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Crime

D.C. Shooter Shared Video of His Attack on 4chan, Then Edited Wikipedia Page (theguardian.com) 198

28-year-old Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people in New Zealand in 2019. The Associated Press reports that at that point he'd been reading 4chan for 14 years, according to his mother — since the age of 14.

The year before, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, who killed 11 people in Toronto in 2018, namechecked 4chan in a pre-attack Facebook post.

But the Guardian now adds another a story from nine days ago — when a 23-year-old shooter with 1,000 rounds of ammunition opened fire from his apartment in Washington D.C. Just two minutes after the shooting began, someone under the username "Raymond Spencer" logged onto the normally-anonymous 4chan and started a new thread titled "shool [sic] shooting". The newly published message contained a link — to a 30-second video of images captured from the digital scope of Spencer's rifle....

Even as police stormed the apartment building where Spencer hid, with officers maneuvering past a surveillance camera that he had set up in the hallway and was monitoring, Spencer continued to post to the message board. "They're in the wrong part of the building right now searching," he posted at one point. A few minutes later: "Waiting for police to catch up with me."

As he waited, Spencer logged on to Wikipedia to edit the entry for Edmund Burke School, which he had just opened fire on....

Police believe Spencer shot himself to death as officers breached his apartment.

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D.C. Shooter Shared Video of His Attack on 4chan, Then Edited Wikipedia Page

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  • Before anyone comments, I'd like to describe a fallacy known as the "reversed conditional".

    The reversed conditional fallacy is when the reader assumes "A given B" is the same as "B given A". The assumption sometimes works, but sometimes does not. Consider:

    Case 1: Probability that person is a woman, given that they carry a pocketbook/probability that person carries a pocketbook, given that they are a woman.

    Case 2: Probability that John is dead, given that he was hanged/probability that John was hanged, given

    • by narcc ( 412956 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @12:50AM (#62495660) Journal

      First, there is no such thing as the "reversed conditional fallacy". It's "confusion of the inverse". Why make up your own term?

      Second, reversing a conditional is very well understood. Going from P(A|B) to P(B|A) is typically a quick (P(A|B) * P(B)) / P(A) (Yuck!)

      Finally, this has absolutely nothing to do with the headline, summary, or the article! No one is claiming that posting on wikipedia or 4chan causes shootings or that shootings cause people to post on 4chan or wikipedia.

      • by ras ( 84108 )

        Finally, this has absolutely nothing to do with the headline, summary, or the article!

        Quite so. Meanwhile, I'll leave this here: The Man Accused Of Killing His Girlfriend And Posting Photos Of It On 4chan Has Been Arrested [businessinsider.com].

        • How many rapes and gang rapes went on Facebook Live? Countless. Im not sure Facebook turns people into rapists. Its mob mentality at the extreme, and a toxic environment for sure.
      • by snowshovelboy ( 242280 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @08:51AM (#62496306)

        Finally, this has absolutely nothing to do with the headline, summary, or the article! No one is claiming that posting on wikipedia or 4chan causes shootings or that shootings cause people to post on 4chan or wikipedia.

        The claim is implied by the article existing. There is no other reason for the article to exist. Otherwise we would have articles about how early the shooter woke up, what he had for breakfast, whether or not he brushed his teeth that day, or other mundane things. We don't. We only have articles where the shooter engages with typical pop culture bogeymen, strengthening the idea of the boogeymen, while confirming our biases.

    • Correlation does not mean a cause-effect link. This paper [uclep.be] shows a very good example.
    • Case 1: Probability that person is a woman, given that they carry a pocketbook/probability that person carries a pocketbook, given that they are a woman.

      The reversal works in case 1

      How exactly does it work in case 1? I don't see it.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        "Pocketbook" = "woman's purse". Yes, in todays gender-obsessed society, this is probably a bad example. But it shows the idea: If you have a really high correlation between two characteristics, you have implications in both directions with high probability.

