<p>Sure, but I don’t think we can expect cops to analyze schizophrenics on YouTube, either. And, without imminent danger what difference would it make? People are expecting too much from the police, imho. </p>
<p>It’s doubtful anyone including the parents knew anywhere near how disturbed this person was or they would certainly have gotten a psychiatrist involved rather than requesting a welfare check and waiting 20 days until something bad happened. I’d like to hear from this therapist. They should know the protocol.</p>
<p>Although I understand that you can’t blame the parents for the actions of this kid, I would like to know why they are giving him all this money (enough to buy 3 expensive weapons and support a lifestyle that requires no job) and an expensive car, even though he is not going to school or doing anything productive with his life. They had to know how sick he was, although I’m sure they didn’t suspect he was going to slaughter people. They also should have known he wasn’t going to school, either. </p>
<p>It seems to me they didn’t want to deal with him, so they sent him to Santa Barbara (against his will) and gave him plenty of money and hoped somehow that he would get better. This was clearly not a good plan for this kid. He should have been told that unless he took his medication and attended some kind of residential program for mentally ill people, there would be no money or cars to live an aimless life, where all he did was ruminate all day long about his many grievances against humanity. </p>
<p>The parents can say they didn’t realize how sick he was, but I don’t find it credible they weren’t aware that their son was severely ill. If you read the manifesto and the reports of almost everyone who had any interaction with him, it is clear that he is very sick kid and needed far more intervention then he was getting.</p>
<p>Yes, but he didn’t ISSUE the manifesto til it was too late. It’s not as though it was sitting out there. </p>
<p>And I still don’t get why the make of the car matters in the least. What, if they’d gotten him a Toyota, he’d have had an epiphany - gosh, I’m not entitled to anything, I should snap out of it? </p>
<p>I see nothing to suggest the parents are in the wrong or should have had a crystal ball. </p>
<p>“I just get kind of pissed when a tragedy occurs and people use it to push a preexisting political agenda they have. The facts will come out and any good recommendations will be made, as well as bad ones, likely, but pushing it in the ‘heat of the moment’ smacks to me of emotional manipulation while people are vulnerable, not like necessarily good policy. Good policy can sell without the emotional play.”</p>
<p>Ah yes. “It’s just too soon to talk about gun control.”
Said after Reagan, Lennon, Columbine, VA Tech, the Gabby Giffords shooting, the Batman theater shooting, Fort Hood, Sandy Hook, and now UCSB … It’s always “too soon.” Spare me. </p>
<p>It’s embarrassing that the US has a subculture of people who want to keep them thar guns to make them feel like real men. And we’re supposed to honor and celebrate it. Gag. </p>
<p>“Yes, but he didn’t ISSUE the manifesto til it was too late”</p>
<p>That is not what I am referring to. I am suggesting that if you read the manifesto, it is evident this kid is very sick and the parents, who lived with him for many years and knew him better than anyone else, must have known the extent of his mental illness.</p>
<p>The make of the car only matters because it exposes the mentality of the parents, who give the kid expensive toys (BMW) and enough money not only to live comfortably but also to buy expensive guns. This kid did not belong in a college town, living unsupervised and not going to school or at least doing something productive with his time, like having job. Rather, he needed medication and probably inpatient care at a reputable facility. It is evident from the reports of people who knew him and from his own writings that he was extremely ill. The parents must have known, but they probably concluded that by shipping him to Santa Barbara and paying for all his expenses, despite not doing anything to help himself, that he was going to magically get better. They were wrong and thus, in my view, they bear some culpability for what happened. </p>
<p>Edit: In the manifesto, he repeatedly said that he told his parents how much he hated living in Isla Vista and the students in the community. The parents were surely aware how miserable he was and the despair he was experiencing. He also said he was kicked out of his house, and although he chose Santa Barbara to live, it was clear that he didn’t have much choice in the matter. I get the feeling the parents were only to glad to get rid of him and put him in an inappropriate situation which he clearly couldn’t handle.</p>
<p>I agree, especially considering he seemed to have concealed much about himself from everyone around him…including his own family. </p>
<p>Through his own written words, he also admits to not having actually tried asking any of the blonde sorority women…or any other woman about whether they’d date him. He assumed and felt they should have automatically thrown themselves at him for merely existing without any effort on his part…even an uttered greeting. </p>
<p>He felt his family connections, wealth, and BMW should have been more than enough as shown in his video rant and in his written words. </p>
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<p>According to what I heard from law enforcement officers who are gun enthusiasts, the price of a reasonable quality handgun is around the price of a consumer-level notebook computer…a few hundred to several hundred dollars a piece. </p>
<p>Considering he accumulated $5000 in family gift money, that’s more than enough to purchase three handguns and 400+ rounds of ammunition. I doubt he needed to do much squirreling, especially considering reports seem to indicate he purchased them over a period of a year and half. </p>
<p>This also brings up the factor that he didn’t receive a confirmed diagnosis of serious mental illness in the course of purchasing them. </p>
<p>If he had it from a mental health professional, the MH professional would be bound by California state law to enter this status into a statewide database maintained to prevent firearms from being sold to anyone who had serious mental illness and if it came up while attempting a purchase, that red flag would show up and he’d be denied. </p>
