Maryland Mall Shooter Intended Columbine Copycat

Photo from Bedroom

Police Chief William J. McMahon said that the Maryland shooter who killed two innocent people in a mall skateboard shop was fascinated with the Columbine shooting from 1999. A foxnews.com report quotes McMahon as saying that the shooter knew he had mental problems:

"He knows he's sick. He knows he has problems that need to be addressed. He writes it in his journal. He writes in his journal he's not comfortable talking to his mother about it," McMahon said, adding that there was no indication he ever spoke with anyone about his concerns.

Media focus on mass shooting events has been known to spawn copycats for years.   Clayton Cramer wrote a paper about the ethical problems of intense media coverage of these events in 1993, and won an award for it.

Given the first amendment, it is difficult to prevent the intense media coverage of these events, which seem, in part, to be driven by the desire to use them to engender support for infringements on the second amendment.

The police acknowledge the shooter's desire for immortality through killing.  From theolympian.com:

"We're not going to help him have that notoriety," McMahon said in explaining why police did not release that photo Wednesday.

Police did release a different picture Aguilar took of himself holding the shotgun he used in the shooting, a picture believed to have been taken in his bedroom.

Restraint of the mass media feeding frenzy of coverage of these events seem unlikely, given that they are viewed as a means of achieving the political results that the old media finds desirable.

 A  "guide" on how to push for more restrictions on second amendment rights emphasized the need to use emotion rather than reasoned arguments.  From The Washington Examiner:

 "A high-profile gun violence incident temporarily draws more people into the conversation about gun violence," added the talking points. "We should rely on emotionally powerful language, feelings and images to bring home the terrible impact of gun violence," said the guide, which also urged advocates use images of scary looking guns and shooting scenes to make their point.

Confirmation of the Columbine connection is reported in the New York Times:

 ... had apparently waited to open fire at 11:14 a.m. — the beginning of the Columbine shooting, during which two Colorado high school students killed 12 classmates as well as a teacher and wounded others before killing themselves.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2014/03/12/3029676/police-maryland-mall-shooter-didnt.html#storylink=cpy