Arie Kruglanski, University of Maryland
An acutely troubling aspect of life in contemporary America is the growing proliferation of mass shootings that claim thousands of innocent lives year after painful year and make everyone feel unsafe.
There were two shootings on April 28 – five killed in their Cleveland, Texas, home, and three killed and one injured in Philadelphia – as well as at least 9 teens injured in an April 29 shooting at a park in South Carolina.
In the wake of most shootings, the news media and the public reflexively ask: What was the killer’s motive?
As a psychologist who studies violence and extremism, I understand that the question immediately pops to mind because of the bizarre nature of the attacks, the “out-of-the-blue” shock that they produce, and people’s need to comprehend and reach closure on what initially appears to be completely senseless and irrational.
But what would constitute a satisfactory answer to the public’s question?
Media reports typically describe shooters’ motives based on specific individual details of the case, on their “manifestos” or social media postings. These generally list insults, humiliations or rejections – by co-workers, potential romantic partners or schoolmates – that a perpetrator may have suffered. Or they may cite alleged threats to the shooter’s group from some imagined enemy such as Jews, people of color, Muslims, Asians or members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Though perhaps informative about a given perpetrator’s way of thinking, I believe these motives are too specific. Each shooter’s life story is unique, yet the growing number of mass shootings suggests a general trend that transcends personal details.
A quest for significance
Perhaps surprisingly, the general motive that drives mass shootings is a fundamental human need. It is everyone’s quest for significance and a feeling that their life matters.
That need gets activated when someone feels the loss of significance, the sense of being slighted, humiliated or excluded, but also when there is an opportunity for a gain in one’s sense of significance, being the object of admiration, a hero or a martyr in other people’s eyes.
I took part in a recent study carried out in the aftermath of the 2016 Orlando mass shooting. In that study, headed by social psychologist Pontus Leander of Wayne State University, we subjected American gun owners to feeling a loss of significance by giving them a failing score – or not – on an achievement task. We then asked this random sample of gun owners to respond to a number of questions including whether they would be ready to kill a home intruder even if they were about to leave the home they invaded, and also how empowered those gun owners felt by owning a gun.
We found that the experience of failure increased participants’ view of guns as a means of empowerment, and enhanced their readiness to shoot and kill a home intruder.
And a 2020 review of mass shooting incidents between the years 2010 and 2019 found that 78% of mass shooters in that period were motivated by fame-seeking or attention-seeking – that is, by the quest for significance.
If the need for significance is so fundamental and universal, how is it that mass shooting is an isolated phenomenon perpetrated by a handful of desperate individuals – and not by everyone?
Two factors can push this common human striving into mayhem and destruction.
First, it takes extreme heights of significance craving to pay this high a price for potential notoriety. Shooting is an extreme act that demands self-sacrifice, not only giving up on acceptance in the mainstream society, but also producing a high likelihood of dying in shootouts with law enforcement.
Research shows that about 25% to 31% of mass shooters exhibit signs of mental illness, which is likely to induce in them a deep sense of disempowerment and insignificance. But even the remaining 70%-75% with no known pathologies are likely to have suffered extreme significance issues, as attested by their ample statements about humiliation, rejection and exclusion they believe they or their group suffered at the hands of some real or imagined culprits. These feelings can create a one-track significance focus that can ultimately precipitate a mass shooting.
A shortcut to stardom
In fact, most highly motivated people satisfy their egos quite differently; they focus their extremism on various socially approved areas: business, sports, the arts, the sciences or politics. Why would some then choose the repugnant road to infamy paved by the massacre of innocents?
Yet even someone who really really wants to feel significant is not necessarily going to carry out a mass shooting.
There is a method to this madness: The shocked public attention a shooting attracts delivers instantaneous “significance.” Climbing the steep hill of a respectable career, however, is fraught with obstacles and uncertainties. Success is elusive, takes ages to attain, and is inequitably afforded to those with unusual ability, grit or privilege, or some combination of those.
Committing a mass shooting represents a widely available shortcut to “stardom.”
