Current Events > Mandalay Bay shooting, what was the motive?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.google.com/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/02/stephen-paddock-mandalay-bay-attacker-motive/amp/

So far it seems no one knows. I have a hunch it will be politically motivated once all the facts are known.
---

Politically Motivated? By who? From the people who weren't there and all the arm chair internet politicians?

It's an old 64 year old retiree opening fire on a country music festival.
---

Anger at the world over gambling debt?

Paddock engaged in tens of thousands of dollars in gambling transactions in the weeks leading up the attack, but it remains unclear whether the transactions were wins or losses, law enforcement officials told NBC news.

Ban Vegas
---

I can't imagine this happening if they were wins.
---

Go_Totodile posted...

I can't imagine this happening if they were wins.

What a petty motive if this turns out to be the case. Other people are not responsible for your gambling addiction.

Ammonitida posted...

Anger at the world over gambling debt?

Paddock engaged in tens of thousands of dollars in gambling transactions in the weeks leading up the attack, but it remains unclear whether the transactions were wins or losses, law enforcement officials told NBC news.

Doubt it. He probably planned the attack before and figured he would gamble away all his money before the shooting, knowing going into it that he'd take his own life.
---

It could be the other way around.

If he had already decided to do what he did and die, maybe he wanted to gamble all the money he had left since it was pointless anyway and may as well try and leave a lucky win for family or whatever. I don't know.
---

DanHarenChamp posted...

Ammonitida posted...

Anger at the world over gambling debt?

Paddock engaged in tens of thousands of dollars in gambling transactions in the weeks leading up the attack, but it remains unclear whether the transactions were wins or losses, law enforcement officials told NBC news.

Doubt it. He probably planned the attack before and figured he would gamble away all his money before the shooting, knowing going into it that he'd take his own life.

This does seem to be a likely possibility. The fact he had been checked into the hotel for the better part of a week and had the time to continuously bring bag after bag of weapons and equipment into his room and set up cameras to watch for police lead me to believe he probably just snapped and decided to live it up, for lack of a better phrase, before this event.

Also saw something how the guys father was a "Most Wanted" bank robber in history, so I'm more trending towards the idea that this was someone trying to make himself known in infamy than anything else.
---

Theres no other reason his wife would leave the country at this exact same time. Not to mention obtaining those weapons and planning for the night of the concert probably took time to plan. You don't pick up those kinds of weapons that quickly on the same night of a major concert. Must have been pre-planned for a while, and he must have had something like this on his mind for a long time. Just psychologically speaking.
---

I've been leaning toward infamy as a motive too. It's a typical motive for white mass shooters.

I'm going to baselessly speculate a recent terminal diagnosis.

crippling gambling debt
---

Ammonitida posted...

I've been leaning toward infamy as a motive too. It's a typical motive for white mass shooters.

To me that just makes the most sense. Even his wife leaving the country, assuming she knew about it. Waiting to the last day of the festival towards the end of the show. Specifically booking a room on the corner overlooking the center.

Just horrific
---

Can we have a professional psychologist give their opinion please?
---

mortimerjames posted...

crippling gambling debt

Someone who lost all his money at the casino, generally can't afford to buy ten guns.
Unless, of course, he already had the guns, and Rick and Big Hoss made an insultingly lowball offer for them.

He wanted to go out with a bang for some reason.
---

A high-stakes professional gambler, Paddock made several gambling transactions in the tens of thousands of dollars, but it was not immediately clear if he won or lost the money, NBC reported. His brother, Eric Paddock, of Orlando, Florida, told the FBI that his communications with Paddock did not indicate he had accumulated large gambling debts or was in financial trouble. "I have absolutely no information he lost a bunch of money," the brother told the FBI, according to The Washington Post. "The casino would know that."

Eric Paddock, his 55-year-old brother, said Stephen Paddock was "just another guy who played video poker and took cruises and ate burritos at Taco Bell." Stephen Paddock liked to listen to country music and would attend concerts at hotels in Las Vegas not unlike the one on which he opened fire, as the Post pointed out.

Liked country music...
---

CapnMuffin posted...

It could be the other way around.

If he had already decided to do what he did and die, maybe he wanted to gamble all the money he had left since it was pointless anyway and may as well try and leave a lucky win for family or whatever. I don't know.

Yup.

And this is why it's always good when the killer stays alive. There's about a 0.2% chance we'll find out what the motive was, but that won't stop people from pretending to know everything about everything.
---

I wonder if they'd have taken him alive if he chose to drop his weapons instead of taking himself out?

after being so unhinged that he'd go on a shooting spree, I don't know if they'd take the chance of trying to reason with him.
---

I would like to see where he got those weapons. Seems premeditated of course. If his gambling debt was the case that means he went to Vegas with guns saying "if I lose I'm shooting up the place". Seems more like he had the intentions on shooting up the place regardless and he was going on one last hoorah gambling before hand.
---

Smashingpmkns posted...

I would like to see where he got those weapons. Seems premeditated of course. If his gambling debt was the case that means he went to Vegas with guns saying "if I lose I'm shooting up the place". Seems more like he had the intentions on shooting up the place regardless and he was going on one last hoorah gambling before hand.

he likely did lose a ton of money but probably intended to gamble until he lost everything, and then do this.

I've heard stories of people who did similarly crazy shit for all kinds of reasons including "I don't want my wife to get anything in the divorce."
---

This guy didn't have a criminal history. He's retired. He's got money and he was living a quiet life.

This wasn't a spur of the moment thing. It took some calculated planning. Something must have changed to push him to do something this insane.
---

Seems like he wanted to die in infamy than to die forgotten.
---

DragonGirlYuki posted...

Seems like he wanted to die in infamy than to die forgotten.

Well he got his wish, just like Elliot Rogers, Christopher Doner and the others because the media is not going to pretend he doesn't exist.
---

what if the only thing that kept him sane for all of these years was knowing that he could always turn to the NFL to forget his troubles?
---

RickyTheBAWSE posted...

what if the only thing that kept him sane for all of these years was knowing that he could always turn to the NFL to forget his troubles?

1. If he hadn't committed suicide, he would have certainly lived when confronted by police. As we all know, cops don't shoot white male mass shooters. Paddock would have been treated to a nice hot meal at Cracker Barrel before being booked. See Dylan Roof.

2. I totes think this is a very likely motive. What better way to express your hatred of BLM than by firing into a crowd of white people attending a country music concert. Makes perfect sense.

Ammonitida posted...

RickyTheBAWSE posted...

what if the only thing that kept him sane for all of these years was knowing that he could always turn to the NFL to forget his troubles?

1. If he hadn't committed suicide, he would have certainly lived when confronted by police. As we all know, cops don't shoot white male mass shooters. Paddock would have been treated to a nice hot meal at Cracker Barrel before being booked. See Dylan Roof.

2. I totes think this is a very likely motive. What better way to express your hatred of BLM than by firing into a crowd of white people attending a country music concert. Makes perfect sense.

interesting.
---

Honestly don't think we will ever figure out his motive.
---

Ammonitida posted...

See Dylan Roof.

Dorner: black guy, kills 2 white people, gets house he's in set on fire and forced to shoot himself or burn to death.

Roof: white guy, kills a bunch of black people, offered a cheeseburger in exchange for his weapon
---