Assassination attempt looks more like bid for notoriety than political passion | Opinion

I doubt that Thomas Crooks shot up a Trump rally in Butler, Penn., because he had heard Democrats say the former president would destroy our democracy. Ditto the notion that Trump himself inspired the young man with his violent MAGA rhetoric.

The media’s profile of Crooks is a work in progress, but so far it looks depressingly familiar. He was a withdrawn, nerdy kid in high school, largely ignored by his peers but sometimes bullied. He developed a fascination with guns and frequented a website devoted to them.

Crooks, a loner adrift, fit the classic mold of a school shooter. He had decided to leave a world that gave him no joy, but he wasn’t going quietly – or alone.

Why the rally? My guess is opportunism. There are only so many places to find a crowd, and few can easily be approached by a man carrying a rifle. Trump’s outdoor event was such a place, and Crooks lived an hour’s drive away.

He had another incentive. We know from sad experience that mass shooters crave notoriety: many feel invisible in life and resolve to achieve fame in death. No target could offer more notoriety than Trump.

I don’t pretend to know if this shooter killed a spectator and injured two others because he lacked skill or because he didn’t care who he hit. But I’m certain that he accomplished his primary goal, which was suicide by cop.

Perhaps an investigation will reveal a burning political vision that drove Crooks to open fire on the presidential frontrunner, but the evidence doesn’t point that way today. The 20-year-old was a registered Republican who grew up in the Trump era and was more apt to play video games than keyboard warrior.

The full-time keyboard warriors trying to make political hay of this shooting may come up empty-handed when the dust settles. It seems less likely that Crooks climbed that roof to settle ideological differences with Donald Trump than to attach himself to one of the world’s most famous names.

Michael Smith is a freelance opinion writer in Georgetown, Kentucky.