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I would start out by asking those with experience with the mentally ill what signs to look out for. Lanza's mother apparently had identified her son as such, shewas in the process of having him committed. A good start would be any that have threatened to (or actually have) done physical harm to themselves or others. Anyone that is sufficiently violent by the time they are a teenager that they have to be physically restrained would be a good indication, or at least one to look seriously at.
Nothing is apparent. As I understand it, a neighbor may have told someone he/she thought this was the case. It's hearsay at this point.
If it is eventually determined to be factual, one would think mama would have removed her gun collection from her own home.
As a mama, if my unemployed/unemployable adult son was living in my basement and was obsessed with guns and violent games I would not maintain a gun collection, including multiple assault weapons, in my house. To do otherwise strikes me as seriously incompetent. Easy enough to conclude this after the fact.
I would start out by asking those with experience with the mentally ill what signs to look out for. Lanza's mother apparently had identified her son as such, she was in the process of having him committed. A good start would be any that have threatened to (or actually have) done physical harm to themselves or others. Anyone that is sufficiently violent by the time they are a teenager that they have to be physically restrained would be a good indication, or at least one to look seriously at.
We don't know that Lanza's mother was in the process of having him committed. That's unsubstantiated speculation. One anonymous person is claiming that, and a local pastor's son is saying that he heard this from an unidentified source. That's way too nebulous to be considered a fact.
The only problem that Lanza seems to have had was a diagnosis of Asperger's. We have officials reporting this, so we can consider it substantiated. Asperger's is not a mental illness in the sense that the person's grasp on reality is tenuous in any way. People who suffer from Asperger's are not delusional. They have problems reading and giving the subtle emotional signals that we all use to relate to one another. For instance, I'm in a hurry and someone is telling me a story, I start looking away, shifting my body weight from one foot to another, it's a subtle signal to them to wrap up the story. If they continue going on and on, I might start tossing my keys from one hand to another, a more overt signal. These signals that we send are often not conscious on our parts, and the person who picks up on the signals might not even be consciously aware of the signals. But how we communicate isn't always explicit, part of our "language" involves cues that are incorporated into our culture. People who suffer from Asperger's are often oblivious to these unspoken cues and signals. And our use of them to be "courteous" to avoid offending someone puzzles people from Asperger's. They will cut you short if they need to do so, and they aren't offended if you do the same. People with Asperger's aren't dangerous, at least not because of Asperger's. They just aren't socially adept.
There perhaps needs to be a new classification of mental illness. Perhaps not one that will enforce mandatory committment but at least one that that can flag that they are a probable threat and shouldn't buy a gun. Though committment would be far more effective. If someone is crazy enough to shoot up a school, they are crazy enough to cobble together a bomb sufficient to blow up a school bus.
Not adding the insane to the NICS database seems rather...insane. Or don't we really care? Would we really rather have kids killed than to potentially embarass a crazy person?
The problem is that predicting violent behavior is very difficult. I don't know of any studies showing that we can identify people who might become violent, other than an existing history of violence, i.e. domestic violence, assault and battery charges, armed robbery etc.
We don't know that Lanza's mother was in the process of having him committed. That's unsubstantiated speculation. One anonymous person is claiming that, and a local pastor's son is saying that he heard this from an unidentified source. That's way too nebulous to be considered a fact.
The only problem that Lanza seems to have had was a diagnosis of Asperger's. We have officials reporting this, so we can consider it substantiated. Asperger's is not a mental illness in the sense that the person's grasp on reality is tenuous in any way. People who suffer from Asperger's are not delusional. They have problems reading and giving the subtle emotional signals that we all use to relate to one another. For instance, I'm in a hurry and someone is telling me a story, I start looking away, shifting my body weight from one foot to another, it's a subtle signal to them to wrap up the story. If they continue going on and on, I might start tossing my keys from one hand to another, a more overt signal. These signals that we send are often not conscious on our parts, and the person who picks up on the signals might not even be consciously aware of the signals. But how we communicate isn't always explicit, part of our "language" involves cues that are incorporated into our culture. People who suffer from Asperger's are often oblivious to these unspoken cues and signals. And our use of them to be "courteous" to avoid offending someone puzzles people from Asperger's. They will cut you short if they need to do so, and they aren't offended if you do the same. People with Asperger's aren't dangerous, at least not because of Asperger's. They just aren't socially adept.
No one official has said anything about it , its still speculation and rumors...
There might be some common sense actions to come out of this tragedy. I am hearing more on the news about ways to address the issue of identifying the mentally ill, and doing something to keep them from buying firearms. Wouldn't you be willing to do so if it saved one kids life?
There might be some common sense actions to come out of this tragedy. I am hearing more on the news about ways to address the issue of identifying the mentally ill, and doing something to keep them from buying firearms. Wouldn't you be willing to do so if it saved one kids life?
How about services to help the mentally ill get better? That would save even more lives (given that there are ~ 37,000 suicides a year vs ~ 18,000 homicides.)
How about services to help the mentally ill get better? That would save even more lives (given that there are ~ 37,000 suicides a year vs ~ 18,000 homicides.)
Lets start with keeping them from buying guns! It probably needs to be extended to those on physoactive medications. I'm not sure someone taking Paxil every day just to "cope" is a good candidate to own firearms.
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