The Las Vegas Mass Shooting

One of the greatest terrorist attacks to ever occur in the United States was the Las Vegas mass murder, which claimed the lives of about 59 people and injured more than 520. The shooting took place in Las Vegas when a guy named Stephen Paddock shot and killed innocent bystanders at the Route 91 Harvest Festival at a neighboring resort and casino. When the victim's body was later discovered in a hotel room, the victim's brother revealed that the murderer was an accountant who frequently traveled to Las Vegas to gamble. The motive of the killing was still unknown since all the evidence collected by the security agencies mainly from the family members and friends indicated no reason to conduct the heinous act. The international terror group, the Islamic State, claimed responsibility and confessed to having recruited the perpetrator to the Islamic faith a few weeks before he executed the killings. However, they had nothing to confirm their claim and the United States security agencies did not find any evidence linking the man to any international terror group. Nonetheless, the investigations into the attack indicated that the shooting was premeditated and planned. This paper covers various theoretical perspectives that can be used to study the events of the shooting and help to understand the social aspect of the unfortunate incident.

Interactionism provides the theoretical notion that displays the social processes such as identity formation, cooperation, and conflict resulting from human interaction. The theory claims that the interactions a person can have in the society may give meaning through which people shape the community and, in their return, also get shaped. Most of the social interactions are usually face-to-face and include the mutual adaptations, reactions, and actions. Notably, the communications are made possible by the ability to converse with other people with the help of the various languages and mannerisms. However, if the interactions does not materialize as per the expectations of the involved parties, then, the involved partners seek for solutions to their apparent problems. The perpetrator of the attack was an aged man about whom no one knew much, especially his motive of carrying out the attack. Even the closest family members and lover could not identify any past predisposition of the perpetrator towards the killings. Probably, he executed the massacre either to communicate a message to the government, or just to find a means of justifying his action of taking his own life. With a more interactive approach, the killer could have had more confidence in the persons close to him about his motives, and they may have convinced him not to execute the killings.

The conflict theory explains that when power, resources, and statuses are unevenly distributed among various groups in the society, the conflicts make a part of the engine long for social change. Therefore, power is viewed as the control of institutions, politics, accumulated wealth, and material resources that make up the society. For Stephen Paddock to carry out the attack, he must have had access to resources to secure the machinery he used to open fire on the people. His move was calculated, and without enough resources, he could not have succeeded in his mission. The aspects of social structures involved in the incident include groups, institutions, and organizations. The government security institutions were tasked to investigate the happenings of the shootings and possibly bring the perpetrator to justice. Agencies were involved in saving the lives of the victims through blood donation and other medical services. Also, different groups came out strongly to condemn the attacks, cry for justice to the victims, and demand the mitigation steps to be taken by the government to fight future terror attacks. From the macro perspective, the structural elements of the killings can be examined through the social institutions and the socioeconomic stratification that is present in the United States. There exist terror groups that are responsible for the significant terrorist attacks in the world, and most of them are part of a particular social group that belongs to a specific social institution and is a part of the socioeconomic stratification. Notably, most of these perpetrators of terror have resources to acquire machinery to execute their plans.

The symbolic interactionist view of the Las Vegas phenomenon lies in the fact that there are social processes that reveal identity formation through conflict. Many attach the happenings of the day to terrorism that is usually perpetrated though interaction. Potentially harmless individuals can be radicalized through interaction and acquire a new identity, which brainwashes them to commit mass murder. An example of a cultural script is the mental image of the people that most of the terrorist group originate from the Islamic religion. Statuses and roles are responsibilities that a person acquires from assuming a particular condition, for example, a man taking care of the family. The symbolic meaning happenings that allude to a specific significant occurrence and the reality constructions are actions that unfolding result in social conflict. The cultural scripts, statuses and roles, symbolic meanings, and the reality constructions shape the effects of the mass shooting. The perpetrator could have been radicalized to follow the terrorism cultural script of unleashing terror to innocent civilians to communicate a message to the ruling regime. To understand the happenings of Las Vegas mass shooting, the sociologist could carry out a thorough research on the social structures of the United States population using the methods of data collection such as experiments, surveys, observations, in-depth interviews, content analysis, and ethnography. A sociologist could also use longitudinal research design where he or she could study the same society or individuals over a period repeatedly.