There are over 390 million guns in today’s America. People have the freedom to purchase assault weapons at a local store. Thus, planning and executing a mass shooting is a road to notoriety open to anyone, and the narrative that links gun violence to significance – that is, the idea that by becoming a mass shooter you become famous – has been spreading ever wider with each successive shooting.
Killings celebrated
A final puzzle is this: If significance and respect are what the shooters are after, how come they do things that most people despise?
In today’s fractured public sphere dominated by social media, it is easy to find networks of supporters and admirers for nearly anything under the sun, including the most repugnant and unconscionable acts of cruelty and callousness. In fact, there is ample evidence that mass shooters are celebrated by appreciative audiences and can serve as role models to other would-be heroes who seek to outscore them in casualty counts.
What my colleagues and I call the “Three Ns”: need, narrative, and network, refer to the would-be shooter’s need to become significant or notorious, the narrative that says being a shooter means being important, and the network that exists to support such behavior. They together combine into a toxic mixture, driving a person to carry out a mass shooting.
But this framework also suggests how the tide of this horrific epidemic may be stemmed: Negating the narrative that depicts violence as an easy path to significance and dismantling the networks that support that narrative.
The two go together. Disproving the narrative that gun violence is an easy route to fame by making it hard to obtain guns, for instance, and reducing media attention to shooters would reduce the appeal of gun violence to people seeking to feel more significant.
It is equally important to identify and make available alternative paths to significance, conveyed in alternative narratives. This would likely require a concerted effort across society and its institutions. Understanding the psychology of it all may be a necessary precondition for taking effective steps in this direction.
Arie Kruglanski, Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Prove it! Release the manifesto!
RE: “Motivation: Mass Shooters Decide to Kill Out of a Quest for Significance”
Motivation/Significance? Weeks ago I went way out on a limb questioning motive behind the Louisville shooter following Nashville. And just as suspected it appears motive was on the behalf of Gun Control.
Never mind the psychobabble. Question is where are those who are supposed to be on point defending the 2A when it comes time to hold inciteful Gun Control zealots responsible for Gun Control Violence?
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/us/louisville-kentucky-bank-mass-shooting-shooter-writings/index.html
only the most profound psychobabble is deserving of being the second comment.
people often do this because they are pissed-off about something….and it warps their thinking….
The “mass shooting” phenomena is disected and explained by a professor of psychology. He means SOME NUTS NEED ATTENTION. I knew that even though I only studied psychology for four semesters(formally).
Just call them maladjusted NUT CASES!!!
“Prove it! Release the manifesto!”
Check this out :
“Nashville Official Says School Shooter’s Manifesto Is ‘Astronomically Dangerous'”
““What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so, so detailed at the level of what she had planned,” Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston told the NY Post, without elaborating. “That document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous,” she added.
Johnson claimed that the “the vast, overwhelming majority of it” would be too dangerous for the public to see. “I personally don’t want to know the depths to which her psychosis reached … When I’m told by an MNPD high-ranking official that it keeps him up at night, I’m going to defer to that person in that agency that I don’t need to read that,” she added.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nashville-official-says-school-shooters-manifesto-astronomically-dangerous
It just fills you with warm, fuzzy feelings, doesn’t it? 🙁
And,
“Rep. Tim Burchett, (R-Tenn.) told The New York Post he knew the FBI was behind the delay of the manifesto’s release, saying the news was “disappointing.””
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-blocking-release-nashville-trans-shooters-manifesto
maybe a home intruder shouldn’t be…you know…intruding?
A shortcut to stardom? Indeed thanks to our mainstream media and leftist, gun-hating political hacks who exploit atrocities to restrict our freedoms. Why, it’s almost like those anti-gun Democrats are wanting to help a handful of terrorists (which is what these misfits really are) win in their war against our freedom.
Not when I write their stories. I replace their names with [scumbag’s name redacted] and in the rare event I run their photos, I do so to ridicule them to no end.
Don’t repeat their names. Don’t show their faces. May they burn in hell.
Because they are capital L LOSERS.
If you want to feel good about yourself, accomplish something positive.
The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. That’s your problem.
If the world wants to hear your opinions it will let you know. Don’t bother waiting to be asked.
Life is hard. Get over it.
