenth school shooting in the last 45 days. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect armed with an assault rifle, was charged with 17 counts of murder in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S.

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It happened on Nov. 15, 1995, in Lynville, Tenn. - nearly four years before the massacre at Columbine High School.

Science teacher Ralph Johnson was in his classroom at Richland High School when a student walked through the school's north entrance, armed with a .22 caliber, semiautomatic rifle. He began shooting at the first teachers he saw.

The student was Jamie Rouse, then 17. Now 25, and in prison, Rouse sat down with Correspondent Maureen Maher to give a rare glimpse into the mind of a school shooter.

"I didn't feel anything. I was empty," says Rouse.

The first shots hit Carol Yancey, 50, who taught math and science, and Carolyn Foster, 58, a teacher at the school for 15 years.

His third victim, Diane Collins, was a 14-year-old freshman.

"When you're in that state of mind where you're gonna kill someone, nothing matters," says Rouse. "I wasn't expecting to, you know, come back alive."

The killing stopped only after Rouse was wrestled to the ground. Two of the victims -- Collins and Foster -- died. But Yancey miraculously survived.

Rouse was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, without parole, for the shootings. His mother, Cheryl Rouse, was stunned. "This can't be my son that did this. Why didn't I know? Why couldn't I see how much pain he was in," she says. "He was the good kid. He was the one that always did what he was told. You could depend on him."

She says that the fact that her son was dressed all in black, listened to loud music and loved violent movies didn't set off any alarms at the time. "To me, that was just typical teenager. You know," says Cheryl Rouse. "One minute they're mad, and the next minute, they're OK."

But Jamie was troubled. In high school, he started drinking and doing drugs, and he was listening to death metal music - songs about killing and dying.

The film, "Natural Born Killers," also made a big impression on him. "It made killing look easy and fun," says Rouse. "I mean, it fascinated me."

He now says the music and violent images were filling an emptiness inside - and their message made him feel powerful. "I guess for so long I'd felt helpless and weak, and with violence, you know, you have control," says Rouse "I'm not saying that it's music made me did what I did, because ultimately, it was my choice. But it helped shape who I was."

At home, there was yelling and fighting. "The yelling was because of me," says Rouse's father, Elison, a truck driver who now admits he was part of the problem in his son's life.

"To this day, I still believe if I'd been home that day, I'd been the one that died and - and the teachers wouldn't have ... I believed he'd kill me ... I was the cause of most of his problems, I felt like."

Elison was on the road for most of Jamie's childhood, and at the time, using drugs and drinking heavily. When he was home, Rouse says, Elison was often angry.

"One of the earliest memories I have was sitting on my mother's lap. And she was crying. And I can remember my dad punching holes in the door and walls because he was drunk," says Rouse. "I knew that he was capable of actual violence."

Rouse says he learned how not to cry because he was afraid of his father. "I knew what happened if I cried around my dad. So I just stuffed it in. I didn't expose that," says Rouse.

"It had a big impact. You don't know how to deal with problems when they do happen. And it just snowballs until eventually something gives."

As time went on, Rouse's reactions became more destructive - and more dangerous. But no one took it seriously, not even when he pulled a gun on his brother. His father merely took his gun away for a couple of months.

"Right there ,that sent the signal that, you know, that I wasn't gonna get help from him. Because to me that's a pretty big deal when a sibling pulls a gun on another one," says Rouse. "They didn't think that anything, I guess, was severely wrong."

Cheryl Rouse says that her son kept all of his emotions inside: "If he let off steam, it wasn't around us. When he was around us, he was just a perfect teenager."

But Rouse says he was desperately unhappy - and it started when he was a child, bullied by classmates for being small and too quiet. Things got worse in high school, where he was ostracized by kids who thought he worshipped the devil.

"People were scared of me. I was a normal kid. And I didn't want people to be scared of me. I wanted to be just, like, you know, everyone else," says Rouse, who says his life in 1995 felt out of control. "I was under a lot of stress."

"I guess I blamed school ... and the teachers," adds Rouse. "And I was so filled with, you know, hate and anger and this evil that, you know, I guess in a way I felt that, you know, they should be punished, too."

He says he went to school that Wednesday morning, prepared to hunt down teachers. But someone else got in the way - his best friend's sister.

Diane Collins was accidentally shot when Rouse says he missed the teacher he was aiming for: "Of all the people I could have shot. I keep asking myself, 'Why her?'"

It's too late for Rouse, but it may not be too late for others. A classroom of 14-year-old kids are taking a field trip to the medium security prison in Clifton, Tenn., for a lesson they'll never forget.

Here, they see the harsh reality of life behind bars - and get to hear from a school shooter.

"When I was 17 years old, I walked into Richland High School and shot two teachers and a student," says Rouse, who has been trying to reach kids who may be as unhappy and desperate as he once was. "I used violence as a way out. And because of that, I'm in prison for the rest of my life and two people are dead. What I did didn't have to happen."