        • That makes very little difference; it could be anything and the claim would still be wrong. Even if it's "a women's purse" the claim is still wrong.
          • Not entirely sure about that. Women complain all the time that they are always denied any sort of pockets on their clothing. So they have to have something for their keys, wallet, ID, etc.
            • Even assuming that these claims about pockets were true (which they aren't anyway; the women I see around me have plenty of pockets and use them), please explain to me how this has *anything* to do with what I was writing above about the supposedly equal probabilities.
          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            Only if you insist on nit-picking for the sake of nit-picking. Which makes you a problem and your "contribution" of negative worth.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @04:04AM (#62495850) Homepage Journal

      The issue is that people get radicalized on 4chan, YouTube and social media, and then end up murdering people. It's called "stochastic terrorism". No individual or single group is directly responsible, but large numbers of unconnected posts create an environment that fosters these kinds of crimes.

      The fact that they live stream or live post demonstrates what is happening. This guy was expecting positive feedback from 4chan, encouragement from other users. 4chan users have lionised other criminals and terrorists, and compare any new crimes to those "high scores".

      It's not just 4chan. As I said, YouTube and other social media like Facebook are also involved in this.

      • But isn't this really blaming the tool?

        Essentially the concept of 'stochastic terrorism' asserts that the medium itself bears some blame for the spreading of 'dangerous' ideas. That's ridiculous. By that logic, we may as well ban Samsung, Apple, and Nokia for making easier the spread of dangerous ideas, no?

        This guy wasn't expecting positive feedback from 4chan. 4chan is a pile of code running on servers. He was expecting positive feedback from 4chan USERS, who seem to collect there as a sort of internet

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by citizenr ( 871508 )

      You know 4chan link is irrefutable considering there were no mass shootings before 2003!!1

    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @04:12AM (#62495864)

      The fallacy is only a fallacy in a vacuum. Or are you suggesting that 4chan/8chan are not vile shitholes and that people aren't influenced by those they keep close company with?

      We have plenty of research to suggest 4chan is a cause of extremist violence without needing to result to your fallacy, which can also be described by another fallacy: strawman.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Vile shitholes are created and maintained by vile people. 4chan is a symptom, it is not a cause. Of course, those that forever seek for a pretext to censor things will argue just as you have here.

        • vile shitholes are created and maintained by vile people. 4chan is a symptom, it is not a cause.

          Is it the root cause of all evil? Well no, obviously. Has it been responsible for radicalisation and the ensuing results? Yep.

          Of course, those that forever seek for a pretext to censor things

          Funny: you think you can shout down an argument by yelling "censorship" loudly enough. Ironic, really.

        • by jvkjvk ( 102057 )

          4chan may be a symptom but it is also a cause, and you are not acknowledging that on some misguided attempt to prevent some kind of censorship.

          It is simply a fact that people become more radicalized the more radicals they are around. It turns out the opinions of those around you can warp your own. It turns out that having your biases confirmed instead of challenged leads toward more biased results.

          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            It is simply a fact that people become more radicalized the more radicals they are around. It turns out the opinions of those around you can warp your own. It turns out that having your biases confirmed instead of challenged leads toward more biased results.

            I usually do not do this, but here it fits: Citation needed. Because AFAIK, things are far from this simple and it is really not clear whether it works this way.

      • 4chan are primarily trolls who like to talk shit and post shock images. Well, the people anyhow, most of the posts are just bots. The place is basically the truck stop grafitti wall of the internet. It hasn't been a "real site" since the whole "Anonymous" thing went down.

        Every once in a while a disturbed person mistakes it for an actual discussion forum, or some fringe group tries to use it as a "gathering" place. Which is unavoidable but at least it's all out in the open unlike most social media sites whic

        • Point being that nobody get "radicalized" by that cesspool anymore than they get radicalized by seeing the ascii art spam here on slashdot

          Nope. False. You said it yourself it's a place where trolls spend their time posting shock images. If you want to pretend that this doesn't affect people then please link to a study showing that what people experience doesn't affect them. I won't wait though since no such study exists. There are however plenty of studies showing that people constantly exposed to vile shit get desensetized to that vile shit.

          Not sure why you bring Slashdot ascii art into it. I've not seen any in about a year here. On a flipsi

    • Because we are too busy doing something about that soon-to-be awful Twitter website.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Don't follow the the pocketbook example. Is that not a brand of e-book reader? Ah, Google says that in some part of the world that is a women's purse or handbag.