Indeed. The first step toward self-esteem is development of an estimable self.
I disagree that it’s mostly about fame.
first of all eliminate the black-on-black shootings from the list….these people are basically mindless…..
The amount of firearms in the country is irrelevant. We’ve had semi-auto firearms since the early 1900’s and widely available high capacity semi-auto’s since about 1945. In fact before 1968 they could be ordered and mailed to your door with no paperwork at all. This study does not address an important factor of the increasing use of psychotropic meds all across society. The stated side effects are suicidal thoughts and actions which also translates to homicidal thoughts. The steady increase in these shootings also mirrors the increase in the usage of these drugs.
Personally I wouldnt blame the medications. Consider the fact that people ON these meds are on them because they have significant mental issues like depression, anxiety or even bi-polar manic depression going on. It is possible in some cases, especially young people, they are being over-prescribed and some other treatment might be better. Still, there are people who NEED to be on these drugs and who live normal productive lives including hunting and shooting sports as a result. Denying people their medications or their Constitutional liberties seems a very Dark Age mentality. Not to mention the totalitarian rules that would have to be put in place to police doctors and patients to enforce such laws.
Yes agree
How about this? It’s proof that they made an effort to get help, and the help they received didn’t work. Maybe they didn’t need a daily pill. Maybe they needed something else. Maybe the “experts” don’t have a clue.
people haven’t been raised to effectively deal with stress and frustration and are emotionally soft and are often narcissistic and unable to cope…these are not the children of the depression
sometimes remember those ads for a 20 mm cannon I used to see in my comic books….believe that was central to the plot of “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”
Mass shooters are looking for relevance and seeking validation. Hmm…
Take God out of education, the public square, and the workplace, and then sit back and wonder how the deliberate removal of reference to a Creator who “fashioned them in the womb and knew their names before they were born” and loves them has somehow resulted in this drastic method of seeking relevance.
Tell kids they evolved from protoplasm and monkeys. Tell them they’re nothing but stardust and irrelevant to the cosmos. Tell them there is nothing but the “here and now”, and immediate sensual pursuits of any flavor are acceptable. Tell them there are no absolutes, and anyone can form and follow any “truth” they wish. Tell them they are victims of any malady or inequity they can fathom, and all of life is one big injustice that warrants anger against their fellow Man. Tell them Government takes care of them from womb to tomb, and their parents and have no authority to tell them what to do. Tell them their genitalia has no bearing whatsoever on their gender, and they should pursue exploration of their inner “feelings”, no matter how temporary they may be, and consider permanently mutilating themselves to solve any confusion Today presents to them.
Tell them up is down, left is right, good is evil, evil is good, black is white, and 2+2 = 5. Then, when they grow into confused individuals who lack any moor to solid ground, wonder aloud to yourselves why they commit atrocities when the opportunity arises. After all, there is no God…no Heaven or Hell…no consequence…no moral compass…we’re all just meatbags here on this speck of dirt hurtling through the cold vastness of space for a moment before we disappear into the black void.
Clown world.
Right on, well put.
Nailed it Haz.
Damn Haz, made me tear up there. I need a drink. Or a prayer.
Haz,
As usual, you nailed it.
people these days like to downplay it….but I believe some religious training made a difference in a lot of lives and the absence of it has contributed the growth of a generation of moral idiots
I read all the News in the Media. I read Quora,Facebook Twitter and watch Main Stream Media. Real White Supremists do not kill women and children.. People who are mentally ill kill people they don’t know to draw attention to themselves OR their Causes . A Hispanic who kills strangers at the Mall is NOT a White Supremist, but he wants them to get the Blame. The Killer wanted FAME and the Media is giving it to him. Show me pictures or Videos of him in a Group Photo. Show the Group to which he belongs. Show me ONE GROUP PHOTO that documents his association with any White Supremist Organization. More than likely the Killer acted alone and has a Beef with America because of his personal dissatisfaction with the Current Situations in the United States…He is just like the Trans Killer in Nashville…A pissed off mentally ill individual who could access weapons. His Parents knew of his Problems. The Military Knew he was wacko. The Police knew. His friends knew. Everybody knew.. His Hatred is inspired by Joe Biden and the Democrats who are driving people to do insane violent acts with Guns,Cars and knives. The Killer killed Americans at a Mall…The Killers objective is to kill the AMERICA that he does not belong in..Families shopping at the Mall is the Enemy…Christians at a school are the Enemy. Subway Riders are the Enemy. The Media is driving Americans Crazy enough to do COPY CAT CRIMES that show the pain they cause to the innocent. Almost EVERY Killer is a LONE GUNMAN, acting alone, who has gone insane because of what they see that they don’t have. Money.Family.Religion.Happiness.Peace. Biden is destroying all 5. This MALL Killer could not go shopping with a wife and child, so he killed what he could not get in America.
