It is always a loner. Never the captain of the football team who does this type of thing

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/13893017-452/neil-steinberg-what-if-the-shooting-means-nothing.html

BY NEIL STEINBERG [e-mail] July 20, 2012 3:58PM

The grim ritual begins anew.

First the shock, delivered with the dawn Friday morning. A massacre at a midnight screening in Colorado of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.” A dozen people killed, 58 wounded.

Then the shooter is introduced — James Holmes, 24 — and ushered into the pantheon of heavily armed, deranged Americans. A growing list. He was taken alive, so we’ll get the chance to know him well, better than we could ever want to, to take a good long look into whatever psychological cesspool he has crawled out of, an extended tour of a very small, sad and not-all-that-interesting place.

We’ll happily forget him, despite the periodic reminders. Holmes gets to go to prison for the rest of his life. You have to wonder if that thought occurs to these shooters, and if it does, how they can still go through with it. Maybe they assume they’ll die in the process. Maybe they don’t care. In the photo, Holmes smiles. Why do they always seem to smile?

This being the Internet age, the punditry is unleashed immediately, no time for contemplation required: What was a 3-month-old baby doing at a midnight screening? Hollywood wonders how the massacre will affect the movie’s box office. Christopher Rapoza posts a photo of his wound on Reddit, a social news site. People joke, but perhaps that can be forgiven — some things are so awful that you have to joke. Or maybe it should not be forgiven — maybe it is a symptom of the exact indifference to humanity that helps cause this kind of thing in the first place.

[Fresh_Start]

1. NYT: From Football Captain to Accused Killer

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales graduated from Norwood High School in Ohio in 1991. He was described as a busy, popular student and played on the school’s football team.

[physioex]

2. True the shooter was not the "Captain of the Football Team"....

However if we were to go back and see the types of personalities that teased and toyed with this individual, it is most likely the more popular jock types.

Let it be know that being teased and bullied is not a reason or excuse to commit this atrocity, but it is something that will culminate in an individual.

[Fumesucker]

3. Nah, the captain of the football team just becomes the asshole boss who makes your life hell..

The fucker who plays grabass with the receptionist and treats everyone under him like the absolute dirt he thinks they are and never ever shuts up about how he was the mega athlete and you were just a nerd..


Hey, look, I can stereotype too..

[brewens]

4. I got seriously screwed over on a job one time. I didn't get fired and

even if I had, I wouldn't have killed anyone over it. I may have been close to being pissed off enough to do something like that, but only to the guy that had it coming though.

Ever since then I've realized how stupid some people can be. Getting and keeping a good job is literally a matter of life and death these days in my opinion. You could die because you don't have a good job and medical insurance. People do every day.

Most people that screw up and get themselves fired can take it and move on. If you seriously screw someone, like lying about them or setting them up, you increase the odd of retaliation exponentially. If you mess with the wrong person, look out. If it's a guy like this Holmes, you can count on it.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. "In the photo, Holmes smiles. Why do they always seem to smile?"

Because that wasn't his mug shot, you maroon. That was a photo from a few years ago taken by the University for his student ID that was released by the University to the media after the attack.

By all accounts, when captured, he had the shocking red hair seen in his adultfriendfinder.com profile.

Journalism is a dying art.

[teach1st]

6. One captain, forty-something players on a football team

What are the odds?

[taterguy]

7. There's at least two captains on a football team

One for offense.

One for defense.

[teach1st]

8. Okie dokie

I'm not a football fan. Still, what are the odds?

[taterguy]

11. I'm not a statistics fan. I have no idea what the odds are

[booley]

9. Guns give you a sense of power

Something I think we don't acknowledge as often as we should:

Guns give you a sense of power.

if one believes that one is helpless, a gun can create an immediate sense of empowerment.

And no it doesn't matter if the helplessness is legitimate or not, real or imagined. It doesn't even matter if a gun will really fix anything.

Remember the Virginia sniper shootings? How did many people react? they bought guns. A gun would not help anyone in against a sniper. that's the whole point of being a sniper. But people did it anyway because in a chaotic world where no oen was safe, it made them feel safer.

When one thinks one has no power, a gun provide quick and easy power.

So who's more likley to feel a sense of powerless in one's life?

The Popular jock? Or the loner?

And no that isn't the only factor in why someone would commit mass murder. But is A factor.

[sendero]

10. People who are mentally ill..

... are generally loners.

[HooptieWagon]

12. +100