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The original was posted on /r/nostupidquestions by /u/ImOnTheBus on 2023-07-14 04:28:35.
Don’t know all the details about either of them, but my understanding, which may be incorrect, is that John Lennon was shot by some psycho weirdo and the prevailing theory is that Tupac was shot because of (unofficial) politics/rivalry by a hired hit man, aka an assassin. So you’d think it would be the other way around, right? But I’ve always heard them referred to like I said in the post title.
Those aren’t the only 2 examples or course, and sometimes the distinction makes more sense, this is just an example.
I’m sure something similar has been asked here before.
I have heard it called “John Lennon’s murder” but can’t remember hearing it referred to as an “assassination.” But assuming the premise of your question is valid, i can think of two potential influences:
(1) “assassination” is most often used when talking about politicians or state actors and Lennon was more of a political figure than 2pac; (2) 2pac knew he was likely going to die the death of a “gangsta”–i could reference almost every one of his tracks–this mentality was associated with a gang affiliations, and had a lot of racial implications. It would be hard to imagine a journalist who identified with this mentality, and harder to imagine one that referred to the death of a gangsta as “assassinated,” who are generally “killed” or “murdered.”
Tldr: assassination is too fancy a term for the death of a gangsta.
Ps: favorite 2pac track “death around the corner”