“It is everyone’s quest for significance and a feeling that their life matters.”
Regarding your psych degree: Start Over – next time at a school with required courses in history.
The vast majority of people throughout the vast majority of history were peasants (or serfs or slaves) who did whatever it took to survive, without the slightest inkling of the “quest” you describe – which is not a universal human need, but almost entirely a creation of social media (and egalitarianism).
I would suggest that “religion”- in the wider sense- is what kept many people “together” and helped them find meaning in a harsh world. Spiritual meaning, the need to give ourselves over to something greater than ourselves has driven human societies probably since the early Neanderthals started burying (some) of their dead with flowers and grave goods, or Cro-Magnon men began painting cave walls and carving “goddess” figurines from ivory… Seeking greater truth is reflected in the earliest myths of primitive peoples…
I’m not real whippy with words, so maybe I’m not expressing myself clearly…
sense making about making sense of things.
You expressed yourself very well, and I agree with your main points; however, nothing you wrote supports Arie’s argument. “Give ourselves over to something greater than ourselves” is the utter opposite of the “I’m amazing and deserve to be famous and respected (without actually doing anything to earn it)” mindset she claims is a universal human need.
“about 25 to 31% of mass shooter exhibit signs of mental illness”
I think that number is a bit closer to 100% there, boyo.
Yep! Thst number she vomited was insulting.
Not all who are evil are insane.
Dave,
Respectfully disagree. Evil is a form of insanity. Sane people don’t do evil things; evil is inherently offensive to the sane soul.
The moment the phrase “Assault Weapon” was used, was the moment I realized she was just passing a puff piece off as “research”
You noticed that too, eh?
The author’s bias shows, in more ways than one.
Yep, that is proof positive the author is ignorant of the subject.
Quote from the article- “People have the freedom to purchase assault weapons at a local store.” This is FALSE ON IT’S FACE. While one may- depending on factors like age and state laws- be able to purchase a semi-automatic look alike “assault rifle” in any gunshop or on the private market, an assault “weapon” is a FULLY AUTOMATIC combat weapon, and IF AVAILABLE, must be registered with the federal government before taking possession, a $200 tax paid, and any registration fees paid as well. These guns as highly regulated and almost never used in crimes.
The semi-automatic rifles must like any other firearm, be fired ONE SHOT PER PULL of the trigger. They are not “assault weapons”, in spite of what the media and politicians tell us.. Don’t believe me, ask the US military.. “According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, “assault rifles” are “short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between a submachine gun and rifle cartridges.” All assault rifles are capable of automatic fire. Examples include the U.S. Army M-16, the Soviet AK-47, and the German Sturmgewehr.” FWIW the term “assault rifle” was coined by none other than Adolf Hitler, who liked the STG44 combat rifle so much he demanded that “More of these STURM GEWEHR (assault rifle in German) be produced and issued” to the German Army.
“Quote from the article- “People have the freedom to purchase assault weapons at a local store.” This is FALSE ON IT’S FACE.”
I have a local store with a select-fire weapon or 3 on the wall for sale.
All it takes is a clean criminal record and about a year’s time before you can take it home.
There’s another local store that lets you shoot your silencer purchase immediately after you buy it, if you want. On their range. It never leaves their control until the stamp arrives…
correct…[in some states]…but the media has chosen to redefine the term “assault weapon” to fit their narrative…and the fact they look very much like the real thing just makes it that much easier
“Assault weapon” is a leftist media made-up term without definition. NOBODY has one or has one for sale, because they don’t exist.
