I agree with you. His fame only serves to prompt other copycats.

...that said, I'm still very interested in why this guy decided to shoot up the mall. His story just doesn't make much sense.

"...doesn't make much sense." Is your answer.

So let's stop asking.

Amen

What David G. typed...

Just an observation - the photo of the shooter bears some resemblance to the young man who killed his grandmother in Milwaukie. Also, this second killer went to the same school as the young woman who was injured at Clackamas. Just a very odd, eerie coincidence.

You're making a mistake assuming that actions like that taken by very mentally afflicted people like that have much if anything to do with a goal of publicity-seeking. Devils, dogs & inanimate or disembodied "voices" talk to them many times. Consider the prior 4 events in Tucson, Colorado, & Pittsburgh (2), for example. These are not rational minds at work and ambling among us.

Instead of gazillions in corporate tax giveaways and subsidies to mazillionaires like Phil Knight & the Nikers, we need to invest in public health & well-being, and mental health is a function of physical health, btw.

I've a theory that in cases like this where the killer commits suicide we just don't release his name at all.
Bury him in an unmarked grave or cremate his remains but under no circumstances give him any notoriety at all..

Why don't you just cut them up into quarters, burn their hearts, and post their remains on bridges and fences around town? That'll show 'em.

The story lives on so people can continue to argue endlessly about what the 2nd amendment means, an issue where this country is clearly divided. The use of firearms by violent offenders encourages people to buy more guns to protect themselves. The number of firearms purchased by the frightened masses provides more access to guns by violent disturbed people. It’s the old “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” argument. It has no solution brother, but because the killer is dead we must find a villain or someone to argue with.

Nothing anyone does or says is going to stop this from happening again. Let's not encourage others to go down the same path, which is all the discussion does.

Here's another turd for the steaming pile:

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2012/12/clackamas_town_center_shooting_39.html

Bhatia, retire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine

I'm not a HUGE Michael Moore fan, but I really think he hit the middle of the bull's eye with this one.

If the "discussion" results in meaningful and realistic suggestions on how to reverse the growing gun culture in this country, bring it on. Here's a start: banning the sale of assault weapons, putting limits on ammunition, and imposing mandatory backround checks at gun shows.

None of that would have had an effect on this latest event, pete s. It wasn't an assault rifle, btw, and the guy stole the stuff from a private owner. None of the prior 4 examples I mentioned previously involved assault rifles. Neither did the Virginia Tech or Columbine tragedies. Bear in mind that there's a significant difference between schizophrenia and depression on the one hand, and psychopathy (incl. sociopathy or consciencelessness) on the other.

The Depressive and the Psychopath | By Dave Cullen (April 20, 2004)
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/04/the_depressive_and_the_psychopath.html

The Sociopath Next Door
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/174276/the-sociopath-next-door-by-martha-stout-phd

Some quotes to ponder:

“I am sure that if the devil existed, he would want us to feel very sorry for him.”
― Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door

“In northwest Alaska, kunlangeta "might be applied to a man who, for example, repeatedly lies and cheats and steals things and does not go hunting, and, when the other men are out of the village, takes sexual advantage of many women." The Inuits tacitly assume that kunlangeta is irremediable. And so, according to Murphy, the traditional Inuit approach to such a man was to insist he go hunting, and then, in the absence of witnesses, push him off the edge of the ice.”
― Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door

The worst example of all of this pandering was from last night, listening to the Clack County Digital Scanner Feed.
A call came in from a Mini-Mart somewhere around Sunnyside? [W of 82nd?] reporting intoxicated individuals and they were denied alcohol sales. On being denied, "this is why shootings in malls happen" came out of their mouths.

Despicable. One person's usefulness is another's demise.

"one person's usefuness is another's demise"

Darwin wins on a long enough time line. Like it or not. Bucke up America...bumby roads ahead!

I wouldn't assume this loser was mentally ill. Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. writes about this growing problem in her books "The Narcissism Epidemic" and "Generation Me". An entire generation of kids raised to think they center of universe. Rudderless, filled with ennui, hopeless, directionless, spoiled, molly-coddled, fatherless. From the moment they exit the womb their every bowel movement filmed. Thousands of photos taken, all their antics video taped. Me, me, me. Aren't I a precious snowflake?
They live their lives on display on internet and social network. Look at me, look at me!
Trophys for just showing up on the soccer field. The bar set to lowest common denominator in the classroom yet they get passed to next grade without learning to read. Babysat by the ever present glowing square screen.
Then these young men get out in real world and reality hits. Their lack of education doesn't take them far. No blue-collar jobs to speak of. Young women are surpassing them in every way. They can't handle even the mildest rejection from a girl. No idea what it takes to be a man.
Recipe for disaster. I know I am simplifying it but you get the drift.

May I know d.o.b.?

Hey dm, the guy was abandoned by dad & then orphaned at 3 years old by mom who died of cancer, raised by working class aunt in Milwaukie. Doesn't fit your theory. Enough about that crap. It's a horrible thing and won't be made sense of here in this blog. R.I.P.

"Bhatia, retire." Word.

How to implement gun perceptivity: (1) Remove guns from military. Well, remove military; no honor. (2) Remove guns from police. (3) As a general rule, just remove taxpayers' public-paid guns. We taxpayers own a slew of guns. (Pun intended.)
Quit spending public money on guns being handed over to 'public employees.'
Then when friends and family go cuckoo for gun nuts, ask them, "Why? Why do you need a gun?"

I had a 'premonition' today, thinking about this mayhem, lethality. A 'premonition' almost too much real to say aloud or write here. About a "Rudderless, filled with ennui, hopeless, directionless," juvenile soul, grotesquely armed and morbidly intent, going a mall this infuriatingly jolly season, where to clause smoke encircle 'his' head like a wreath. If you get my drift. Custom curtailed. Reindeer cortege.

But, look, people: The reason for the season, and the cause of more blood spilled through more centuries than any other motivating causal 'reason,' is taught, learned and understood in 30 minutes of TV-teaching that oughta be shown to students during juvenile development before 6th grade, age 12. Everyone should watch once -- Click HERE, bear to watch to 00:39:00 Please, media, STFU, learn and grow up; [spoiler alert: gun glory loses, atheist awe wins] -- it cuts through and cuts out the centuries-old blood feuds. Now over. The ghost of Time (zeitgeist) past. Melt down and re-purpose the gun metal.

Tenskwatawa, please remember George Orwell's most surprising line:
"Pacifism is for those with guns and money between themselves and reality".