      But here is another broken one: Given that basically all terrorists/criminals/politicians/other_unsavory_characters eat bread, it is imperative we immediately ban bread! Obviously that made them do it...

      I think you really have to go to this simple level to make the problem clear.

    • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @07:29AM (#62496084)

      Quite a strong reaction. Like calling everyone a homo when you’re definitely having some gay thoughts.

    • by Kisai ( 213879 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @08:13AM (#62496204)

      The problem is that sites like 4chan, reddit and 4chan all promote this "troll" culture that makes it difficult to tell when something is legitimately a threat or not. Had this person been posting to facebook or Twitter, law enforcement would be considering it a credible threat.

      But on 4chan, reddit and something awful, because of the nature of how people make cowardly "as a joke(tm)" comments on those sites, it's difficult to tell if someone is an unhinged edgelord trying to troll people, or an actual psychopath. The lack of moderation on these sites also ensures that threats are often treated as jokes, and people egged on to "do it, prove it, pics or it didn't happen"

      That said, most people who use troll sites tend to have this attitude that "everyone deserves to be punched in the face, or kicked in the balls, sometime", if they joke with people outside the site, they most certainly would be on the receiving end of physical violence "as a joke(tm)" from someone who doesn't appreciate it.

    • There is however the question, would this guy do what he had done if there wasn't 4chan. Also were there messages thread in 4chan that he followed that may lead him to go violent.

      Because of Social Media, and the Internet, we are all in general much more angry about every little thing and those others, are considered scary folks, who are actively planning on destroying us, so we feel that we should prep against them.

      Every liberal is a protest attending crazy, who will burn down buildings to get their way.
      Eve

  • If you were wondering, four people were shot but none died, since TFS doesn't say.
    • by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @01:11AM (#62495692)
      What I found more amazing was:

      The man who opened fire from a D.C. apartment Friday [...] had a major stockpile of weapons and ammunition in two apartments he was renting [...] Police recovered six guns, three of which were fully automatic [...] In another of Spencer's apartments authorities found three more guns and "thousands" of rounds [...] Police believe that all of the firearms were purchased legally.

      Holy fsck, some nutcase went out and bought enough automatic weapons and ammunition to start WWIII and it was all legal and OK and no-one batted an eyelid.

      Anyway, too soon to talk about gun control, thoughts and prayers, etc. See you tomorrow for the next mass shooting.

      • Legal automatic weapons? Doesnt pass the sniff test.
        • by fafalone ( 633739 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @03:25AM (#62495818)
          You can indeed buy them legally, it's just very expensive and you have to file a bunch of extra paperwork, because you can only buy ones made before the ban in the 80s, so there's not many in circulation. You can also modify some legally purchased semi-autos to fire full auto with an autosear, a part you buy illegally for cheap, or legally with the same expanded checks and permitting as buying a machine gun (because legally, they're treated as one, despite just being a small chunk of metal).
          • by junkname ( 8623905 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @07:21AM (#62496062)
            Just like fully assembled machine guns, you cannot purchase an auto-sear that was made after 1986, or one that was not registered prior to 1986. Also, the cheapest fully automatic you can buy is a mac10, typically around $14,000+. If you want a true M-16, 20 grand minimum (40 grand if you want an actual Vietnam issued M16). There is no way this guy owned two or more "legal" fully automatics unless he was rich. I also agree this doesn't pass the smell test.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ClickOnThis ( 137803 )

        What I found more amazing was:

        The man who opened fire from a D.C. apartment Friday [...] had a major stockpile of weapons and ammunition in two apartments he was renting [...] Police recovered six guns, three of which were fully automatic [...] In another of Spencer's apartments authorities found three more guns and "thousands" of rounds [...] Police believe that all of the firearms were purchased legally.

        Holy fsck, some nutcase went out and bought enough automatic weapons and ammunition to start WWIII and it was all legal and OK and no-one batted an eyelid.

        Indeed. Do people have to die for events like this to be seen as a problem?