There are over 390 million guns in today’s America and a lack of background checks in many states.
The bolded part of the sentence was deleted when the shortened article was posted above.
“Lack of background checks” is a misstatement, and a background check won’t indicate if someone should be prohibited from buying a firearm if they had no previous history of mental illness or criminality.
People have the freedom to purchase assault weapons at a local store.
It’s not the tool; it’s the person.
Disproving the narrative that gun violence is an easy route to fame by making it hard to obtain guns …
And there it is. Why should a criminal define my rights? I reject that premise.
Good grief! Most mass shooters do what they do because they are “dissed.” Why? Because most mass shooters are BLACK GANG MEMBERS.
Why do the powers that be ignore this s*??? When they ignore the largest source of “gun violence,” you know they are not serious about its victims.
They just want to disarm us.
Gang shootings only come into play to up the numbers. Then they conflate that with a handful of high profile shootings that aren’t gang related.
Fragile people are being torn apart at one end by desperate loneliness and at the other an artificial social media ideal chasing likes and clout.
Narcissism, on-demand boredom, the constantly shifting notions of what’s acceptable/unacceptable, abandonment of “rights of passage” as simple as getting a drivers license or a first job, etc…
And that’s the parents. Their kids are soo much more broken. Everyday they’re told “you’re the best!” and “everything you think and feel is wrong!”
We weren’t taking any of this seriously before they all got jabbed and locked away for two years so I can’t imagine it’s ever going to get better for them. Numb the pain by self-medicating and chase the clout by mutilating yourself. If lucky they’ll die before they live to regret the wasted lives they’ve led.
Well, I shouldn’t say wasted. I’m sure they’ll help make some politician more powerful and some corporation(s) richer.
This is our fault Shire-man. We didn’t affirm hard enough. Affirm harder please. Just agree with everything to be safe. Is that too much to ask?
nobody wants to lose all the time…but losing sometime…and coping with it…develops character….
If a social deviate wants to seek fame, he need not use a gun. Timoty McVay used a truck load of explosives. Some use trucks. Other deviates use knives. So, to say take the guns away will fix the issue is just senseless. The lack of a utopia’s society will always harbor these criminals. What triggers them cannot be concluded as seeking Fame.
McVeigh had political motives…and was responding to what he perceived to be government injustice…a bit different from the rest…..
You left out fatherlessness, cuktures of violence in urban areas, the communist takeover of public education and the media and the government and the pushing the trophies for everyone regardless of achievement preventing kids from moving on from things they aren’t good at until they find what they are good at.
He left out all kinds of things, but he has credentials. We’re supposed to just nod and agree.
I would not be very surprised. It goes along with the mentally ill theory of mass shooters.
This is the quote that got my attention as to the author’s POV.
“…is inequitably afforded to those with unusual ability, grit or privilege, or some combination of those.”
Equating ability and grit (stick-to-it’ness) to inequitable is a long stretch of the imagination. People are all different – some are drivers and some are passengers. Some try for years to succeed and others give up after thirty minutes of “really hard wishing”. The current Marxist ideals promulgated in the USA preach that all people are the same except for privilege and / or rassism…ain’t true and will never be.
The race-baiters and power mongers are intentionally ignoring Dr. King’s famous words because those words expose their lies:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
The words “content of their character” are anathema to Marxist goals.
wifey told them, “character counts, niceness first.”
pretty good kids.
“Some try for years to succeed and others give up after thirty minutes of “really hard wishing”.”
Awesome!
“People have the freedom to purchase assault weapons at a local store.”
This statement is patently false and should be retracted and corrected.
Automatic firearms (Assault Weapons) have been heavily restricted from public ownership since the National Firearms Act of 1934 and have since become prohibited from individuals buying or owning ANY newly-manufactured ones following the FOPA’s Hughes Amendment passing in 1986.
https://dictionary.thelaw.com/assault-weapon/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_Owners_Protection_Act
“…by making it hard to obtain guns…”
found it.
“…enhanced their readiness to shoot…”
i struck out, let’s toss lead.
