Is this a hate crime?
 

This is a two day old incident but is gaining quite a bit of traction within the US Muslim community and also internationally. And significantly, yet another shooting and killing in Copenhagen, Denmark, what is being called a terror attack.

The killer in Chapel Hill is an avowed atheist and probably a hot head and I don't see this as a hate crime, though FBI is now involved. In Copenhagen though, it is continuation of the revenge against cartoonists that depicted Mohammed unflatteringly. Is this terrorism?

In Chapel Hill Shooting of 3 Muslims, a Question of Motive

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us...lina.html?_r=0

One dead in terror attack in Copenhagen

http://cphpost.dk/news/one-dead-in-t...gen.12662.html

It is not abundantly clear that they were killed because they were Muslims.

I believe Muslims are anxious for a "we too suffer".

The burden of proof on a Hate Crime is pretty tall...

Most premeditated murders are hate crimes- hate the guy that's taking your parking spot, hate the guy that's screwing your wife, hate the world and kill your family or a bunch of people at a mall, hate your former boss for firing you, etc.
We have defined hate crimes narrowly, as hatred of a religion or a race.

Well the guy in Chapel Hill is pretty screwed up, he describes himself as an 'atheist minister'.

He also described himself as a gun-toting liberal who thinks religion is a bad thing. A little close to home for a few people around here, eh?

The point of viewing a crime as a 'hate crime' is not that the killer feels hate, it's that a particular target group feels hated, that is, threatened and terrorized. In this way hate crimes harm many people besides the direct victims. That is why enhanced penalties are appropriate when members of particular racial, ethnic, or religious groups are targeted because of their identity.

Don't know if there's evidence that this guy was motivated by the Moslem identity of the victims....

Balderdash. I don't think there are any likely murderers on this board.

Neither do I, but they better hope they never have to use their weapon in self defense, because everything they ever posted here will be used to twist their actions to fit a narrative. That's why you never use a silhouette target while target shooting. Some douchebag lawyer will say you were obsessed with killing.

A person is way more likely to get killed by someone with a gun than to use his or her own gun in self defense.