        Despite what I read from others in this discussion, I think it's a fair question whether 4chan had any part in facilitating these mass shootings, by providing a forum for crazies to glamorize them. Yeah, free speech and all, but when does a forum like that cross into the realm of committing criminal solicitation?

      • by Rayfield k. ( 8918519 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @04:01AM (#62495846)

        Holy fsck, some nutcase went out and bought enough automatic weapons and ammunition to start WWIII and it was all legal and OK and no-one batted an eyelid.

        Anyway, too soon to talk about gun control, thoughts and prayers, etc. See you tomorrow for the next mass shooting.

        No, none of it was "legal and OK". You're clueless.
        The guns were illegal.
        The ammo was illegal.
        The magazines were illegal.
        The autosears were illegal.
        A ten second search would have told you this.

        • But thanks to American's gun culture while illegal they were very much easily available.

        • I did not RTFA and I don't know if the GP over-ellipsised their comment, but their excerpt states that all the guns were purchased legally. If the guns were illegal, they could not be purchased legally by definition. There are fully automatic firearms in the USA which normal citizens can buy. They were here prior to the ban and are grandfathered in. Some states still ban specific equipment, California still bans large capacity magazines for example*, though the assault weapons ban on firearms with certain c

      • by suss ( 158993 )

        More likely Mass Shootings [gunviolencearchive.org]

        Most don't even make the national news...

      • What I found more amazing was:

        What I found more amazing was the guy had that much ammunition and shot that many rounds, yet only hit FOUR people.

        At least go out and shoot a few practice rounds at a target before going on a shooting rampage so you know how your weapon works.

      • by kqc7011 ( 525426 )
        Were those weapons legally purchased? Roughly the lowest price for a fully automatic firearm is $10,000. And for each purchase you have a several month long waiting period for the federal, state and local background checks to take place before your two hundred dollar tax stamp for each firearm is issued. A quick search provided this list of disqualifiers to own about any firearm, but especially fully automatic ones. If the person is a felon, has been convicted of any crime punishable by more than a year i
      • by junkname ( 8623905 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @07:28AM (#62496078)
        "thousands of rounds". I always get a kick out of this. Any serious sport shooter will go through ammo like its going out of style. A few hours at a gun range and 300-500 rounds will be used. Having "thousands of rounds" is NOT unusual. One box of .22 ammo is 500 rounds - a single box. If he had two boxes of .22 rounds, he had a thousand rounds. I try to keep 1000+ rounds for each of my firearms, since you never know when the stores will actually have ammo, and if you want to go shooting with a few friends, you don't want to have to worry about A) finding ammo and B) spending an arm and a leg on what you do find. Just like any other hobby, you purchase in bulk when you find a good price so you don't have to worry about this. I generally stock up when a Republican holds office (and ammo prices go down) and use the ammo when a Democrat holds office (and typically prices go way up).
      • Holy fsck, some nutcase went out and bought enough automatic weapons and ammunition to start WWIII and it was all legal and OK and no-one batted an eyelid.

        Something is wrong with the reporting. NO...this guy did not purchase legally a bunch of full auto weapons.

        While it is true that a citizen can purchase and own a full auto weapon, it is a very limited thing.

        For common citizens, you cannot buy or purchase any full auto weapon made after I believe it is 1986, when the Hughes Amendment was passed.

        This me

      • I really doubt. Why would we know they were true automatics unless an armorer disassembled them or they were test fired?
      • What I found more amazing was:

        The man who opened fire from a D.C. apartment Friday [...] had a major stockpile of weapons and ammunition in two apartments he was renting [...] Police recovered six guns, three of which were fully automatic [...] In another of Spencer's apartments authorities found three more guns and "thousands" of rounds [...] Police believe that all of the firearms were purchased legally.

        Holy fsck, some nutcase went out and bought enough automatic weapons and ammunition to start WWIII and it was all legal and OK and no-one batted an eyelid.

        Anyway, too soon to talk about gun control, thoughts and prayers, etc. See you tomorrow for the next mass shooting.

