4 Oct 2017

Las Vegas: Paddock latest in string of 'lone wolf' shooters

From Morning Report, 8:23 am on 4 October 2017

Las Vegas police are continuing to look for a motive behind Sunday's mass shooting. They have been scouring 64-year-old Stephen Paddock's personal and financial history for signals that could help determine what set him off. Paddock is the latest in a long line of what are called 'lone wolf' shooters. In the US, they're generally white American men who have assembled an arsenal of weapons. But does the term 'lone wolf' mischaracterise these tragedies, suggesting the shooters are isolated and in no way connected to one another? And if they weren't white Americans, would the discussion around their motives be different? Beau Grosscup, an academic at California State University who specialises in terrorism and policy, joins us to discuss the language around mass shooting events.