<p>Okay, Niquii. I 'm a little lost, actually. Maybe I missed an edit or whatever. But you refused to talk to me further for some reason and I don’t even think I said anything particularly controversial up there. I cannot in any way equate ER and Eggy. However, we can drop it. No problem.</p>
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<p>That is the case with almost all of these final-act-of-taking-life-as-empowering-self-affirmation situations. No one walks into police stations and starts shooting. It almost never happens. Even this pitiful miserable kid decided that he couldn’t carry out his attack on Halloween because there was too much police presence. It’s cold comfort, but if you’re someplace where there is someone who is armed, you’re less likely to encounter one of these madmen. </p>
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<p>Except to the degree that this place is supported by taxpayer dollars rather than people spending their own money, they are now in serious trouble. </p>
<p>Civil liberties make it nearly impossible to force treatment on the mentally ill and treatment for the mentally ill doesn’t cure mental illness. Those are the biggest issues in this case and the other similar cases and I don’t see those things changing anytime soon. Gun laws and sex entitlement may be contributing factors to some degree or not but the big is one is pretty clearly mental health. He felt entitled to everything, not just sex and so stated. But he wouldn’t have spent years planning a murderous rampage for his puberty problems if he wasn’t off his rocker. The rest of it is mostly distraction. </p>
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<p>And if it is NPD, one major problem is that diagnosing and treating this disorder is exceedingly difficult even for mental health professionals. Read even rates of amelioration of symptoms from even extended treatment is extremely low…with some citing single digit percentages. And that’s assuming the ones afflicted with NPD are even willing to undergo such treatment. Not very encouraging when the vast majority refuse as they feel there’s nothing wrong with them. </p>
<p>Moreover this a disorder where the one affected knows about the wrongfulness of his/her actions and negative consequences for others, but doesn’t give a damn. If it serves their desired purpose, they’ll do it without any consideration for others. </p>
<p>In addition, this disorder manifests itself from influences on matters of social status, wealth, entitlement, and cultural issues involved so discussions do need to focus at least as much…if not more on those factors. </p>
<p>Especially since discussions related to NPD by us laypersons isn’t likely to be helpful considering even mental health professionals have admitted having issues diagnosing this disorder and treatment success rates even for amelioration of symptoms is dismayingly low due to its very nature. </p>
<p>In the little bit that I’ve read concerning other people’s views of this young man, it seems clear that everyone around him kept their distance. One account said that on his social media page he posted pictures and was the only one to click on the “like” button. He apparently had a couple of acquaintances who could tolerate him, but they eventually gave up. </p>
<p>The place where he lived looks like a group home for individuals with disabilities. Many of the young people there likely have a developmental disability since birth: autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability. These types of group homes offer services that help the person with adaptive living. If you look at the services offered, they include help getting disability benefits, assistive technology, independent living skills. This is en extension of services that are often provided for school children with disabilities. </p>
<p>But neither schools nor group homes for individuals with disabilities have the capacity to fully serve people with mental illness. This is a whole different kind of care. There are plenty of people with autism, or other disability who are mainsteamed in school and their communities, but people with serious mental illness might need different services.</p>
<p>It is possible that Rodger was admitted to this facility because of his autism spectrum diagnosis, which could have masked his more severe mental health issues. It is possible that his family focused on the autism aspect as well, since this is what they were told. In this case, his room mates likely had disabilities of some sort as well. They may not have been able to defend themselves physically, or it may have been easier for Rodger to take them by surprise. I don’t think the group home would have placed these room mates with Rodger if they had any awareness that they were at risk.</p>
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<p>If you’re saying that the presence of armed police officers deters this kind of crime, that’s one thing.
