As it turns out, we’re running into more and more guys posting on social media prior to committing their heinous mass shootings. Ever notice they don’t pick on anyone their own size?
Well, for this recent shooting at Umpqua Community College, it turns out the gunman may have posted to the messaging board 4chan prior to conducting his attack. We’ve enclosed a screenshot of that dialogue.
Click Here for a full archive of the conversation.
According to that r9k post — a board dedicated to “betas” or predominantly men between the ages of 18 and 46 with a predisposition to loner social behavior and a general malaise with life — anonymous users sort of egged this post along. It was posted at approximately 1:19 am on the morning of October 1st. Roughly nine hours later, the attack at Umpqua Community College took place resulting in at least 13 deaths and even more injured.
The shooter was at first believed to have been taken into custody following a gun battle with police but it was later determined he died.
The hardest part about these things is the idea that people don’t take these sorts of warnings credibly. And even worse — we’re not equipped as a society to handle and respond to them.
These killers aren’t wandering into the middle of a gun range to conduct their attacks — they’re hitting “gun free zones”, places where concealed carriers are legally not allowed to carry.
One of the notable things about 4chan is it’s been credited with hosting a few alleged declarations. Because the posters are largely anonymous, it’s almost impossible to differentiate credible threats from “s***posts”.
Without waxing too philosophically about the times we’re living in, the evidence seems clear that some of our biggest threats truly do come from the inside.
It’s time to engage in legitimate debate about how best to prepare ourselves to respond to these types of situations. As we’ve discussed in a previous article — no matter how fast law enforcement respond, they can never respond fast enough.
