Nutmegger

He was five when he left the UK and obviously lived a life of privilege with a father and mother working in movies -- not every college kid has a nice BMW, even in CA. He was obviously as messed up as Adam Lanza, but happily didn't take as many innocent people with him.

scrubbedexpat091

Its pretty clear this guy has some issues, and was apparently receiving some mental health care. The mother found the videos last month and reported them, and police went to visit the guy but under current laws (both in Canada and the US) its extremely hard to commit someone involuntarily and police apparently determined he did not meet the criteria for a involuntary hold.

He was under the care of mental health professionals at the time of the shootings, but never showed any signs of violence, or fascination with guns.

Guns were bought legally, and background trace did not determine anything to prevent him from buying guns.

Michael

He may have used knives in the house but I suspect he got the courage to do that because he was packing 3 guns. Out on the street a knife is not the weapon of choice since some else may have a gun and people can run away.

Sally Redux

I hadn't thought about my son's room mates possibly keeping guns before this. One of them voluntarily entered a mental hospital for a while earlier this year.

scrubbedexpat091

To be fair the vast majority of people with mental health issues do not own guns, nor are they violent.

scrubbedexpat099

The Gun issue strikes me as being secondary but I knew it would be the focus.

Obviously he has issues.

How many people could knife 3 people, his original victims. I would have thought sticking a knife in someone is much harder than pulling a trigger?

He also ran down a few but that seems somehow more remote and less worthy of comment?

I seem to remember the ACLU were involved in the cut back of mental health care, which the Politicians jumped on of course.

thinbrit

So, you are a gun advocate then

RoadWarriorFromLP

Since guns and knives are equally effective, there isn't much reason for our military to bother with all of the expense of guns, ammunition and weapons training when a cheap switchblade will do the trick. Think of what a gun-free military could do to reduce our budget deficit.

scrubbedexpat099

At very close quarters, maybe? I assumed that certainly for the British Army issuing a pistol would just be dead weight in most normal circumstances.

SalopianFunk

It's really disappointing that some sources are pointing towards such things as autism as the root, as opposed to the larger cultural institution of male aggression to women they feel have wronged them just by saying no, or rather just by not saying yes. I mean I still refuse for it to be just as black and white as that, but it's still reflective of what I believe is a reversible social or cultural practice.

scrubbedexpat091

We had a guy in Canada last month go on a stabbing spree at a university party, killed 5 people with only a knife, a few weeks before that there was a workplace stabbing and 1 or 2 people ended up dead.

Guns obviously make it easier to end up with a large number of causalities quicker, but if the person doesn't have access to a gun, they will find an alternative method.

We as a society need to find a root cause as to why some people feel they need to go out and end the lives of others for their own personal issues, and try and prevent it from ever getting to that point.

Sally Redux

Absolutely, but I suppose I was just that I hadn't even thought about it.

Sally Redux

RoadWarriorFromLP

The root cause is that some humans are violent. Not much that you can do about that.

What can be done is to make it as difficult as possible for those with violent inclinations to act. Disarming them is a good start.

scrubbedexpat099

Take all the knives away.