<p>“Police interviewed Elliot Rodger and found him to be a “perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human,” he added. Police did not find a history of guns, but did say Rodger “didn’t have a lot of friends,” had trouble making friends and didn’t have any girlfriends.”</p>
<p>From the family attorney. Also, this kid went to boarding school in London. And, he was on some kind of medication so there was somebody treating him for something. Unsuccessfully.</p>
<p>Just saw the family’s lawyer say that the shooter had been treated by multiple professionals. Multiple therapists, a social worker. There needs to be stronger involuntary commitment laws.</p>
<p>Bay raises a good point. As far as we know this kid didn’t have any means of supporting himself other than (presumably) his parents. So perhaps they could have compelled him to come home.</p>
<p>So, now it seems he stabbed 3 people in the building to death before embarking on the shooting spree. Three of the dead were UCSB students. Two women. One man. He also drove his BMW into 2 cyclists and 2 pedestrians. No weapon left unused. Cars, knives, and guns.</p>
<p>Oh God . . . horrific. He sounds like a villain from Batman or something - almost unreal</p>
<p>As much as I am for sensible gun control measures, this seems like more of a ‘sensible involuntary commitment measures’ issue. He seems like a resourceful young man who would have found a way.</p>
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<p>Which would be completely missing the point and why we have the problem today.
We have to start with the cause, mental illness, not the tool, a gun.</p>
<p>BTW, the largest school killing in US history, was not done with guns. Over 40 dead and about 60 more injured.</p>
<p>I’m not second-guessing either the parents or the therapists, but it sure sounds like in addition to his Aspergers, this kid was depressed. (Aspies are at high risk of either anxiety or depression.) This sounds like a dramatic suicide. Not that I know how to prevent suicide by mass murder, but it sounds like we’ve got another one of them.</p>
<p>BTW, one problem is that some States refuse to share their mental health records with the FBI that can prevent people with mental health issues from buying a gun. Massachusetts is really bad at this and CA has only shared about 500k records.</p>
<p>Apparently, people are concerned that “it could jeopardize privacy and further stigmatize the mentally ill.”</p>
<p>So that maybe is a good place to start.</p>
<p><a href=“Mass. keeps mental health data from FBI gun checks - The Boston Globe”>Mass. keeps mental health data from FBI gun checks - The Boston Globe;
<p>There was nothing in his record to prevent him from purchasing a gun. According to the Sherriff’s press conference that would have required hospitalization, which never happened. </p>
<p>He sounds very narcissistic, to say the least.</p>
<p>I skimmed his very long “life story”. It seems people did call the police after seeing his videos. Here is his accounting of how he defused the situation.;</p>
<p>Apparently, someone saw my videos and became instantly suspicious of me. They called some sort of health agency, who called the police to check up on me. The police told me it was my mother who called them, but my mother told me it was the health agency. My mother had watched the videos and was very disturbed by them.
I don’t suppose I’ll ever know the full truth
of who called the police on me. The police interrogated me outside for a few minutes, asking me if I had suicidal thoughts. I tactfully told them that it was all a misunderstanding, and they finally left.
If they had demanded to search my room
…
That would have ended everything. For a few horrible seconds I thought it was all over. When they left, the biggest wave of relief swept over me. It was so scary. It was all because of the videos. I must have expressed too much anger in them. I immediately took most of them off of Youtube, and planned to reupload them a few days before the Day of Retribution.
This incident made me realize that I needed to be extra careful. I can’t let anyone become suspicious of me. All it takes is for one person to call the police and tell them that they think I’m going to perpetrate a
shooting, and the police will be coming to my door again, demanding to search my room. For the next few days, I felt extremely fearful that they could show up anytime. I kept one of my handguns with a few loaded magazines near me just in case such a thing did happen. If they did show up, I would have to try to quickly shoot them all and escape out the back window. I would then have to perform a hasty mockery of my plans, with the police on my tail. That will ruin everything. Thankfully, all suspicion of me was dropped after I took down the videos from Youtube, and the police never came back.</p>
<p>His loneliness is dead obvious from his writing. It’s unsettling. </p>
<p>Nothing excuses what the kid did, but the NY Times documents a life of being abused, including quotes from an abuser who sounds proud of his abuse. The kid wanted to have a normal life, with normal relationships, but he had no idea how to do it. That’s important-- he wanted to have a normal life, but he had no idea how to do it. Instead he led a life of rejection. </p>
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<p>That is unclear.
Under federal law, if you are deemed “mentally defective” or involunarilly committed, you cannot purchase a gun.
IIRC, he was seen by three different professionals. We don’t know what their conclusion was.</p>
<p>Well, we know he wasn’t involuntarily committed or deemed “mentally defective” by any court of law because he lawfully purchase 3 guns. But, he was sent off to a community college in a black BMW. Which is a little weird. imho.</p>
<p>I understand wanting to after the fact find a way it would never happen again, but I cringe at the idea that people should be involuntarily committed with a looser standard than already exists. The impact on the innocent and not dangerous mentally ill would be very real. There are good reasons we require (and SHOULD imho require) due process and commission of a crime before incarcerating people. And there are excellent reasons for wanting privacy for mental records – including encouraging people who need help to get help. There are standards which would require reporting - if a psychologist believed a person to be an imminent danger, for example, but a system that would perfectly catch every mentally ill person who actually is a danger would likely be locking up a lot of people who aren’t.</p>
<p>He was getting help. It didn’t help. That’s the problem.</p>
<p>@flossy </p>
<p>We don’t know whether his mental health status was shared with the FBI.
Not all states share that info, and those that do, don’t appear to share all of it.</p>
<p>In this case, it may not have made a bit of difference, since he seemed capable of avoiding detection.</p>
<p>But in other cases, more aggressive sharing of info may be a better preventative measure.</p>
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<p>What’s weird about that? People with checkered academic records, as he had, often go to community colleges. As they should. And Aspies often turn out not to be able to take a full load of classes; community colleges work well for students of that type, often better than four-year colleges who are aimed at more typical learners.</p>
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<p>I don’t think anyone is advocating making these records public.
But sharing that info with the FBI to prevent mentally ill people from legally buying a gun seems reasonable.</p>
<p>Of course, they may still kill 3 people with a knife, as he did, or steal guns, like the maniac at Sandy Hook, but it is a start.</p>