Look at people like the Zodiac and other serial killers who send letters to newspapers bragging of their crimes and taunting law enforcement as inferiors. Why did Mark David Chapman kill John Lennon? Because he thought it would impress Jody Foster, but how did he know she would even find out about it? Because it would put his name alongside Lennons in every headline.
zodiac: killed and stayed alive to tell people about it
chapman: killed and stayed alive to tell people about it
hinckley: attempted assassination of reagan in order to impress jodie foster (btw, i can't believe you got this one wrong.... )
manson: killed and relished the media attention he got from it
i would distinguish between mass murderers and mass shooters. yes, a mass shooting is technically a mass murder, but far and away most mass shooters are NOT looking for celebrity.
We are still parsing the fact some mass shooters have and others have not sought celebrity, whether or not they intended to survive. For my money it is just one of many factors, because shooting rampages have unfortunately become so common they do not all share the same major contributing factors. We cannot say "it is all because of notoriety/mental illness/resentment" because, while each has been a major factor in many shootings, each has been absent in many others. However, I maintain that the notoriety mass murderers receive remains a prime motivator for many of them, whether or not they intend to survive. If infamy is the sole desire, survival is not required, and, as with so much else, spectacular destruction is easier than spectacular creation (making it, of course, an admission of inadequacy.)
a handful of mass murderers, and two of those only shot at one person so could hardly be given the title of "mass murderer", who did it for the attention and notoriety does not equate to "many". of all the 61 mass shootings identified by mother jones magazine, very very few of them involve people doing it for the celebrity involved with being a mass shooter. this is the distinction which you are not getting, apparently. very very few are doing the shootings specifically because they will become famous for it.
"The RIAA has shown a certain disregard for the creative people of the industry in their eagerness to protect the revenues of the record companies." -- Frank Zappa
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
20 children killed in latest US school shooting
15/12/2012 12:35:42 AM
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i know 2 people with kids there, one of them has lost their 5 year old. this is too close to home
15/12/2012 12:39:26 AM
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I lived 20 mins from there. I'm shocked. I'm even heading back there in 4 days....
15/12/2012 02:08:28 PM
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Maybe when we stop making media celebrities out of these murderers..
16/12/2012 05:36:19 PM
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Nope, won't happen.
16/12/2012 06:37:11 PM
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For each of those 30 years sociologists have warned of the growing danger of growing alienation.
16/12/2012 10:05:28 PM
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I don't know what you mean, though.
17/12/2012 05:53:44 PM
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I dunno, your response suggests you figured it out pretty quickly.
18/12/2012 05:08:12 PM
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Short form: The common phrases "suicide by cop" and "going postal" did not exist a generation ago.
18/12/2012 09:14:51 PM
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if they were after fame, they would probably all have tried to stay alive after killing everyone
16/12/2012 10:01:50 PM
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One need not be living to be famous.
16/12/2012 10:08:12 PM
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actually, i'm pretty sure you're wrong on this
17/12/2012 05:38:07 PM
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"Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse," "it's better to burn out than fade away" etc
18/12/2012 03:25:23 PM
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what do your examples all have in common?
18/12/2012 08:42:59 PM
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I frequently confuse that detail of Hinckleys shooting with Chapmans, sorry.
18/12/2012 08:59:25 PM
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you are going to have to define "many"
18/12/2012 10:13:33 PM
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Chapman wasn't a mass murderer, though. Neither was Hinckley.
20/12/2012 05:15:23 AM
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True, but it does demonstrate how easily and frequently notoriety motivates shootings.
26/12/2012 07:22:37 PM
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