Investigating: Masked Spree Shooters

I'm actually waiting for someone to pipe in "Well let's ban masks, then the killing will stop" and actually mean it.

Wearing a mask affords you a sort of disassociation and a way to remove yourself into a charter or even just the plain obvious fact so that nobody will know who you are in the case of these spree killers as I really did not look into it I could not really say. But I think the reasons were obvious why they wore masks, those reasons were written on this thread already in other posts, really even if they knew they were going to die and what they were doing they still had a little inkling of escaping that fate or at least hiding that fact of what they were doing for a while both from onlookers, and from themselves, but I bet you before the act took place the versions and causes went through there heads hundreds of time if not thousands of times before it happened. That saying they had to rationalize there actions, and if they could not rationalize there actions then they had to hide them, and so a mask is a way to hide not from the people even though that may be the case also, but to hide that fact or to smear and muddy the parts that do not fit into the rationalizations which have formed by whatever methods in there heads.

I would think that if there fully committed to the deed and death then the masks would kind of not be necessary, in fact they may want people to see who did it, but that to may be a rationalization they want. But again who knows, there are so many ways to commit something that really the way it was carried out may say something of the persons themselves and the type of environment they were brought up more so then give any specific pattern as to why these types of things happen, look at timothy McVeigh he took out a whole building using manure, now if these killers who are all over the news now really wanted to much more damage and were a bit more cold and calculating then they likely could, and what then are we to ban manure now because really there are some household items or things you can pick up at stores or order online that one could use and with a little planing to cause much more damage then a masked gun rampager ever could. So it just seem that it is a amalgamation of emotions that brought these killers to there final hours and there deeds. These seem to be mere kids, who just seemed to be swallowed up by whatever demon they were fighting, and I mean that in a rudimentary sense as in cause and effect throughout there life. If they were some sort of natural born mastermind killer types the options are there to cause much more damage really the way they went about it if albeit planed and brought upon seems like a last option type of thing so they turn to the things they know or some even the things they seen in movies as a way to condition themselves or to hide themselves and distance themselves from there deed.

Rationalization is a big part in everything anybody would do, you see it in kids who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, you see it in bullies, even in revenge there is a rationalization first before you go ahead, you see it in petty scammers out for a buck and you see it in high class scammers out of a few million bucks, you see it every action ever done, and usually even if that rationalization is pre thought it usually is only fully complete after the deed is done. There methods may be different but the fact that they have to rationalize before hand and after hand there actions is common in all, and not only that in pretty much everything we do. But the reasons the causes that brought those rationalizations into there heads and lead them to eventually act upon to there effect may differ for individual person and really it may be that trying to compare and contrast them all into a group may not be the way to go about it. It may be that looking at each of them as individuals first without any preconceived notions of any type of grouping or categorization would be the way to start at.

Or to skip all that as Fezzik said in the princes bride..."You be careful. People in masks cannot be trusted" But then again there are masks and then there are masks to hide behind. I usually say that sneaky people can not be trusted who knows what sneaky thing they may be up to, but masked people and people who hide behind masks and deceptions well they can be trusted to be hiding something, even if that something is nothing nefarious it may even be plain silly for all you know. But then again that to is all context, I mean look at Halloween, one would think that if it really were all about masks and causing strife and havoc for the sake of strife and havoc, then Halloween or any Holiday or really any occasion were physical masks were involved would be the ideal time to carry out such deeds, and yet, these type of things seem to happen out of the blue and at the oddest times. From that you can at least surmise that its more a individual complex that runs on its own clock and on its own reasons, rationalizations and justifications in fact those 3 things oft are the masks.

reply to post by NinjaKitteh


You make a valid point but the fact is there is no face to face personal confrontation if you post something negative on Facebook. They don't worry about instantly being assaulted ,yelled at etc. There is basicly nothing anyone can do to them through a computer screen. The mask they wear may make them feel the same way.

I did a quick scan of the posts, but if this idea was mentioned already, my bad!

Let's think about the mask and body armor and look at it for what it is.

Body Armor is used in combat as are the firearms. People put these on when going to war.

Tribal people will paint their faces or wear masks during warfare to portray a fierce appearance to induce fear in the enemy. Even Black Beard would light his beard on fire during his pirate battles to induce fear.

If someone can see who you are, they may react differently, but hide your identity and portray a raging maniac and people are going in to fear mode.

The guilt was obviously always there or he wouldn't have killed himself, otherwise he would have kept going until he was finally taken down.

Originally posted by theghoster
Who knows? Maybe they expect it to be like an action movie - or like playing Halo 3. Maybe they imagine that some pretty girl will approach them to praise them for being such a powerful man? Maybe they imagine themselves sparking a revolution - and imagine others in the crowd pulling out guns and joining them in their "crusade".


Well, right there I think you hit it right on the head. What i notice about some (if not most) of these shooters is that seem to be imposing their view of "reality" onto the world. They construct a narrative of themselves as the "rebellious lone gun-wielding warrior" who strike back at the oppressive and suffocating authoritarians (as they perceive it), because the rest of the public is either to meek or to brainwashed. Thus in their own reality--they are the "hero" when they could (as they assume in their own minds) could never be the hero in normal society. In other words, they feel or believe they are dissociated from the rest of society and cast out, but they still want to be important and accepted---so they create a reality in which the society they have been casted out from is the world of the "bad guys" and they are the "heroes". Whatever they do now---even if it means killing unarmed children---is a heroic act. This is an extreme form of dissociation from reality---its quite evident in the fact that this Adam Lanza arrived at a pre-school with body armor. What type of resistance was he expecting? See? Completely divorced from reality.

-Ghoster

edit on 15-12-2012 by theghoster because: (no reason given)

edit on 15-12-2012 by theghoster because: (no reason given)

I think that theghoster has the basic motivation part right. It makes total sense to me anyway, star for that one ghoster.