“…25 to 31%…”
100% of murderers exhibit signs of mental illness.
Blah blah blah yammer yammer.
Maybe I’m just not in the mood for “intellectual” understanding but thats all that article sounded like to me. Couldnt make myself finish it.
“A shortcut to stardom”. Lol are they talking about Debbie cutting in line to get her comments at the top ?
grant park was a mess, be there or be sylvester.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDiYTUVVa8
“Disproving the narrative that gun violence is an easy route to fame by making it hard to obtain guns, for instance…”
Talk about comparing apples to Appaloosas. Where do these educated idiots come up with this garbage? You disprove the narrative that “gun violence” is an easy route to fame by NOT MAKING THESE ANIMALS FAMOUS. I don’t understand why that’s such a difficult concept to grasp.
Not their goal and hasn’t been for at least as long as Columbine.
its the same reason
that kamala harris
keeps talking in front cameras
all crimes are “hate crimes”. you do not hurt others because of your great love for them. and all weapons are “assault weapons” in the wrong hands.
“Mass Shooters Decide to Kill Out of a Quest for Significance”
Then simply do NOT show their picture, their name, their manifesto. Only make those available if you click a special link or something, so people can find out and not make up conspiracies or speculate, but don’t give them headline spotlight. Ever.
Make them an unperson. Purge all records of their existence other than birth and death notices. Show l3ftists how real cancel culture is done.
I never made it past the first sentence that stated thousands and thousands are killed every year in mass shootings. Thousand and thousands?! What utter BS. I had no desire to read further; I already knew what the author’s message (and intent) was.
yawn, anti-gun author repeating well known facts and then spinning anti-gun garbage into it to push the anti-gun agenda.
Someone once claimed the majority of murders are over love, money, drugs, or anger.
The claim that 25% of mass murderers are mentally ill is pure bovine excrement. Anyone who can rationalize the irrational and believes committing murder is somehow a good idea has more than a few screws loose.
Assault weapons etc. are heavily restricted and mostly unavailable to the general public.
Semiautomatic rifles have been available for more than a century and semiautomatic handguns have been available for just as long.
What these idiots demanding gun control refuse to acknowledge is the simple fact that every shooting involves a human hand and mind to commit the act. Even freak accidents involve a human loading the firearm and mishandling said firearm. Unless the human part of the equation is dealt with nothing will change.
As for the idea of these mass shooters wanting some sort of notoriety or fame is partially true. As are so many other foolish acts we see every day. What most of these idiots don’t understand is very few humans ever gain any kind of fame or recognition. The life styles of the rich and famous is a fantasy. Most of us in the real world will always be living the lifestyles of the broke and anonymous.
so Andy Warhol was wrong?….big difference between fame and infamy…but, maybe…”sometimes you just want to go where everyone knows your name”
except for the carbine, large capacity mags are a fairly recent development…the Browning Hi-Power was a bit of an odd duck for a long time….remember “Serpico”?
“Or they may cite alleged threats to the shooter’s group from some imagined enemy such as Jews, people of color, Muslims, Asians or members of the LGBTQ community.”
But not Christians or people, um, without color, right? Where’s that manifesto, again?
“There were two shootings on April 28”
Why doesn’t anyone mention that one of those shootings was perpetrated by an illegal immigrant? Just going with the evil gun narrative instead? Gotta push the narrative. Gotta ignore the pertinent facts. Was that illegal immigrant looking for “stardom?”
What about the other shooting on April 28th? Were those shooters looking for “stardom?” If they were, don’t you think the author would have mentioned it? He’s just letting you know about all of these mass shootings. Then he explains his theory of motivation which has absolutely nothing to do with the mass shootings he just listed.
Remember the story about people being shot because a kid’s ball rolled into some dude’s yard? The AP referenced a local paper (owned by USA Today) that had the story. The AP intentionally cut out the part of the story that included racism. Isn’t that odd? They’re always talking about racism. Why would they ignore this one? You know the answer. Narrative.
Singletary approached White, who told him there were too many children outside for him to be shooting, White said.
