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The weapon he used was owned by his parents for many years prior. He grew up in a household full of guns. From everything we can tell right now, it seems like your typical school shooter. Depression and mental illness leads some to want to go with a bang, pun not intended. It doesn't seem like he hated Trump, so much as he wanted to target someone famous.
That said to your ladder point, literally millions of people gave their lives to kill Hitler.
your ladder point
The point made by a ladder!
(It's "latter" point, haha)
Aaah thank you, I reread the original post trying to find a point related to a ladder and eventually decided I just didn't understand what the "ladder point" was referring to, but now I understand them!
Languages are fun :)
Depression and mental illness leads some to want to go with a bang
No, they really fucking don't, privilege and the sense of entitlement it gives do.
Like seriously, beyond the bullshit that is scapegoating mental illness because it's easier than facing reality, that's literally not how depression works, nor "mental illness" in general, especially when you consider that mentally ill people are significantly more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrate it.
Stop perpetuating this lazy counterproductive bullshit.
While I get the point you are trying to make, unfortunately unthreaded bipolar depression can indeed lead to manic psychosis episodes. Hyper fixation and grandiosity are also common symptoms. We're not talking about gender or racial violence here.
Your best source is a Tumblr blog?
He had a good life going
Based on accounts from people who knew him at school, he did not.
Most people do not go out and attempt an assassination. That alone is an indication of some sort of psychotic break. Evidence may not have been made public yet or there may not be any. The only person who knew for sure is dead.
To add to this, he had looked up several targets, including Biden. So it was likely as you say, a psychotic break followed by lashing out, rather than a partisan choice.
I donβt think we can necessarily call all killers psychotic. Antisocials in the broadest of terms, maybe, sociopaths, probably, but theyβre not necessarily all losing touch with reality.
In his case, given what we know so far, it does sound rather likely.
to kill him probably
Maybe it was just to have the ear of the president.
It was just ear piercing from long distance....
So this is the kind of piercing gun they use for earrings
It's a new NRA service, they needed some big influencers to start promoting it
maybe he was out of earshot of the president and wanted to be in it.
It seems odd this happened; President Trump has an ear to the ground.
He was listening for the sign, but someone called the shot too loudly. That's probably why his ear hurts.
He probably didnβt hate Trump. He seemed to be targeting a bunch of politicians. He was probably either mad at politics, or just trying to be famous.
A classmate said that they collaborated on a project on JFK's assassination and he was obsessed with the topic. I think he just wanted the infamy. Also it is pretty clear to me at this point that there was no strong political motive. He left no manifesto and did not even have any extensive political history on his devices.
Forgive the FoxNews link but this video is the best I found: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6358301112112
So you think he didn't just want to be famous, he wanted to be infamous?
I also read he was researching Biden too, suggesting he didn't care which one he could target. My guess is that he figured trump would be easier.
Maybe he was listening to Marilyn Manson.
Itβs a shame heβs been accused of being a creep/rapist. Not for his sake, I hope justice is served, just so many misplaced βI told you soβs to go around because of it.
I wasn't sure if you were talking about Trump or Manson for a moment.
The shooter is dead, knowing what they were thinking is going to be impossible now. People are going to guess based on situational information but we will never know
Because it was the most convenient person to murder: hole is security, piss easy access to a rifle, nothing left to lose. Do you honestly think that someone with a life worth living would risk it like that? Legal Eagle did a good video explaining the shooting. (https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=l4SZgsNLV-s)
They said he searched online for both Trump and Biden. Maybe it wasn't matter for him whom from them to kill. Just to kill a person of power as big as the president or a candidate of such country as US, with all modern security measures. Like Unabomber, or like in the film The limits of Control. And he was quite near.
Probably saw that Project 2025 had a section on banning porn and jailing its creators. His last phone search was even for porn π
He was going for the post nut clarity.
No, but speculate we shal!
I think all he wanted was his ear, nothing more! He just wanted to become Lee Harvey Earswald.
Or Mike Tyson?
All signs point to depression + disillusionment imo. He seems to be targeting the most convenient major political figure available. With the system being as inexorably broken as it is, it makes sense.
he was able to buy an AR-15 at 22 I think.
Pretty sure the reports point to him having it for over a decade. Without taking any effort to look it up, I think his dad bought him that gun in like 2013, so he was much younger at the time.
As for 'good life going', doesn't sound that way in general, but apparently he just got his associates degree from community college, and had been accepted into a university, but he decided not to go.
Can people quit saying he bought the damn gun...he got it from his father.
Not truly. We can make guesses and assumptions. But probably not really know it
I am sure that some information and reasoning will emerge at some point, after they've looked through his phone, computer, home and talked to people who knew him.
We can never know or speak for why anyone does anything, unless we're relaying what the person says, because no matter what kind of act we're speaking of, the only ones who can speak for someone's intentions is that person. Anything else is putting words in their mouth, an educated guess, based on what we see and not what we don't. People should stop emphasizing motives as much as they do. Sometimes a motive might not even be able to be manifested in words while still existing.
They googled a bunch of public figures and locations, so guessing notoriety
My best guess is he was hoping to kick off the Christian jihad/civil war by creating a martyr. He knew the maga folks would believe he was a Democrat plant and run with it.
That's been my theory as well.
Not really. It's like with any mass shooter case where the shooter kills themselves. It's frustrating because we'll never know what in their mind, got them to do what they did. So we're all going to be spending lots of time just simply speculating and having hot takes.