What Drives Mass Murderers?

Over the weekend, a Democratic Congresswoman was shot in Tucson by a 22 year old male obsessed with anti-government rhetoric.  Already you can hear about how he was spurned on by the vitriol of our political debate and possibly by Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and the Republican party.  The opposite was said about James Lee, the hostage taker at the Discovery Channel, who was obsessed with Malthusian philosophy, the environment, and Gaia theory.  It was said he was spurned on by Al Gore and the Democratic Party.  In reality, extremists are rarely the products of the left or the right.  Usually their views defy classification and often logic. 

Take for example Joe Stack who flew a plane into the IRS office last February. His manifesto included references to "Big Brother Tax Man," the plight of immigrants, the "presidential puppet" Bush, obtuse attacks on the FAA, distrust of big business, hatred for the Catholic Church, attacks on capitalism and overthrow of the US government.  Although painted as a right wing extremist for his anti-government views, he could also have been characterized as a left wing extremist for his anti-capitalist attitudes.

A month after Stack's suicide mission, a former mental patient named John Bedell opened fire outside the Pentagon.  Although painted as a right ringer inflamed by conspiracy theories, his personal history leans to the left in that he was a registered Democrat, he hated George Bush, he had an affinity for 9/11 Truth theories. 

While the Unabomber has been classified as a left wing extremist due to his anti-technology, anti-progress pro-environment manifestos (there is a silly test here that offers you statements from both Gore and the Unabomber and asks you to guess which one said which) not even this is accurate.  In his manifesto, the Unabomber says, ""Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate America, they hate Western civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality." Well I guess even the Unabomber isn't wrong all the time. 

The shooter in Tucson is another amalgamation of liberal and conservative beliefs with some irrational and unclassifiable ones thrown in for good measure.  He attempted to join the military (leans right) but was rejected due to drug use (leans left).  The shooter laughed publicly about killing babies in school when talking about abortion (leans left) but rejected the school's constitutional authority when they tried to discipline him (leans right). His Youtube profile reveals his favorite books were the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf (both lean left, remember Nazis are national socialists) but also had familiarity with firearms (leans right). 

He was also obsessed with mind control, felt grammar was one form of government mind control, and denies the right of the federal government to print currency.  It is notable that his personal history and political beliefs that we read so much into have less in common with other mass shooters than his wacky unclassifiable ones.  The interest in mind control puts him in the company of other famous assassins such as Mark David Chapman, John Hinckley, Sirhan Sirhan, as well as Columbine killers Harris & Klebold. 

Despite the witch's brew of political beliefs that modern assassins and mass shooters claim to kill for, it seems that the only thing they really have in common is paranoia bordering on psychosis.  It is worth remembering that Camden, NJ spawned the first American mass murder in Howard Unruh back in 1949.  When his spree had ended and he was asked why he had killed so many people, he hung his head and was rumored to have said "I was sick of people calling me 'Howie'"