Illinois Shooter

Whenever I read about shootings like the one that occurred today at Northern Illinois University, I feel somewhat interested that the first thing the media does is look for those convenient "reg flags" that identify people as potential gunmen. Sure, being uneducated, from a poor family, of a minority, of poor mental health, and having unconventional views might be the traits of some shooters, but I feel as though this focus of the media on these kinds of issues is a poor focus.

Everyone is capable of murder; and while finding a factor to rationalize why such a "good student" would commit such a "heinous act" is important, I think the media is only trying to find ways to hype up the news.

Everyone has their good qualities. So when the media bemoans on how a smart students could fall to the dark side, I simply scoff. I think that smarter people are more likely to be radical agents anyway. The question is not one of how someone with good qualities could kill others. It's not how such a "quiet" or "smart" or "shy" or whatever person did it; it's why they were pushed into doing the action.

When the media's angle shifts from trying to find the true cause of the action to trying to garner reader attention and shock by juxtaposing the shooters personal attributes to the atrocity of the crime, they create sensationalism by creating an obvious disparity between the two- but answer no substantiative answers.

Thank you, media.