        To understand American gun culture, you must go back to before we declared independence. The mistreatment our forefathers faced at the hands of Britain ingrained a psych that we need guns to protect ourselves from a corrupt government. This belief was so strong we could not ratify a Constitution without the right to bear arms explicitly enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Even today it requires massive cause to infringe on this right.

        We do need some regulation. Firearms must be registered so if they are used

        • This belief was so strong we could not ratify a Constitution without the right to bear arms explicitly enumerated in the Bill of Rights

          No. Just no. The Constitution was ratified just fine on June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire agreed to it. That made the ninth state out of the original thirteen.

          What you are thinking of, incorrectly also, is the part about slavery. The Southern states absolutely refused to budge on this issue and would not agree to the Constitution unless the issue of slavery was p
  • Does 4chan create the monster, or do the monsters need to go somewhere as to not be so alone?

    I see the problem with 4chan to effectively be the same problem as brothels or prostitution. At the end of the day, would the problem be worse without them? I have to lean on 'yes' - there are people in life who are dysfunctional with relationships or public, but that doesn't remove peoples need for fulfillment and dialog.. I'd have to say that 4chan is a better form of outlet than none at all. Its not even the 'd
    • by NotEmmanuelGoldstein ( 6423622 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @12:25AM (#62495638)

      ... as brothels or prostitution ...

      They're two parts of the one 'sin': I would have said drug-dealers and prostitutes.

      ... fulfillment and dialog.

      It seems we've evolved to use drugs. Obviously, we're designed to stick our penises somewhere. We've probably evolved to express rage but that doesn't mean turning into a suicidal mass-murderer. I imagine there isn't a "commit mass-murder" group on 4chan: If there was, the groupies shooting each other and themselves would make "dialog" impossible.

      ... better form of outlet ...

      No, the main purpose of purpose of 4chan (and soon, Truth Social) is agreeing with the 'I'm a victim' and 'evil government' propaganda published by Fox & friends, Info Wars, or Tucker Carlson. Those in turn, are gutless revolutionaries demanding their wannabe sycophants perform pointless acts of violence, because "someone needs to make a stand". Of course, "someone" doesn't include their own rich, white arse.

      If those media personalities really wanted a new government, they'd be touring militia clubs and planning a co-ordinated attack on government buildings across the country.

      Does 4chan create the monster ...

      There will always be a few monsters that can't be stopped but yes, 4chan creates, or at least, enables, the monsters.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        I respect your position, but I feel that by virtue of mentioning Fox you already understand that a considerable percentage of the population are not aligned to the same perspective. I agree with your perspective that people have victim slants to their arguments, and that to a certain extent 4chan enables, but no more than can be done through other platforms. Again, my perspective is that, regardless on any whether or not you're religious and think about concepts of sins (I don't), there exists less fortunat
      • It seems we've evolved to use drugs. Obviously, we're designed to stick our penises somewhere. We've probably evolved to express rage but that doesn't mean turning into a suicidal mass-murderer.

        Examples abound throughout the animal kingdom of species where the male cannot tolerate other males. Killing as many of them as possible makes it easier to spread your own genetics and deny theirs, so there is obviously a genetic imperative for males to kill (or at least drive away) other males, in order to prevent them from satisfying their genetic imperative to breed.

        • Examples abound throughout the animal kingdom of species where the male cannot tolerate other males. Killing as many of them as possible makes it easier to spread your own genetics and deny theirs, so there is obviously a genetic imperative for males to kill (or at least drive away) other males, in order to prevent them from satisfying their genetic imperative to breed.

          It's not genetic imperative: if it were then it would be universal. It's one of very very many different adaptations. Some animals go this r

          • It's not genetic imperative: if it were then it would be universal.

            Nonsense. That statement only makes true if everyone shares the same genetics, not just the same origin.

            Further, a genetic imperative can be overridden to some degree by a learned behavior. Territorialism and Competition are generally accepted genetic imperatives, but not only do they not apply to all organisms, they are often overridden by learned behavior which has demonstrated its benefit.

            • There's also multiple really neat studies from primates showing that violence is taught not inherent. Here's one example where the cycle of abuse that was present at one stage of a tribe was broken and set in a new pattern: the younger males learned a more cooperative behavior going forward. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov] There's several other examples of this in the primate world.

