Missing the mark (Or not)

[pyat]

There was a shooting at a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville on the weekend. Two people died. The suspected attacker was, apparently, frustrated by Christianity. He was normal fairly peaceful, but sometimes had religious disagreements with his neighbors, one of whom is a King James literalist. If his attack was inspired by his frustration with Fundamentalist Christianity, then he picked a really bad target. Not that any target would have been a good one.

Edit: Though, apparently he was mostly mad at those darn liberals...

Comments

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

Well, most murders in the US arise out of arguments. That certainly indicates anger, but hate is a different thing entirely. Specifically, most murders occur as a result of feuds over money. At least that's what the Uniform Crime Reporting figures listed last time I looked at the tail end of the 1990s.

Motivation is important in these kind of crimes. Most murderers are angry at a specific person for a specific reason and are looking to settle things in a permanent manner. When a killing is designed to intimidate an entire class of people, the scope of the killing is larger than the immediate victims.