“I said, ‘Man, that’s crazy.’ And he said, “You white? I don’t even like white people. I’m going to shoot your a–,”
https://www.gastongazette.com/story/news/crime/2023/04/24/crowders-mountain-man-says-he-was-shot-shielding-his-daughter/70146235007/
they’re not always “alleged threats”….911 proved that….
The article might be useful if it tried to be factual. It starts with listing 3 “mass shootings.” The first was an drunk illegal immigrant who murdered his neighbors because they threatened to call the police if he didn’t stop shooting and waking their baby. He’s currently the subject of a manhunt, and I doubt he’s looking for notoriety. The second was 4 teens shot at a home in the City of Brotherly Love, killing Malik Ballard, Khalif Frezghi, and Salah Fleming. The wounded victim and the 15 and 16 year-olds arrested are unnamed, but I suspect this is Black-on-Black crime that’s possibly gang related. Regardless, I don’t think the shooter were trying to get famous. The last is a teen flash house party that moved to a park, and it was shot up by multiple shooters and is expected to be gang related. None of these involved manifestos or fame seekers. They completely undermine his thesis, as well as his claim of attacking a hated group since the perpetrators and victims all appear to be from the same minorities. To lump them with usually white, suicidal losers, like Nashville and Louisville is nonsensical. In the first 3, none of the known shooters could have legally purchased guns because of age, convictions, or illegal status, so all gun control and mental health arguments go out the window. That’s very different from the suicidal nutters who decide to take as many often strangers with them who get all the media attention. The causes and solutions are different, but antigunners are tossing then together ingeniously to make the horrific incidents that get headlines seem more likely to involve the ordinary voter. It’s like trying to deal with highway death when the national stories involve tens of people killed in bus crashes, and the common (often inebriated) automobile accidents barely get local coverage. If you can’t be honest about the problem, it’s impossible to reach a solution. Here, their goal is gun control, which will do nothing to address these murders since one class of problems is done by criminals illegally possessing guns, and the other by loonies with no or little previous police contact that would disqualify them from purchase.
people often do this because they are pissed-off about something….and it warps their thinking….
Crazy and evil people will always be with us. What turns a shooting into a mass shooting is gun free zones where there is no opposition.
Every few years someone comes up with another asinine theory or just rewords someone else’s theory. Truth of the matter is they all have one thing in common, they are injustice collectors, everything negative that happens in their life is someone else fault. The incidents increase for two reasons . 1. We have created a Disney fantasy land idea that your whole life should candy and flowers, with no accountability for your actions. 2. We keep change the narrative of what and active shooter is and we now lump every incident together to create a false increase in firearms related crimes.
Motivation: Mass Shooters Decide to Kill Out of a Quest for Significance.
I have been saying this for 30 years.
Well that was 6 minutes of my life totally wasted reading the same Psychobabble Bullschit Antigunners have been pushing for years.
A whole lot of Lies in this Evil Guns Essay by a clueless Fool with Tenure
If we could get the media to come to an agreement and report ONLY that a mass shooting occurred, then address EVERY follow up story toward the victims and ONLY the victims…no BS about motive, no search for a manifesto, no life history, no hand wringing about the gun… with the shooter’s name never revealed but only referred to as ‘that POS’…the reach for ‘significance’ would result in despised anonimity, and the next potential shooter would have to find another way to make a name for himself.
If I were a bit more paranoid, I might look at some of these mass shootings as timed to the politics and when pro firearms rulings are made in the courts. it fits the sacrifice we expected of the national socialist agenda here and in communist uprisings in history. but I’m not paranoid so ill go with poor sick people who did not win a participation trophy for failure.
The Texas Mall shooter had been exhibiting problems for more than a decade, but something that happened RECENTLY was the final Trigger. He had weapons for a long time but an unknown event for now caused him to go on a Suicide Mission…We know that the Shooter usually gets killed…so in a way it is suicide by COP…all over the news. The Killer became a Somebody who wanted to Destroy the American Way….The Mall. The Church. The School. The Subway. The Parade. They act alone and are not exclusively White. So in the Regard To the “WHITE SUPREMIST” tag put on him by the media…all the facts are not in.
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