[Air-L] Social Networks - Gun Background Checks?

[Andrew Levin]

Hi all,

As a Chicagoan, it's very rare that even a week goes by during which this
city is not home to multiple gun-related homicides. So, it is with some
relief that I see President Obama fighting for universal background checks
in order to buy a gun. As I read more on the subject of background checks,
I started to realize that the devil might be in the details. The term in
America "going postal" refers to cases when ordinary citizens just go crazy
and shoot people. These checks would not prevent these individuals.

Now, I do wonder about social media. Could this be an application of big
data - with lots of refinement, could a few remarks on Facebook trigger a
response before tragedy? Has there been any research into combing social
network data to prevent these sorts of individuals or alternatively are
there any programs for anti-terrorism that might be converted?

Avid reader, first time writer.

Thank you,

Professor Andrew Levin, MS
Harper College