Did race play a factor in the Kansas shooting?

[oberliner]

Heston, Kansas is over 90 percent white and has an African-American population making up less than 2 percent. The shooter has been identified as being among that very small African-American minority. Reports indicate that something set him off and there was a post on social media about him being fed up. Obviously, everything is speculation at this point, but I wonder if the racial dynamic could have been a factor here.

[TeddyR]

1. The shooter

Certainly could have been racist but I have seen a story saying he was

[oberliner]

5. Or perhaps the victim of a racist environment?

And that may have pushed him over the edge if he was already otherwise unstable.

[TeddyR]

12. Yeah

He could have been a racist or a victim of a racist environment, though not sure either justifies mass murder. Agree?

[oberliner]

14. Of course

I am just interested in learning more about the backstory to this tragedy.

[cwydro]

2. Would it make a difference?

A mass shooting is a mass shooting.

It appears to be your standard variety workplace violence shooting.

Tragic and all too familiar.

[philosslayer]

3. It doesn't mean that angle shouldn't be explored

Yes, it does matter. Motivation in committing a crime matters. That, for instance, is why we have hate crime laws.

[oberliner]

4. I think it would

Understanding motive is often instructive in these situations.

[cwydro]

6. Well, I do agree that understanding motive is important.

But to my mind, these shootings have one thing in common.

A man who is enraged, a man who feels powerless against whatever or whomever it might be, a man who has given up on having any control of anything in his life except the ability to kill innocents.

Eliot Rodger had a sexist motive, but in the end - he was still an enraged, powerless man who wanted to kill.

We cannot protect ourselves from the rage that causes these men who kill. We can't fix that.

And I despair that we cannot protect ourselves from the rampant gun culture that gives these enraged men an outlet for their lack of power. Sigh.

[oberliner]

7. Good points

I agree with your assessment.

[romanic]

8. Could've been

but as you said it is up to speculation. However, if racism in the workplace set him off, it's still no justification to go on a shooting rampage. I myself have worked in mostly white or non-black workplaces and been called all types of names, but I never felt like shooting up the place.

I think race have may played a part, but I also think stress and other things prompted this.

[cwydro]

10. Yes,

Rage and the feeling of powerlessness causes these things in my opinion.

No doubt they're estranged from friends and family too...it's very sad on every level.

[Iggo]

9. Maybe. Maybe not. But guns did. That's certain.

[TeddyR]

13. Yeah

The gun jumped up and went off shooting people, no criminals involved

[melman]

11. I'm still waiting for the threads

where everybody shouts about how this guy is a "black terrorist".


But I'm sure they'll be appearing any time now.

[1939]

16. Not a terrorist

Just your garden variety dirtbag. He was a convicted felon and had a long rap sheet in Florida.

[demtenjeep]

15. No Race isn't a factor (I live 20 minutes away)

Anger

Emotional distress

The man had just gotten a protection from abuse order just earlier that day


The man was just pissed off and was also a former convict

[LiberalElite]

17. He had been served with a restraining order about

90 minutes prior. It is thought that was the precipitating cause:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/26/us/kansas-shooting/

snip
(CNN)Ninety minutes before he opened fire in central Kansas, Cedric Ford got served a restraining order -- an act a local sheriff thinks led him to kill three people and wound 14 others.

"I believe that probably is the trigger, and it went from there," Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said Friday.
snip