Editing Timothy McVeigh (section)

==Early life==
Timothy James McVeigh was born on April 23, 1968, in [[Lockport (city), New York|Lockport, New York]], the only son and the second of three children of his [[Irish Americans|Irish American]] parents, Noreen Mildred "Mickey" Hill and William McVeigh.  In 1866, McVeigh's great-great-grandfather Edward McVeigh emigrated from [[Ireland]] and settled in [[Niagara County, New York|Niagara County]].<ref>John O'Beirne Ranelagh (2012), ''A Short History of Ireland'', p. 341</ref><ref name=washingtonpost>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/oklahoma/bg/mcveigh.htm |title=An Ordinary Boy's Extraordinary Rage |first1=Dale |last1=Russakoff |last2=Kovaleski |first2=Serge F. |date=July 2, 1995 |page=A01 |access-date=April 12, 2010 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131234415/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/oklahoma/bg/mcveigh.htm |archive-date=January 31, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> After McVeigh's parents divorced when he was ten years old, he was raised by his father in [[Pendleton, New York]].<ref name=washingtonpost/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wargs.com/other/mcveigh.html |title=Ancestry of Tim McVeigh |website=Wargs.com |access-date=June 4, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202020410/http://wargs.com/other/mcveigh.html |archive-date=December 2, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>

McVeigh claimed to have been a target of [[bullying]] at school, and he took refuge in a fantasy world where he imagined retaliating against the bullies.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/forum/1378651.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |title=McVeigh author Dan Herbeck quizzed |date=June 11, 2001 |access-date=March 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425155356/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/forum/1378651.stm |archive-date=April 25, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> Most who knew McVeigh remember him as being very shy and withdrawn while a few described him as an outgoing and playful child who withdrew as an adolescent. He is said to have had only one girlfriend as an adolescent; he later told journalists that he did not have any idea how to impress girls.<ref name=bbcprofile>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1321244.stm |work=BBC News |title=Profile: Timothy McVeigh |date=May 11, 2001 |access-date=March 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217172343/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1321244.stm |archive-date=February 17, 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref>

While in high school McVeigh became interested in computers, and hacked into government computer systems on his [[Commodore 64]] under the handle The Wanderer, taken from the [[The Wanderer (Dion song)|song by Dion DiMucci]]. In his [[Senior (education)|senior year]] he was named "most promising computer programmer" of [[Starpoint Central School District|Starpoint Central High School]] (as well as "Most Talkative"  by his classmates as a joke as he did not speak much)<ref>Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, ''[[American Terrorist|American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Tragedy at Oklahoma City]]'' (2002), pp. 31–32</ref><ref name="archive.seattletimes.com">{{Cite web |title=Timothy Mcveigh - From A Loner To Fanatic {{!}} The Seattle Times |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19950505&slug=2119431 |access-date=November 17, 2022 |website=archive.seattletimes.com}}</ref> but had relatively poor grades until his 1986 graduation.<ref name=washingtonpost/><ref name="jacobs"/>

He was introduced to firearms by his grandfather. McVeigh told people of his wish to become a gun shop owner and sometimes took firearms to school to impress his classmates. He became intensely interested in [[Gun politics in the United States|gun rights]] as well as the [[Second Amendment to the United States Constitution]] after he graduated from high school and read magazines such as ''[[Soldier of Fortune (magazine)|Soldier of Fortune]]''. He briefly attended [[Bryant & Stratton College]] before dropping out.<ref name="a mind">{{cite book |last=Chase |first=Alston|title=A Mind for Murder: The Education of the Unabomber and the Origins of Modern Terrorism |year=2004 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0393325563 |page=370}}</ref><ref>Smith, Brent L., Damhousse, Kelly R. and Roberts, Paxton, ''Pre-Incident Indicators of Terrorist Incidents: The Identification of Behavioral, Geographic and Temporal Patterns of Preparatory Conduct'', Document No.: 214217, May 2006, p. 234, found at [http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/214217.pdf NCJRS Government website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080312233139/http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/214217.pdf |date=March 12, 2008 }}, [https://www.scribd.com/doc/1227830/Criminal-Justice-Reference-214217 Scribd website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306230106/https://www.scribd.com/doc/1227830/Criminal-Justice-Reference-214217 |date=March 6, 2016 }} and [https://www.hsdl.org/homesec/docs/justice/nps17-061906-01.pdf&code=3acf3cb0671047a591e7a64199c4f744 DHS Government website]{{Dead link|date=December 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Retrieved July 22, 2009.</ref> After dropping out of college, McVeigh worked as an armored car guard and was noted by co-workers as being obsessed with guns. One co-worker recalled an instance when McVeigh came to work "looking like [[Pancho Villa]]" as he was wearing [[bandolier]]s.<ref name="washingtonpost" />