The Umpqua Mass Shooter

Posted: 10/3/2015

Introduction

I do not follow this tragic shooting very closely, because I do not have the time. However, I am generally interested to learn why a human being in peacetime would commit such horrible atrocities against innocent humans. And I am even more interested in why we humans still have no better ways to diagnose or treat humans who would one day commit such crimes.

I have previously blogged here about other mass shooting similar to the most recent one in at the Umpqua. This one also appears to be a Copycat Effect shooting, which I blogged here as well. Please find more, related blog posts here, here, here

Labels: mass shootings, Adam Lanza, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, Jared Loughner

What (Little) We Know So Far About The Shooter

1. It appears he was a so called loser (this is not meant in a derogatory way)
2. The shooter apparently took time to shoot each individual. According to one account the shooting took at least 15 minutes long. Unfortunately, I have not yet searched nor have I seen a detailed timeline of the event. What this suggests however is that had their been an armed person in the classroom or next door or down the hallway, the shooter would have been apprehended or killed much sooner. I also suspect this Oregon community college was a so called gun free zone and this was enforced. Or even better some ‘aspiring’ mass shooters would be deterred when they knew they faced immediate deadly force to stop him or her.
3. He was described as a weirdo by different people who had contact at different times with the shooter. Did these witnesses just make this up after the fact or were their observations largely correct?
4. “He was listed as a 2009 graduate of the Switzer Learning Center in Torrance, a private school for students with learning disabilities, emotional issues and other special-education needs.” The mother, a licensed nurse, is reported to have identified his son as having “Asperger”
5. The divorced mother appears to have been mentally ill herself and she was extremely protective of her son. Thus, the son appears to be a second generation mentally ill person.
6. The shooter was according to reports fascinated by other mass shootings. Thus, this could be a copycat event
7. Like the Sandy Hook shooter, his mother was also into shooting and going to shooting ranges
8. Why would a 26 year old man live permanently with her mother in a one bedroom apartment?
9. The shooter served only one month in the U.S. Army in 2008 (see e.g. here)
10. The shooter was turned down by the owner and chief instructor of a “private self-defense and law enforcement training academy” (see e.g. here)
11. It was reported that he was born in the U.K., he had a step-sister and he described himself as “mixed-race”. Until we know more about his family background it could indicate perhaps a difficult family situation.
12. I believe, we have not yet learnt much about what the family of the shooter knew about his personality or what they tried to help him. It is kind of obvious to me that most mass shooters grew up in the presence of adults or siblings etc.. I am also pretty sure that someone in the family or teacher etc. noticed that their son or student was ‘going down the wrong path’ or had a mental disorder. This brings up that the otherwise excellent U.S. health care system (although largely government run and therefore by far not as good as it could be) his awfully lacking mental or psychological diagnosis and treatment capabilities! There are is no mental illness awareness month in the U.S.! Why? If there were better medical offerings for people like the mass shooter, we would hope perhaps some of them would voluntarily seek help before it is too late.
13. What is remarkable and probably a step in the right direction is that the sheriff’s department in Oregon would not name the perpetrator’s name to avoid the shooter’s crave for fame. We hope this example

Other sources used: here, here

A Few Lessons Learnt

The current U.S. President is a moron on the subject of mass shootings with innocent people as victims. President Obama has no vision and no clue! Like a perfect, unteachable ideologue he keeps demanding for more gun control.

If this president had any clue and intelligence, he would sign an executive order to fully, comprehensively investigate the background etc. of all recent mass shooters alive or dead. He would try to appropriate as much money as possible into research for better diagnosis and treatments. He would support measures to find better ways for parents to help their children or for potential mass shooters to voluntarily seek help before it is too late.

If I were the president I would immediately announce a mental disorder awareness month and I would probably choose it to overlap with breast cancer awareness month. Cancer, in the worst case, usually kills only the patient, but an untreated serious mental disorder can kill others as well.