<p>There have been several news reports of California law enforcement rounding up firearms from licensed owners who were subsequently institutionalized or were diagnosed with serious mental illness which legally precluded them from continued legal possession of their firearms. </p>
<p>Also, the parents must have known (or should have known) that he attempted to push some students off a balcony. Remember, he needed surgery on his ankle from that incident. Moreover, the police initially interviewed him but called off the investigation after concluding that he initiated the incident. If the parents were unaware of what happened, it was only because they didn’t want to know. If I was the father and I had a son like this kid, i would have found out what had happened. Once I knew that he tried to push these students off a balcony, I wouldn’t have sent him back to the place where he tried to harm others.</p>
<p>“the price of a reasonable quality handgun is around the price of a consumer-level notebook computer…a few hundred to several hundred dollars a piece.”</p>
<p>Wrong - he spent thousands of dollars for these guns. It’s in his manifesto.</p>
You are correct! For some reason, I was remembering her birth year as 1997. It was 1995. The half-brother is definitely a minor (and his mom ought to take down the casting videos she put up online of him identifying him by name!).</p>
<p>"The make of the car only matters because it exposes the mentality of the parents, who give the kid expensive toys (BMW) and enough money not only to live comfortably but also to buy expensive guns. "</p>
<p>You need to pay attention to the facts, they weren’t handing over money right and left. He squirreled away the money they gave him to get the guns. </p>
<p>"This kid did not belong in a college town, living unsupervised and not going to school or at least doing something productive with his time, like having job. Rather, he needed medication and probably inpatient care at a reputable facility. It is evident from the reports of people who knew him and from his own writings that he was extremely ill. "</p>
<p>He HAD therapists and counselors. You can’t just lock up everyone who is weird, or antisocial, or has few friends, it’s not a crime to be socially awkward and it’s not a crime to not have a job. Anyway, let’s say his parents had insisted he get a job. What would that have changed? Nothing. He’d have more money to buy guns and maybe the killing spree would have occurred in a workplace instead - big whoops, same essential outcome.</p>
<p>The fact that he had roommates signifies the parents WERE trying to get him to be social. . </p>
<p>“the parents were unaware of what happened, it was only because they didn’t want to know. If I was the father and I had a son like this kid, i would have found out what had happened. Once I knew that he tried to push these students off a balcony, I wouldn’t have sent him back to the place where he tried to harm others.”</p>
<p>I’ve known too many good people who have had kids w mental illness to do all the parent-blaming you are. </p>
<p>“This very issue of maladjusted males feeling entitled to sex from females is one crucial cultural issue many are concerned will end up being minimized or even ignored when the emphasis of the narrative is on mental illness.”</p>
<p>It’s not a cultural narrative precisely because males who feel that way are seen as maladjusted and losers. There has been no cultural response that “yeah, the hot girls of UCSB should have slept with the guy and prevented this.” No one thought “oh, Elliot, you’re so cool!” for expressing this entitlement mentality. Rather, they said - oh, god, buddy, what a loser and turned the other way. So if it’s a cultural narrative, it’s not a particularly compelling one since most of society rejects it. </p>
<p>There are lots of guys who think they “deserve” women, and that a fancy car and a little swagger will get them noticed by the kind of women that wouldn’t look at them otherwise. Any young woman who’s ever been hit on by a creepy older guy knows this. The difference is, most creeps get the message when they are shunned by their targets. They move on. They do not create a consuming narrative that every attractive young woman in the world deserves to die because “it’s not fair” and they have made the last eight years of life a “living hell.” They do not throw coffee on people minding their own business at a bus stop, or try to shove people off a cliff for the simple crime of being normal and having fun.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that no one has brought up what I think are major elements of this incident. He was raised in an area that pumps an ideal of what life is supposed to be for teens into our culture. The “everyone is beautiful and popular and rich or you are worthless” message that comes out of Hollywood isn’t just what he was raised around. His parents were active in promoting the culture. His father was a movie director and just released a movie about children killing children. I know everyone is in love with the Hunger Games trilogy right now but that is the basic plot. On the side he took pictures of beautiful women’s naked behinds but “in an artistic way” and sold them for thousands of dollars. His stepmother was a star in one of the "Real Housewives of X’ series. A series that absolutely celebrates women of a certain shape and look who use that in their quest to marry rich men which is seen as the ultimate success for them. For the men, the ultimate success is to be so rich that you are able to attract that type of women. Is it any wonder that he felt that he was a failure for not being the popular hunk that has California blondes in bikinis falling all over him. Everything he was raised him told him that he was. </p>
<p>Interesting, Flossy. I thought he didn’t have any friends, though? This makes me think Akin is probably just looking for his 15 minutes of fame.</p>
<p>DEfour, I think there is some truth in what you are saying, although I think others disagree. At a minimum, his environment contributed to the development of his crazy theories about why his life was so awful.</p>
<p>You know how we know he was dangerous? Because he did it. Fewer than one percent of one percent of one percent of people actually do something like this, while maybe a full one percent (10,000 times that many) look like they might do it. So are we going to take extreme measures with those 10,000 because we think they might do it?</p>