There's a temptation to think the details no longer matter when it comes to mass shootings. The faces of the victims blur into one another in an endless carousel of pain.
There are so many of them. They are Black parishioners praying with a stranger after a Bible study. They are Jews gathering for shabbat services in a quiet neighborhood. They are Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso. They are people of all types shot by the dozens at a music festival on the Las Vegas strip. They are Asian women in Atlanta singled out for offenses the killer can't articulate.
Journalistic practice of late is to downplay the killer's name to deny him — and it is usually a male — the notoriety he desperately craves. But whether the killer takes his own life, is killed in a shootout with police or surrenders to authorities after his blood lust is satiated, he knows his name will live on even if it is only in manifestos and chatrooms on the dark web. That's where the next mass killer is already lurking, drawing inspiration from what the latest killer has already done to translate their own antisocial theory into action.
