What Drives Killers Like In Ottawa Or Paris?
Thursday, January 15, 2015 - 17:30
in Mathematics & Economics
When mass murders happen in a place like the US, despite the fact that they are no more prevalent than most countries and murders have plummeted as gun ownership rose, the simplistic answer is 'guns' - when murders happen in Canada or France, where gun ownership is heavily restricted, the answer is not so convenient. It may not be guns forcing people to kill people, it may be attachment to an 'overvalued idea' - and it may become more common.Zehaf-Bibeau, the Islamist convert who murdered a Canadian military reservist on duty in Ottawa, represents a type of attacker rarely discussed--a person so obsessed with an overvalued idea that it defines their identity and leads them to commit violence without regard for the consequences. read more