Edited by me.
That flies in the face of everything we know about these types of people. THEY want to be known. They want to go out as infamous. This is about them. About seeking revenge on a public that they feel has more than they do and has what they deserve. It's about making up for the fact that they are weak, cowardly, useless people who give nothing of value to the world and live mediocre, anonymous lives.
They want recognition:
An open letter signed by 147 criminologists, sociologists, psychologists and other human-behavior experts asks that the media stop publishing the names and photographs of mass killers.
Research has found that fame is a major motivation for many mass shooters.
"They want to be celebrities," said Adam Lankford, one of the lead drafters of the letter and a criminologist at the University of Alabama.
Experts Call for Mass Killers' Names to Be Kept Quiet
But Hanlin, who says he will not “glorify” the perpetrator’s name by uttering it on national television, has suggested one factor driving the murderous actions of 26-year-old EDITED BY ME: a quest for fame.
Hanlin’s suspicion is shared by many who probe the minds of mass shooters. In a society saturated by firearms and preoccupied by celebrity, these experts say that those who perpetrate such armed mayhem often seek to break the bonds of their invisibility and achieve what they feel life has denied them:
Recognition. Glory. Respect.
On Friday, evidence mounted that EDITED BY ME was acutely attuned to the fame that comes to those who commit armed murder on a spectacular scale. Combing through the gunman’s online comments for clues to his motives, investigators found EDITED BY ME recently extolled the benefits of armed mayhem.
“I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are,” EDITED BY ME wrote in a post about Vester Flanagan, who in August shot two news reporters on live television in Roanoke, Va.
“A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight,” EDITED BY ME wrote.
University of Alabama criminologist Adam Lankford said that fame -- or infamy -- has emerged as a common thread in mass shootings since EDITED BY ME predicted on videotapes left behind that their armed rampage at Columbine High School would be one for the history books.
For mass shooters, achieving fame -- or infamy -- is a frequent driver
I think that yeah, some of these perps are motivated by fame. We don’t have a number. We really don’t. We have to be honest. We don’t have a number. But I think definitely that some of them do it for the fame. For the attention. And you know, lots of people go through life never getting any attention at all. People aren’t paying attention to them in any way. And they feel they’re a nobody. They’re a nothing. And then they see this event happen – some heinous event – and another person, sort of like them, they think, suddenly is being talked about all over the world. And that has a twisted appeal for some people. I would probably call them a thrill seeker in many respects. It’s a thrill. It’s excitement. I’ve done a lot of work in what I call the “Type-T” personality, the thrill seeker. I would speculate that many of these people are in fact, T-types and it’s exciting. Probably the most extreme act a person can do - take the life, the precious life of another individual, and it’s that act that we in psychology have to understand and we’re not there yet.
Speaking of Psychology: Understanding mass violence
BBM.
How the media might be able to help — and when it might not be able to
The media needs to cover these events — they're important to public safety, and readers really care about them. These shootings can highlight the need for new laws and policies, such as gun control. And Katherine Newman, co-author of Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, told CNN that coverage of shootings can encourage students and adults to come forward with information about suspicious people.
"While there's a spike in shootings following an incident, there's an even bigger spike in reported plots," Newman said. "This is because people are vigilant and come forward with their suspicions and concerns."
So how can the press cover these events and not give killers the attention they may crave?
THE MEDIA NEEDS TO COVER THESE EVENTS — THEY'RE IMPORTANT TO PUBLIC SAFETY
There's no easy answer. One start would be to not share the alleged gunmen's own videos and images — as thousands of people (and some media outlets) did after the suspected shooter posted footage of the shooting on Twitter and Facebook. And the media could avoid publishing pictures of the killers or showing their faces at all: Explain the events and what happened, but leave the shooter's identity out of it.
Mass shooters want fame. Here's why we should stop giving it to them.
BBM.
