Perhaps the most frightening thing here is that you may well be wondering which US mass shooter we’re talking about.
With two mass shootings in a number of hours, America is once again grappling with gun violence.
Whilst the NRA-owned Republican party, led by their hapless president, talks about video games and mental health and anything other than gun control, more details about Connor Betts, the Dayton, Ohio shooter, have come to light.
According to the Daily Beast, who spoke with his classmates, Betts’ warning signs were there for all to see:
Jessica Masseth was months into her sophomore year at Bellbrook High School in Ohio when she started getting disturbing text messages from a freshman named Connor Betts.
Betts texted that Masseth was on his “rape list,” describing in detail “what he wanted to do” to her, she said—even sending her the list of all of his proposed victims to prove she wasn’t the only one.
Finally, Masseth said she had enough and went to the police.
“I was not surprised at all when I heard his name on the news yesterday,” she said. “We predicted he would do this 10 years ago.”
She went to the police.
Yet, Betts still managed to legally purchase an assault-style rifle outfitted with a magazine carrying a hundred rounds, don body armour, and murder nine innocent people (including his sister, who he is pictured with above) on a Saturday night out.
Again, the signs really were there:
Word spread quickly in 2010 about the lists of 15 classmates he wanted to “rape or kill” in a notebook he carried around, Masseth said.
“He had a kill list that was mostly guys and then a rape list that was mostly girls,” Masseth said, adding that he also texted her the list to prove she was on it. “The lists basically had any girl who turned him down, any girl who thought they were above him, and any guy that was competition or was seen as a threat.”
Masseth, who said she was “not one of the popular girls,” was shocked when she started to get Betts’ texts naming her as one of the girls on his “rape list.” The texts, she said, made it seem like Betts had a “God complex mixed with ‘Iwantattention.’”
“In the texts, and on the lists, he talked about destruction and dismemberment. I mean how did the police not know he was going to do something like what he did this weekend?” she said. “Everyone knew he was not right.”
Another student, who didn’t want to be named, also knew of the list, and said it “was conveyed to her as a “kill, dismember, and rape list”.
When Betts was questioned about the list, he was suspended from school, although he returned the next year.
Even after his graduation, people said he was “still not right”.
Although he managed to take nine lives, including that of his sister, Betts’ murder spree would have been so much worse if it wasn’t for the exceptional efforts of the first responders.
Betts was taken down inside a minute, with a CCTV camera outside a bar capturing the moment on video.
Obviously, the video below, released by police yesterday to highlight the incredibly quick response time of law enforcement in the area, contains some graphic footage:
*WARNING* This video is graphic!
OVERNIGHT: #Dayton police release surveillance video of shooting that left 9 dead and dozens hurt; Video shows people sprinting from gunfire, and the suspect gunned down by officers outside a bar where many people were hiding (via @CNN) #LiveDesk pic.twitter.com/jYSSxlkeSR
— Dan Snyder (@DanSnyderFOX25) August 5, 2019
As authorities continue to look for answers (Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said authorities are “not close enough at all” to determining a motive), more digging into Betts’ background has revealed that he was “deeply involved in the misogynistic, male-dominated “goregrind” or “pornogrind” extreme metal music scene”.
Below from VICE:
Over the past year, the 24-year-old shooter occasionally performed live vocals in the band Menstrual Munchies, which released albums titled “6 Ways of Female Butchery” and “Preeteen Daughter Pu$$y Slaughter,” with cover art showing the rape and massacre of female bodies. He also performed with a group called Putrid Liquid.
Now one of Betts’ bandmates, Jesse Creekbaum, 25, is taking the recordings down. He says he’s removing them out of fear the vulgar music he produced will make a cult hero out of the murderer, who was killed by police at the scene. He’s also received death threats online because of his association with Betts.
This music sounds awful, but just like violent video games, it’s not the reason why so many Americans die in mass shootings.
The rest of the world has mental health issues, the rest of the world plays video games, the rest of the world listens to violent and misogynistic music.
More thoughts and prayers, followed by more hollow words, to be followed by more mass shootings.
The cycle continues.
[sources:dailybeast&vice]
