Why is that active shooters almost kill random people vs going after people who directly antagonized them?

[Anonymous]

Salvador Ramos the now deceased 18 year old mass shooter in Texas killed 19 kids and 2 adults yesterday.

Just reading his profile he fit the typical mold of a school shooter: he was weird, quiet and reputed to be bullied growing up.

However what I don’t get is why these psychos almost never take out any specific people who bullied/harassed them in the first place.

Not to say anyone should ever murder someone in revenge for bullying. Hell no. But wouldn’t it be plausible (and satisfying) for these shooters to get revenge on people who harmed them to begin with? Why is it always random and innocent people they end up killing? Even the Columbine kids said they were motivated to kill their bullies but not one person they took out ever did anything to directly harm them.

Why mass shooters almost always end up killing innocent random people?

[jshm2]

What makes you believe they are thinking rationally to begin with?

But also, you must be high if you think this is just about one person. The "rage" will be about everyone in and around the school. In the mind of an angry teen - all are at fault.

[zagor]

Because they're not rational. They are usually filled with hate and self-loathing and just want to inflict as much pain on others as they can. Their grievances, real or imagined, are not just from a few individuals.

[Asker]

I just figured if you going to go postal why not make it worth it and take out the people who harmed you the most? But they never seem to get back at who hurt them.

[zagor]

It usually is something that is cumulative over years. They are unlikely to go through the bother to look up their 8th grade bully.

[alice55]

I think that they're angry at the world; at everyone cause nobody ever done anything to help them ever.

[alice55]

It's like incel, they're angry at every single women who exist and want all to suffer instead of just hating the one that rejected them.
Also they have some mental health issue so their brain don't work really well

[Asker]

Well comparing an “incel” to an active shooter is quite a stretch. But they do have some correlations. I imagine if these guys had better luck with women it might of shown them that there are good things in life. But zero justification for what they did. None.

But still if they are going to go ballistic you think they would want to go out knowing they got revenge. But I guess their brains are so broken they have zero grip on reality.

[alice55]

Or maybe they're just pussy who don't get the balls to actually face their bully and get revenge so they rather take their anger on innocent defenseless people. Like when bullied people become absolutely nasty to their parents but are complete cowards in front of their bully

[Asker]

@alice55 did you read the details about this kid? What kind of upbringing he had? I don’t want to drum up sympathy for him. But he did have a hellish upbringing (mother who was a drug addict, father out the picture, etc.).

And you telling bullied kids that they are “pussies” and “cowards” going to accomplish anything? If that’s your attitude you are part of the problem tbh.

If I knew this kid I would of invited to a jiu jitsu or mma school. Teach him martial arts, self discipline and build his self esteem. That’s the productive way to handle it. Not acting like a cunt and worsening the problem by calling him a pussy.

[alice55]

Are you saying he's justified in killing innocent people who didn't do anything to him?
I also had harsh upbringing got bullied both physically and got insult everyday but I didn't go around killing people.
Nothing justify killing people though if he wanted to beat someone or something it would have been better he killed or scared his actual bully instead of children who did noting wrong;

He wouldn't have gone, those kind of people don't trust anybody, if you're kind to them they would just think you're trying to trick them and want to mock them at the end (like embarrass him in front of everybody or fake friend with them for 2 weeks just for humiliating them by saying that "of did you truly think I was friend? That anybody would want to be your friend?".
I was heavily bullied in school and bullied kid don't trust nobody even though who act nice or try to befriend them. Being nice to bullied kid is kinda pointless since they trust no one. They're always going to think you're gonna trick them.

You're not solving anything by doing this cause he would have never went. He's bullied in school why would that be any different in martial art? That's what he would tell themselves also he would tell himself "why he's talking to me? is he trying to trick me?"
Bullied kids don't trust nobody and do everything they can to never go out, they only do so when forced. They rather watch movie or play video games than going out where there's a high chance of getting bullied in their bedroom there's no ways they can get bullied (except by their parents but that's it).

[Asker]

@alice55 he needed direction in his life. But there is zero excuse for what he did.

[alice55]

He needed therapy more than anything

[Asker]

There were extreme warning signs about this guy but people ignored it. He once cut his face up with a knife and told his friend “he did it because he thought it looked cool”. Nobody interceded.

[Asker]

Also I understand what you are saying about not trusting people.

[alice55]

It's kinda hard, I mean what you wanted people to do? Tell it to the police? the school headmaster? The doctor? Nobody is going to do anything they would just have a talk with the guy and t-ask him if there's something wrong in his life if he have problem or something but if he tell them everything is good nobody is gonna do anything.
My teacher thought I was weird cause I never talked and didn't have friends so they called the school doctor and I had like 3 meeting with her but I just told her that everything was fine and I had no problem back at home and they left me alone so even if his friends had done something he could have just lie saying that everything was good and they would have left him alone.
True is nobody really do anything, they only do when it's too late.

[SlothySlob]

You don't reason with a broken person. The problem is that what and who is innocent is subjective. To him they clearly weren't. Or maybe precisely because they were innocent that he attacked them.

[jahaims]

You can't apply logic to the mentally ill. They live in a different reality.