Mass shooting in Las Vegas. 50+ dead

[A Theist]

Possibly. But even McVeigh and Kaczynski were clear and vocal about their motives and ideology. With Paddock it's been different. Unless investigators find something he left behind Paddock gave no hint of a motive for his murder rampage. It's been reported that his father had mental issues, a diagnosed psychopath, and was a criminal who made it on the FBI's "ten most wanted" list. Both Paddock and his father seemed unassuming and something of a lone wolf by those who knew them. It was also reported on the news this morning from interviews of people around the casinos who knew him said that he always sat and stared at people, insomuch that people would call him the starer. On another occasion it was said by witnesses that he expressed something along the lines that he wanted to kill his mother and wondered why he was here. But, that's all hearsay at this point as far as reliable witness accounts go. It was also reported on the news that he had taken valiums before the shooting. Don't know if that report had been confirmed for sure or not either. He sent his girlfriend to the Philippines to visit her family and sent $125,000 to her, also reported on the news this morning. Whatever his motives the guy definitely seems to have had some severe mental issues, (like his father did), and possibly just hated people. The police not only found additional guns at his home, but they also found explosives and bomb making materials. For what ever reason, he was planning to kill people. 


http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-veg...index.html

Yeah, I'm aware of all that. And it may simply be a matter of him having a psychotic break sometime in the last couple of months. I'm just speculating on his motive, such as it may be.

He clearly engaged in medium-term planning at least for this. That by itself implies a motive ... who goes through that much planning for an act one feels is meaningless?

Speculation is all that anyone has at this point. Hopefully investigators will come up with something after they go through his computers. 

But, as you said, with all of his obvious planning he had to have had a motive. Investigators said the he also scoped out two other concert sites in Boston and in Chicago.

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Yeah, I am very familiar with the story of the Columbine killers and I remember people making a stink about video games after the shooting. I always thought that was really silly. They also idolized and were motivated by Hitler, and he's no video game or movie. People like them will act out eventually and will latch onto anything as an influence.

I didn't say I completely agreed with all of it. I'm saying there's enough there that at least warrants a study of Hollywood's and the gaming industry's affect, if any, "on a culture of violence".


...and there's been quite a few movies that depicted Hitler. Both Anthony Hopkins and Richard Basehart portrayed him, as did other actors who pre-dated the Columbine shootings.