<p>I blame no one but the monster that did this, and I don’t think he was mentally ill or depressed. I think he was someone with a strong sense of entitlement that never learned to deal with disappointment, never learned self awareness, and never learned that life isn’t fair. I looked at all of his videos, and he was the biggest narcissist I have ever seen. His narcissism just turned into misogyny/misanthropy, which is what usually happens when you don’t learn to deal with life’s sad emotions. Seems to be very common with his generation where “everyone is a winner”, “everything has to be fair for everyone”, and “no one is excluded.”</p>
<p>Good grief. Read through his manifesto, linked above. He was grievously mentally ill and disturbed, and this has nothing to do with “everyone gets a trophy.”</p>
<p>First, he apparently wasn’t a college student after all. Second, he was basically a Hollywood rich kid with a history of mental issues. His grandmother said he was a disturbed child way back when he lived with her in the UK.</p>
<p>For someone whose father is a second unit director for one of the most popular TV series playing right now and from a family who provided him with a boarding school education in the UK and a BMW among other things…the cost of firearms and 400 bullets is tragically very likely, a mere trifle where his personal finances were concerned. </p>
<p>So if his parents were well off and knew he was mentally disturbed, why would they provide him with enough money for thousands of dollars of weapons?
I know kids with wealthy parents too & they aren’t given a huge allowance.</p>
<p>I encourage everyone to read the manifesto. It is abundantly clear to me from reading it that he was truly mentally ill and likely had been his entire life. Not excusing his behavior, just my take on things.</p>
<p>(And to correct some of the earlier posters - he did not grow up with a “rich, charmed Hollywood life,” never attended boarding school in the UK – indeed he went to a public continuation alternative high school type place, and his parents did not fund his guns or ammo - he talks about getting and saving money for years from holiday presents from extended family members to pay for them - I think he boasts of saving $5,000 in the manifesto…indeed his manifesto suggests his parents had rocky financial situations at times, where he and his mom/sister had to share a bedroom in small rented apartments, etc. … NOT that I am in any, any, any, way excusing this horrific crime or his responsibility NOR that I think that played a role in any way…)</p>
<p>cobrat - he did not attend boarding school in the UK. Where are you getting that info from?</p>
<p>He attended 3 different high schools, a Catholic parochial HS for 9th grade and last two were public LA county high schools (the final one was an alternative public high school for kids with ‘problems’).</p>
<p>Ok…looks like I misread a report where the UK and boarding school were within two lines of each other.<br>
My bad.</p>
<p>However,</p>
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</p>
<p>If that’s the case, that’s more than enough money to purchase a handgun, 400 rounds of bullets, and licensing fees. </p>
<p>If illegally, it is still unlikely to take up more than a small chunk of that considering what some law enforcement and former military folks who have licensed weapons told me. </p>
<p>If this person has mental problems wouldn’t that mean that terrorists and other people who commit violent acts have mental problems too? Stop using that as an excuse! My brother has real mental problems and I’m sick of idiots like this guy trying to claim they do when they don’t! Of course there’s no way for me to know if he did but I’m pretty sure he was just a spoiled brat.</p>
<p>Police had three contacts with him.
One in January when he accused his roommate of stealing some candles.
According to his families attorney, he was seeing several therapists.</p>
<p>He had three guns, two Sig Sauers & a Glock. He may have saved the money for them, but did he pay for his BMW out of birthday money too?</p>
<p>Although unconfirmed, some reports have said he received it as a gift from his parents/relatives. </p>
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<p>Probably due to having an abysmal academic and/or disciplinary record to the point no 4-year college he wanted to attend would accept him…even with his family’s Hollywood connections. </p>
<p>I’ve been reading this manifesto. I skipped a bunch in the beginning; the whole thing is obviously self indulgent. However, in it he mentions wanting to write a screenplay for a fantasy movie (shortly after the premier of the Hunger Games.) I do think it is too bad his efforts in writing weren’t channeled, since he writes well. Although he does mention that his mother told him he had writing talent, so maybe they did try.</p>
<p>It isn’t remotely ‘normal’. In fact I have kind of the same response to it as I did reading Clockwork Orange when I was a teenager. The ‘protagonist’ is obviously warped and psychotically antisocial. But the warped nature of it is compelling, as well. He writes very well for someone who really only had about a year of college if you add up all the classes he actually completed – and that is being generous.</p>
<p>“Clockwork Orange” vibe is a good description of that manifesto he wrote. I skimmed it but could hardly read it without cringing. The grandiosity and entitlement was a glaring contrast to the rejection he experienced. My layman guess at this is also Narcisitic Personality Disorder- at the extreme end of this is sociopathy- no empathy at all for others.
