Why the Vegas Shooter Did It

October 13, 2017  |  POLITICO MAGAZINE

Dickey Center Director Daniel Benjamin writes in Politico Magazine on the speculation around why Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and wounded almost 500 in the worst mass killing in US history. What was his motive? Possibly simply fame, in an age when the Internet makes instant fame possible.

Paddock thus becomes the latest embodiment of a pattern that has emerged in recent decades. In a world gushing with information about fresh atrocities on the internet and social media, one where screaming chyrons and shouting talk radio hosts have become ubiquitous, a small number of individuals seek to make their mark through record-setting violence. By doing so, they hope to distinguish lives hitherto marked by insignificance or failure.

Read his article online.