![ISIS fighters. [Image Credit: Alibaba2k16/Wikimedia Commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/10/2/660x290/b_502x220x82/isis-fighters-image-courtesy-alibaba2k16-wikimedia-commons_1607193.jpg "ISIS fighters. [Image Credit: Alibaba2k16/Wikimedia Commons]")
Hot Air is reporting that ISIS is persisting in claiming Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas shooter who sprayed a country music concert with automatic weapon fire as one of their own. While terrorism experts suggest that the terrorist organization does not claim responsibility for every mass casualty attack, the Islamic State has been getting sloppy about that sort of thing recently. The question that arises is, why would ISIS claim a 64-year old Caucasian as a soldier for Allah?
Paddock does not fit the lone wolf profile
Stephen Paddock does not fit the profile of a lone wolf jihadi.
People who have committed attacks such as the one in San Bernardino and the one in Orlando were younger men, already Muslim, who had become radicalized and encouraged by ISIS websites and social media to commit atrocities. ISIS claims that Paddock has recently Converted To Islam and had been inspired by the organization to commit mass murder.
ISIS needs its heroes where it can get them
ISIS has fallen on hard times. The so-called caliphate that had spread like a tumor across Syria and Iraq is in the process of collapsing, thanks to the efforts of the American led coalition. With the Islamic State about to be tossed on the ash heap of history, ISIS needs to commit more mass casualty attacks in the West to keep up the morale of its members.
Paddock slaughtering, at last count, 58 people and wounding over 500 was ready-made for a boost in the zeal of its black-clad murderers.
As of this writing, law enforcement authorities are saying that they have not ascertained Paddock’s motives for doing what he did. It is possible that he had converted to Islam late in life and decided to go out as in jihad, but thus far it seems unlikely.
Paddock is not known to have been Antifa, a believer in white supremacy, or part of any of the other violent ideologies that have afflicted modern civilization.
It is entirely possible that Paddock took that room at the Mandalay Bay and opened fire on the crowd because he wanted to see the world burn. Charles Whitman, a disturbed young man, ascended the tower at the University of Texas at Austin, took a position at the observation deck, and killed 16 people with a high-powered rifle before being taken down by law enforcement and armed civilians.
Whitman himself did not understand why he was doing what he did and speculated in a note he left behind that he had a medical condition that caused him not to be able to control his violent impulses. Whitman had a small brain tumor, but opinion is varied as to whether it caused his actions. In any case, maybe Paddock did not slaughter dozens because of any ideology at all.