              • Even babies will smack one another for stuff. The idea that violence isn't inherent is silly. It's also taught. That's one of the problems with nature vs. nuture arguments, so many things are both. Alternatives to violence are really more likely to be taught and not inherent because they are more complex. You have to learn about cause and effect and learn to anticipate second-order effects before you can understand the benefits of cooperation. Even many adult humans don't seem to understand them.

                • By "not inherent" I just meant that just because a baby hits someone doesn't mean that they are locked to that pattern for life -- I was refuting the argument that the earlier posts seemed to be claiming.

    • by N1AK ( 864906 )
      I think things can be simplified down too far. We don't know whether the existence of places like 4chan helps by giving people who could be dangerous a safe space or reinforces harmful views and increases the chances of events like this. Whether brothels are good or bad is also hard to judge at least partly because their illegality in many jurisdictions means they can range from safe spaces for women who choose to engage in sex work to operate to places where people are trafficed against their will, locked
    • by cas2000 ( 148703 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @04:37AM (#62495896)

      At the end of the day, would the problem be worse without them? I have to lean on 'yes'

      and that's where you're wrong.

      4chan and places like 4chan let loony fuckers find other like-minded souls, and enables them in diving ever deeper into their delusions, with their own incel cant of buzzwords and bizarre misunderstandings of how the world works. And yeah, nobody gave them a user manual on how to live in this fucked up world - but here's the thing: nobody else got a user manual, either.

      proto-incels existed long before 4chan, long before the internet. but, back then, they didn't find each other, and didn't fall into a cult. Most of them got over it, got lucky, got laid, and got on with their lives. Now, many of them fall into this self-perpetuating cult, never get laid, never learn how to interact with people beyond what a smutty, borderline-autistic 12-13 YO boy is capable of, and never get out of it.

      So yeah, 4chan etc makes things far worse.

      4chan is not like a brothel, it's not something as benign as a place where you can pay money and get laid. 4chan is more like scientology - a cult indoctrinating the young, stupid, and vulnerable into a seriously fucked up and bizarre world-view.

      Some manage to escape it - or just grow out of it - before they get sucked in too deep. Many don't. And a few get sucked in so deep they commit atrocities.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Delusional people are quite capable of driving themselves deeper into delusion. There are enough examples of that. In fact, having an outlet may well delay or prevent them from actin on their delusions. Usually suppression of speech just makes things worse.

      • I have a feeling you don't frequent 4chan and instead get your opinions on it from reddit and other news sources. A self described incel will create a thread espousing their beliefs on misogyny, race, "society", etc. and they will get other incels agreeing with them, true... but also MANY others calling them out on their bullshit. Y'see this is the magic of the (mostly) unfiltered sewage pipe that is anonymous image boards; since the end users are divorced from the moderation it's hard to make an echo chamb

    • I see the problem with 4chan to effectively be the same problem as brothels or prostitution. At the end of the day, would the problem be worse without them? I have to lean on 'yes' - there are people in life who are dysfunctional with relationships or public, but that doesn't remove peoples need for fulfillment and dialog.

      That's not at issue. What is at issue is whether 4chan's existence makes those people's lives better. I submit that it does not. Instead it's an echo chamber for people who think the world should burn, which actually makes them more depressed, and keeps them from seeking other options that might improve their lives.

      What to do about it is really the question, though. If you destroy it, something else will take its place. Maybe two somethings.

  • by Rayfield k. ( 8918519 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @12:44AM (#62495654)

    Out of the 22 million unique visitors per month it doesn't seem particularly unusual that a few of them would be murderous nutjobs.
    I am pretty curious about the finer details of this case, such as the framed picture of yakub on the wall (The nation of islam "evil black genocidal scientist" that "created the white devil and all other races") or where a 23 year old living in an apartment in D.C. of all places got three illegal rifles, at least 9 illegal magazines and all the ammo given their particularly strict gun laws (They couldn't have even bought the ammo in D.C. due to these laws).
    I also see that at least one of the rifles has an autosear and for some reason he chose to stop shooting.
    Seems pretty fuckin' weird to me.