He does write well for someone who didn’t stay in college, but if he applied the same “the rules don’t apply to me” and blamed the professor for not giving him an A, then he would not get far in school.</p>
<p>Most mentally ill people don’t commit mass murder. Neither do most spoiled rich kids. Nevertheless the number of mass murders in the USA is appallingly high. Why is that? </p>
<p>One thing that makes the USA different in this regard from the UK, France, Japan, Scandinavia, etc., is our liberal gun laws. Guns are the weapon of choice in mass murders. Yes, a determined mass murderer could use some other weapon. However, a bomb for example requires more knowledge and planning, as well as greater risk to the perpetrator. Guns are the weapon of choice for good reason. </p>
<p>Therefore, sensible gun regulations must be considered part of the solution.<br>
Car analogies are popular in these discussions, so why not take a lesson from how we regulate motor vehicles? From the point of manufacture and throughout its life cycle, why not require every firearm to be covered by an insurance policy (just as automobiles are)? The insurance premiums would reflect all the risks. Every owner would carry insurance as part of the cost of owning a firearm; you couldn’t buy one without proof of insurance. If your disturbed child uses your gun to shoot up a school, your insurer pays. This would quickly incentivize manufacturers, insurers and owners to take reasonable measures to mitigate the risks. If a state wants to liberalize its gun laws (concealed carry laws, for example), fine. The insurers then will adjust their rates to cover the associated local risks, just as they now do with car insurance. </p>
<p>Insurance is a wonderful free market mechanism for assigning costs based on responsibility and risks. It works by influencing the choices of rational decision-makers, and by compensating people for losses, instead of by punishing irrational actors after they act. </p>
<p>I have long been a supporter of more responsible and restrictive private gun ownership, but since Newtown I’ve come to realize that no amount of murders will get NRA members to demand that from the gun lobby. And now, the tide has turned to blame it all on the mental health system (which certainly is a problem, no question). That seems like it will just end in more stigma and shame for mentally illness and families that battle it, not fewer murders. </p>
<p>The insurance idea is a good one in theory. I haven’t heard that one before. However, like other insurance policies, the cost of incidences on behalf of uninsured gun users would be passed on to the insured- and people who use guns safely would pay high premiums. </p>
<p>The counter argument to this is that people who follow the rules will acquire a gun and use it safely and sanely. People who don’t follow the rules won’t. So will this insurance system be punitive to the safe owners?</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer to this one, (and I am not a member of the NRA) but it would be interesting to know what percentage of legal gun owners murder vs what percent of illegal owners do. The insurance idea is fascinating, but I am concerned that it will target the sane users, and the criminal/insane ones will just keep on doing what they are doing. </p>
<p>I also think the Asperger label is being misused in these cases. These people are the extremes of social disorders- like sociopathy. The term Asperger has been recently removed as a diagnostic category- possibly because it has been misused to explain every kind of odd or antisocial behavior. </p>
<p>Someone mentioned that narcissists are good at manipulating people, and that people with AS are not, so this person should have been able to get a girlfriend. I think he was able to manipulate the police, but in a possible friendship or romantic situation, his cold, creepy speech would alienate people. </p>
<p>I know that I am not qualified to Dx, but when I listen to his words, I think things like narcissist, sociopath, spoiled, indulged…a created monster.</p>
May god help them!</p>