Sitting alongside Rouse is fellow inmate, Jacob Davis, 24. In 1998, Davis was a senior at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville, Tenn. He was a popular honor student and had a scholarship to college. Just days before graduation, he shot and killed his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend in a jealous rage.

Looking back, Davis says he was secretly troubled as a kid, even though he seemed normal to others: "Most of the people I would say that knew me refused to believe it. It just didn't make sense."

"There is no mold. These were people who looked more mainstream than you would think," says Marisa Reddy, a research psychologist with the United States Secret Service, who has interviewed a number of school shooters. "The fact of the matter is, it would be a lot easier for all of us if there were a profile. But there isn't."

After the massacre at Columbine, the Secret Service joined forces with the Department of Education to find out how to prevent school shootings. They focused on 37 incidents dating back to 1974 - including attacks by Jamie Rouse and Jacob Davis

How do you identify, stop and then help a child who is a potential killer? "You can't tell by looking at a child whether he or she may engage in a school shooting. But you can look at what they're doing and what they're saying," says Reddy.

There may not be a common profile - but Reddy and her colleagues did find common behaviors. "They had done something to seriously concern at least one adult in their life," says Reddy. "And actually the majority had concerned at least three adults. These were kids on someone's radar screen."

"The biggest problem I had was I didn't think anyone could help me," says Rouse. "And so that stopped me from actually reaching out."

Researchers discovered most of the shooters were overwhelmed by feelings of depression, and in more than two-thirds of all these cases, the attackers felt bullied or persecuted.

"Not every child who's bullied in school is at risk for doing something violent or harmful, let alone engaging in a school shooting," says Reddy. "But we heard from some of these kids of situations that went on for years at a time. That I would almost characterize as torment."

Many of the shooters were also so unhappy that they had actually considered or attempted suicide.

"I'd always been dealing with depression, but when this hit, it became so severe that I really didn't want to live anymore," says Davis.

But one of the biggest surprises may be that these shooters rarely just snap. "These attacks were typically thought out in advance. They were typically planned in advance," says Reddy. "And, before most of them, other kids knew these attacks were going to occur."

Rouse told five friends, and one of them even drove him to school on the morning of the attack. "He saw that I had the gun," recalls Rouse. "I remember him making some, a comment like, 'So, you're really going to do it, aren't you?' I guess I wanted someone to stop me."

"We know that some people, if they've threatened and there's no response, they may take that as permission to move forward with a plan," says Reddy.

In the five years since Columbine, teachers and law enforcement have learned to be more vigilant and take every threat seriously. In just the past three months, at least four attacks on schools have been prevented.

"All of you guys, remember me," Davis tells the kids on their fieldtrip to the prison. "You know, tell somebody. Go tell somebody."

These are important lessons that Davis says he wish he had known sooner: "My life's pretty much over with. I've got a life sentence, and there's a young man that's dead."

"It wasn't like the movies, you know, where you shoot someone, and then, you know, go about your life. And you know, I hurt real people," adds Rouse. "It's the most horrible feeling you can have."

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It happened on Nov. 15, 1995, in Lynville, Tenn. - nearly four years before the massacre at Columbine High School. Science teacher Ralph Johnson was in his classroom at Richland High School when a student walked through the school's north entrance, armed with a .22 caliber, semiautomatic rifle.

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Most reliable because it's the most recent article on a mind of a school shooter. (Posted on March 3rd). The author does not use words that are too extreme which shows me that there is not bias in the news. The author does not only talk about one school shooter, it's comparing two different school shooter that had many things in common such as torturing animals, obsessions with guns and bragging about their deadly intentions. This showed us the usage of strong evidence because if he only explained one school shooter it would not be as strong as comparing two different school shooter's mind. The author also cited everything that he used and the sites are all related to the topic.

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Not reliable because no sources were found to back up the evidence so although the evidence can be strong, we do not know if they are even true facts. No pathos or logos were found anywhere in the story. The author does not really had a purpose other than telling us what happened on November 15, 1995.The publication date for this news has been more than 5 years ago and so it received a 0 for the out of date publication date.

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Second reliable because the author uses evidence that are some what reliable. This news article had a recent publication date which made it reliable. Although the author only talks about one school shooter which is not that strong of evidence because you cannot say the same about one school shooter for the rest of the school shooters. That's what makes this article less reliable than article #1 but still more reliable than article #3. Also some pathos or logos are missing from this article.The author has the purpose of what was going on inside of the shooter Nikolas's mind.

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Also the news has 1.5k people who has commented on this topic. The link shows us the transcript of Jesse (one of the school shooter's confession). I believe this is real because it's by TheWashingtonPost meaning I can trust their facts. It also gave me facts like Jesse's Obsession began when he heard a song that mentioned Columbine. (A school shooting massacre).

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This shows us what the Doctor or Psychiatric has been studying. It shows that most school shooters goes through depression. He did talk about other massacre shooting but the whole thing was mainly about Nikolas Cruz. The psychiatric said that if Cruz had continue with treatment, this would have never happened.