There seems to be some contradictory claims surrounding Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock, who has been named as being behind the biggest mass shooting in American history. Some of Paddock’s acquaintances have said he was “friendly,” while others have said he was “standoffish,” for example, and some say he was apolitical while others claim he was either pro- or anti-Trump. However, according to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner, there is evidence that Paddock deliberately targeted conservatives on Sunday night when he opened gunfire on an unsuspecting crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
In an appearance on Fox and Friends, Welner states that the massacre was a “stranger mass homicide,” which are typically motivated by a political or personal cause, or simply because the shooter was hoping to obtain notoriety. However, Welner rejects the notion that Paddock’s motive was the latter one.
“Here’s the thing, shooting for notoriety’s sake and nothing more is a young man’s crime and this is a 64-year-old with no dramatic mental illness,” said Welner.
This leads Welner to deduce that Paddock’s actions were “designed to cause some derivative impact or to instigate some cause discussion,” comparing the alleged Las Vegas shooter to James Hodgkinson, who attempted to massacre Republican lawmakers in the hopes it would mandate special elections to replace them.
Welner suggests that the Left and the mainstream media have successfully demonized gun enthusiasts and that Paddock must have felt strongly about gun control to want to commit such a horrendous act that would propel gun control debate and legislation.
Welner argues that country music fans and artists represent “Americana” and are typically a pro-Second Amendment crowd. “His mindset is that [gun enthusiasts] deserve to die,” continued Welner, referring to the shooter, “So a person who adopts a cause may be otherwise law abiding but he feels righteously justified that the end justifies the means — so we’re talking now about gun control because he committed an over-the-top gun crime,” he told Fox and Friends.
Welner’s analysis is not so far-fetched. After all, CBS News executive Hayley Geftman-Gold was recently fired for admitting she had no sympathy for the Las Vegas victims because they were most likely Republicans.
And of course, the mainstream media and the Left have already jumped at the opportunity to politicize this act of evil, so if Welner is indeed correct in his hypothesis, they are playing the roles Paddock predicted they would (but even a deranged man could figure out how they would act).
Image: Screenshot of CBSLA Channel 2 new video
