24 hours have passed after the massacre in Las Vegas, which left – so far – 59 people dead and hundreds injured, and everyone is still scrambling to understand what happened to Steve Paddock, 64:

The Police: “Clean record. A motive is still unclear”.

His brother, Eric Paddock: “We have no idea how or why this happened” and “as far as we know, Steve was perfectly fine”.

Apparently not, Eric! Your brother, who you still say “was perfectly fine”, packed 23 guns in his hotel room on the 32nd floor, three days in advance, then opened fire to 20,000 people below.

Wouldn’t it be much more normal for brother Eric to say “Obviously, something WAS wrong – we have to work with our family to discover what in his upbringing may have caused this kind of behavior”?

Enter the world of a psychopath!

The law clearly cannot protect us. Unfortunately, being a psychopath is not illegal (yet). Unless the individual engages into criminal activity, the police is oblivious to his existence and society is in danger.

The family of the perpetrator cannot protect us either. The reasons Steve Paddock was a psychopath are embedded in his life early on, therefore engulf and affect all family members, including his brother Eric.

Society (including reporters) and the Police, unfortunately play-along. They prefer to serve what people understand – what “sells”: Type of guns, ammunition, ISIS, first-responders, heroes, etc. Of course, this single-sided coverage becomes a problem only when not accompanied by other, critical coverage. For example:

  • Why psychiatrists are not flooding news networks yet, talking to people about psychopathy and giving some insights as to some basic red flags? For example, were the killer’s two short-lived marriages and his gambling addiction related to his psychopathy?
  • What environment did the boys grow-up in?
  • Patrick Paddock, (the killer’s father) was a violent bank robber in the 1960s and 1970s, and was on FBI’s 10 most wanted list. How exactly did this affect Steve’s life?

These questions shouldn’t go mainstream just for the sake of the investigation. Unfortunately, we cannot turn back time, nor can we bring back those who are lost.

These questions should go mainstream so that society understands that psychopaths live among us and they can be “activated” at any given moment, as we have seen in the case of Steve Paddock.

It is well-known among psychiatrists that psychopaths do not always become killers. Instead, they use a multitude of methods to harm their unsuspecting and defenseless victims.

How can we then protect our families?

Until our world reaches a stage where psychopathy can be easily identified and thus become criminalized, we need to educate ourselves on neuroses and psychopathy.

Once we acquire enough convincing evidence,

  • we must expose psychopaths diligently, as a way to protect ourselves, our families and others, that’s if we can do so safely.
  • At a minimum, we should stay away from them.

Photo concept by
John Robert Marasigan
Photo editing by Al Poullis