--- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> are trained as
> snipers. There are probably more expert marksmen
> trained in hunting,
> etc. or in shooting clubs than in the military. My
>
I think Carrol makes some good points here and his
mention of hunting made me remember something.
I read a book on the modern history of mass murders some time back and the author had by chance a conversation with a taxi driver one day that made him think about this question of "desensisitivation". The taxi driver told him that he had worked at an abattoir; at first he had been squeamish about it, but then got used to it. The driver said that on a trip to the countryside he started looking at horses and wondering what it would be like to kill them. He then realized the effect the job was having on him, and desipite the good pay, quit.
Apparently, almost all serial killers feel squeamish about their first couple of kills, then get over it.
The larger motive seems to be to get recognition and fame by any means necessary. Of course we can discuss the social roots of that need... but the media circus that surrounds these things must seem very attractive to someone with this mentality.
Thomas
===== "A question is always the desire to know, and to preserve simple human truths, we need secrets. The secrets of happiness, death, love."
>From the movie "Solaris" by Andrei Tarkovsky
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