If you’re suggesting that more guns in the general population reduces the rate of gun violence in general, or mass shootings in particular, that’s another thing.</p>
<p><a href=“The Geography of Gun Deaths - The Atlantic”>The Geography of Gun Deaths - The Atlantic;
<a href=“Homicide | Harvard Injury Control Research Center | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health”>http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/</a></p>
<p><a href=“Elliot Rodger's Videos Were Removed From YouTube, But Only Temporarily”>http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/05/27/youtube-finally-takes-down-all-of-elliot-rodgers-videos/</a></p>
<p>The family has taken down the other videos from youtube. </p>
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Unfortunately didn’t work for those poor kids at Columbine, which had an armed sheriff deputy on duty.
<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/DEPUTIES_TEXT.htm”>http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/columbine.cd/Pages/DEPUTIES_TEXT.htm</a></p>
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<p>I didn’t realize that he had been planning this retribution for over a year and a half.
That is a long time to be seething and angry and looking at people with a level of contempt/jealousy or whatever.</p>
<p>Given that, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a really bad vibe about him and it wouldn’t take long for some idle chit chat with him to devolve into him saying something sufficiently alarming that people would back away.</p>
<p>I’m saying that other than police, the only thing that stops a madman with a gun is a good guy with a gun. And that the madmen know it. What to do about it, if anything, is open to debate. Most of the solutions involve taking guns away from law-abiding citizens, which is why they’re not met with an open mind.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the police have access to a gun owner database? One would think they must, and yet I’m not so sure. </p>
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His room mates are engineering students. I do not believe they have disabilities. If they have any serious disability, they may have been screened out for an engineering major already. (They may not jocks as it appears ER despised them and calling them “the nerdiest persons I have ever seen”. But who else other than his own family are willing to put up with him? If these room mates did not know who they roomed with, I really feel sorry for them and their naive parents.)</p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>One of the murdered roommates was reported to have said to his friends he was planning to move out of that apartment once the lease is up because the murderer was anti-social and causing tension with the other roommates including himself. </p>
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I wonder if the manifesto will be taken down. There are lots of names in that. BTW, there are pics of ER’s sister and half-brother online, including video of the brother identified by name on a page created by his mother. They are minors, so the family should work on getting those taken down, too.</p>
<p>Btw, ER appears to have told his (former) best friend (whose father has spoken to the press) about his desire for this kind of massacre, according to the manifesto. It seems to be the reason the friend started to keep his distance. </p>
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<p>From that article, within minutes of the bomb going off, that officer was trading gunfire with one of the murderers. One of the murderers stopped firing into the high school doors and went after that officer.</p>
<p>You are correct, it didn’t prevent the bombing, but I don’t know how many more poor kids would have been killed or injured if the response was not that quick.</p>
<p>Lord, this case get more tragic with each passing day. According to the Forbes story someone on Reddit saw Rodger’s video last week and jokingly posted a prediction that Rodger would become a serial killer. Ugh. </p>
<p>Yes, it seems virtually everyone he encountered knew he was a ticking time bomb and was powerless to stop him. </p>
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<p>Three major problems:</p>
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<li><p>He emailed a copy of it to the local press.</p></li>
<li><p>Unless we’re talking him naming people who are still legal minors, there may be little/nothing the family could do due to First Amendment and publicizing the information being considered within the public interest by media, public policy groups, citizens, etc. Some newspapers have voluntarily withheld the identity of some people named in the manifesto, but they did that voluntarily. </p></li>
<li><p>The manifesto has already been widely distributed on the internet by various mass media groups. </p></li>
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<p>How was that anonymous poster supposed to know that they’re tongue in cheek thought was to be true?</p>
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I don’t appreciate this comment, mcat. Screened out of an engineering major? </p>
<p>I hope the manifesto isn’t taken down before I can save it or at least read all of it.</p>
<p>EDIT: Well, nevermind then! Looks like I am in no rush. </p>
<p>cobrat, his sister and brother are still minors. And they are named in the manifesto. Considering that his stepmother’s name is known, her videos of her minor child should be taken down (they are casting videos naming him) by her. </p>