WASHINGTON, Oct 23 — US Attorney General William Barr said today he was launching an initiative aimed at identifying troubled individuals to prevent them from becoming future mass shooters.

The new effort, announced in a memo to federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials, follows dozens of deadly mass shootings in the United States this year, including a massacre of 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas and another just one day later in Dayton, Ohio, in which nine people were killed.

Barr said that in December, a training conference at FBI headquarters will present "proven models for engaging extremely challenging individuals” and consider new ideas to face such threats. — Reuters