Many terrorist activities include mass murder but the majority of mass murders are not terrorist acts. Simple as this fact may seem, it eludes many laypersons and some law enforcement personnel as well, including the current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (see the blog dated September 5, 2025). The difference is important, though, in order to determine appropriate interventions before the fact and determining retribution after the fact.
Below are excerpts from two of my texts on autogenic killing describing, with illustrative cases, the basal distinction behind the cognitive formulation for a terrorist act versus a rampage.
Rampage killers … represent a subset of mass murders defined as follows: individuals or persons acting conspiratorially who voluntarily and illegally attack a group of strangers or innocuous acquaintances in a public setting within a single period … with premeditation without anticipated material, political, social, or religious gain.[1]
The border between a terroristic act and a rampageous one is so fine that it may seem indistinguishable. Despite the apparent evanescent nature, though, there is a single discrepant psychological explanation for terrorism relative to rampages – a discrepancy that is simple enough to describe, but subtle in application. Terrorists, whatever one may make of their actual purpose or methods, are motivated (at least in their conscious minds) by a belief system extending beyond their own egocentric disillusionment or desire for retribution. Most prominent, as far as that distinction is concerned, is the attention on possible effect. The terrorist believes his or her action will contribute to some tangible seismic shift in the status quo – a release of captives or cessation of occupation or reform of governmental policy.34 This distinction does not imply that those who adopt terror as a solution are more reasonable than rampageous individuals. Both arrive at their positions by employing quasi-logic premised on solipsistic reasoning rooted in deviant emotionality. The transcendent intentions of their actions, though, are different. Terrorists are acting to set right geopolitical situations they fervently believe to be wrong.[2]
The distinction between a rampageous act and terrorism can be illustrated by an examination of the differing incentives articulated by two killers with similar personality traits – one a terrorist and the other a rampage killer.[3]
While serving in the United States Army, Nidal Hasan, without provocation killed 13 and wounded 32 more at a stateside military post in November 2009.[4] George Sodini shot 12 women, killing 3 and wounding 9 more when, for no discernable reason, he ambushed participants in an aerobics dance class at a fitness center.[5] In his intellectually courageous book, The Myth of Martyrdom, Adam Lankford presents their twin murderous paths side by side. He shows, convincingly that they shared social isolation, professional disappointments, and mental health difficulties.[6] His comparison vividly reveals the parallel emotional paths of an autogenic agent and a terrorist. … The psychological formations that shaped their actions may have been very much the same, but their articulated observations were much different.
Immediately prior to opening fire, Hasan “shouted “Allahu Akbar [Arabic for ‘God is great’].”[7]A sanity evaluation written afterwards narrated: “At the time of the shooting, he stated ‘I was focused … I had a mission to accomplish.’ He reported that his mission was to kill soldiers.”[8] …
Sodini, on the other hand, in a string of self-centered blogs entered over a period of eight months, ties his impending assault to personal frustration with his job stability and a lack of satisfying social relations, particularly in romance.[9] …
There is, to be sure, equivalent hideousness in the vacuous justifications for the multiple murders carried out by Hasan and Sodini. However, the former anticipates the furtherance of a fanatical religious struggle, excluding him as rampage killer….[10]
Simply put both terrorism and rampaging are performative, but the former has the intention of calling our or correcting a specific condition, while the latter is only an expression of personal discontent. Of course, despite the deluded reasoning of the perpetrators, the intentional infliction of misery is not proportionate to the anticipated outcome for either type of atrocity. Both trade innocence for the sake of outrage.
[1] S. Lee Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds (Washington D.C: Academica Press, 2024), 10-11.
[2] S. Lee Funk, Why Rampage Killers Emerge: Conditions and Characteristics (Washington D.C: Academica Press, 2024), 8.
[3] Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds, 13.
[4] Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds, 13, referencing Counter Extremism Project, “Nidal Hasan,” under “Overview,” https://www. counterextremism.com/extremists/nidal-hasan.
[5] Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds, 13, as sourced in: Associated Press (AP), “Bitterness Toward Women Tormented Gym Killer,” Crime and Courts on National Broadcasting Company (NBC) News.com, posted August 5, 2017, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32292246/ns/us_news- crime_and_courts/t/bitterness-toward-women-tormented-gym-killer/; Jonathan Barnes and Mark Egan, “Four Shot Dead at Pennsylvania Gym,” Reuters, posted August 5, 2009. https:// www.reuters.com/article/us-pennsylvania-shooting/four-shot-dead-at-pennsylvania-gym-idUSTRE5740C620090805? feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc =22&sp=true; Lee Ferran, Chris Cuomo, Sarah Netter, and Lindsay Goldwert, “PA Gunman ‘Hell-bent’ on Killings, Had 4 Guns,” ABC News, posted August 5, 2009, http://abcnews. go.com/US/story?id=8255530. One account (Barnes and Egan) states that ten were wounded, but all others, claim nine.
[6] Adam Lankford, The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers(New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013), 114-117.
[7] Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds, 13, as reported in History.com Editors, “Army Major Kills 13 People in Fort Hood Shooting Spree,” History, posted June 2, 2011, updated November 4, 2019, https:// www.history.com/this-day-in-history/army-major-kills-13-people-in-fort-hood-shooting-spree.
[8] Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds, 13, sourced to Kaustubh G. Joshi, Memorandum for Defense Counsel: Full Report of Sanity Board, US v. Maj. Nidal M Hasan, Department of The Air Force Air Education and Training Command, January 3, 2011, 27, http://extras.mysanantonio.com/pdf /20130813Hasansanityboardreport3January2011.pdf.
[9] Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds, 13-14, citing, George Sodini, “Blog,” in “George Sodini’s Blog: Full Text by Alleged Gym Shooter,” ABC News, posted August 5, 2009, http://abcnews.go.com/US/ story?id= 8258001&page=1.
[10] Funk, How Rampage Killers Interpret Their Worlds, 14.