"Ladies and Gentlemen, I woke up this morning anxious, I'd seen a friend the night before do something unexpected. Let me set the scene:

We were out on a routine job, we were going to head down town to Torch a rival's business. Some fuckers from out west had decided to move in on our turf so we wanted to send them a message. I was supplying the firepower, opting for two cannisters of gasoline, a molotov cocktail and two tommy guns, one each. Nothing too heavy, it was a simple job.

When we arrived, the place looked empty, thank fuck, we wanted to torch the building but wanted no casualties, it was a first strike, just a message to get the hell out off my land. I picked the lock, handed a cannister to my collegue and we set to work emptying the gasoline around the store. Once the cannisters were empty, we walked outside, lit the cocktail and I hurled it through the window. BOOM!

It caught quickly, I noticed some weopons in there so suspect the explosion was gunpowder which made the whole thing more dramatic. As we both stood there, staring at the building rapidly catch on fire, I noticed some movement inside! Fuck, someone was in there, I didn't want them to die but I sure as fuck wasn't going in after them. I consoled myself, looking at my partner, "collateral damage my friend, these things happen."

We both turned to walk away when the door behind us burst open and a man in his early twenties came stumbling out of the building, he was coughing and spluting, grasping his throat and forcing every tiny breath into his lungs. He hit the deck panting but his breathing was steadying, each breath was less labored, more air was reaching his lungs, tough fucking kid, fair play.

Then we both turned and walked towards the car, I opened the passenger seat and waited for my colleague to get in. Except they didn't get in, I looked outside to see them standing over the kid, just staring at him. Then in the blink of an eye, they lifed their foot and brought it crashing down onto his throat!

Furious, I got out of the car, charged over screaming at him, "What the fuck was that?? No fucking killing, no casualties we said! What the fuck was that?!"

Then he looked me in the eye, a friend of years and for the first time, their stare felt colder than the morning chill and he whispered "collateral damage, my friend, these things happen."

"We live in a tough world, for those who know me, they know I don't take life too serious, I try to make things fun and enjoy the world. My bloodline have all been the same, work hard, play hard, I've always been a "good" mafioso, loyal the family, I'll be honest, there was one exception, a naughty great grandfather of mine but there are always exceptions to the rule.

"In this life, I have had to do things I am neither proud of nor that I wish to repeat however, I did them all for a reason, they all had some form of justification. I see people shooting others every day, hitters wishing to hone their skills and 90% of the time it's justified, either they were cleaning up our streets by shooting bums, acting on orders to dish out vengeance or as an act of war.

"What confuses me are the people who take pot shots at others, most of the time missing but on the rare occasion they hit. The reason? Often there is no reason, just to see if they'd hit or they were bored. When you are in a position of authority, you see it happen more and more because you are told about it. Even my naughty great grandfather did what he did for a reason, why the fuck would someone waste their life trying to end a strangers?"

Rhuarc, This very same question troubles most people. Why do they do it ?

Personally I reckon some people do it out of Jealousy over someone else. Lets say two low rankers and one has $400,000 and the other only $90,000 and the $90,000 one just shoots because the other guy has more money. Or it could just be they am bored like you said. And other times it could be down to the low rankers just had an arguement and the one of them wants the other dead so they shoot away. Majority of the time knowing whats going happen eitherway it ends up but they do it anyways.

All of that can also happen in high rankers but its proberly less likley to. Thats my opinion anyways but I reckon thats most of the reasons covered why they just shoot random.

Well you've already pretty much answered your own question. Boredom is a significant reason and as legitimate as any other. In our world life is extremely cheap and many are willing to toss away their own in exchange for someone's who values it more highly. To them this is a fair exchange and that gamble has in fact led to many of the more defining moments in our history. Obviously this is bad for business and something, whilst I can understand the motivation behind, to me wreaks of failure. An inability to succeed in their ventures to reach the top and have to cash in half way through by trying to take out someone fairly important.

I think what would make a better question is why people waste their lives doing nothing? I'm not suggesting value is only gained from shooting your way to glory, because it isn't. By the same token however, their is little value in being alive for hundreds of days without having made a single one of them count, which seems to be a common misconception.

~T~