    • by N1AK ( 864906 )
      Fortunately in this case the shooter appears to have either been impressive incompetent or was sufficiently messed up they wanted to create the mess / get attention but not enough of an asshole to actually want to kill the dozens of people they were clearly in a position to be able to.
    • What 25 YO has the money to buy all these guns and rent TWO apartments in DC/Virginia metro?
    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @09:12AM (#62496364)

      Everything seems minor when you move the goalposts to only select a minor group.

      22 million people doesn't mean that 21.99million people are perfectly fine simply because they didn't go on an attempted mass murder suicide spree.

      The reality is we are shaped by those around us. The echo chamber amplifies our already shitty ideas and normalises extremism. There are some people who would throwup at the sight of a dead body. A regular 4channer is more likely to masturbate to it after having seen so many and being desensitized to it.

      14 years of surrounding yourself with vile shit will turn anyone into vile shit themselves, even if they don't realise it.

  • Given the headline, I thought this story was going to be about Lee Boyd Malvo.

  • by franzrogar ( 3986783 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @03:08AM (#62495804)

    ...both of them have read the Bible, will be churches his next attack? ...both of them have use Microsoft Windows, will be Gill Gates his next attack? ...both of them have use Nike shoes, will be Nike his next attack?

    Et cetera.

    D. C. Shooter have just proven how ignorant he is, apart from a criminal activity, so nothing to see move along.

    • by Craefter ( 71540 )

      He edited Wikipedia and I have also been using Wikipedia since the beginning. Will I now be the next shooter? Should I be worried?

    • Let's stick with that reasoning. What does windows do to radicalise us into violence? I'd argue very little. Heck MS even go out of their way to ensure a well known psychologically calming colour is used when it crashes and burns your entire work. So no it's unlikely Bill Gates will be next.

      On the other hand the Bible... Are you suggesting the bible hasn't throughout history (both long and recent) been used to indoctrinate, brainwash and radicalise people? If so then it's not the writer of the article displ

  • Which search engine was used by shooters, Google, Bing, Yahoo, others? Next, which political party did they associate with, Democrat or Republican? Did they use Facebook, LinkedIn, other sites? Did they use iOS or Android? Were they meat eaters or vegetarian? What gender were they? WHO CARES?

    The fact that a group of killers used some specific site doesn't mean anything about others using it, at least to to those who can think pragmatically. But hey, a large chunk of society believes if a terrorist was pa
  • ...School Shoot 'Em Up (TM) game for 'Murican teenagers. Listen for the shots & find places to hide & wait for the police to arrive before the shooters find you. For added thrills, terrified, trigger-happy NRA-member teachers roam around shooting at students randomly because they have no idea who the shooter/s is/are.
  • Slashdot editors take obvious delight in turning this place into a tabloid for the average moron instead of a tech site, and no explanation has ever been forthcoming.

    • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday May 02, 2022 @07:12AM (#62496042) Homepage Journal

      The explanation is "clicks"

      They're never going to explain.

      But you really only need to know three things to understand the Slashdot of today.

      1) B!zX is a cryptocurrency company [bit.ly].

      2) I had to obfuscate the name of that company in my comment and also shorten the URL to which I linked because they put the name of their company in the spam filter to make it inconvenient to complain about them, and more importantly, so that those complaints would not be trivially google searchable, and finally so that you couldn't link directly to stories with their name in the title (since the fashion has become autogenerated URLs that go on for miles that include full titles.) So they know they're scum.

      3) There is no such thing as a cryptocurrency company which is not the corporate equivalent of a sh1tlord. Slashdot always trolled for clicks, as long as it's had ads. It's only worse now.

      The only question, really, is why they even think it's a benefit to own Slashdot. It's clearly not changing hearts and minds. Instead, we're just fucking tired of the endless parade of cryptocurrency bullshit.

  • Mayne I was just away from the news that weekend, but this is the first I've heard of the DC shooting mentioned here. I didn't see it in the national section of my local paper, I don't recall seeing it in Google News either.

    Did I miss coverage simply because he apparently didn't manage to kill anyone? The CBS article mentions he only wounded 4 people before he killed himself.

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