http://www.ketv.com/news/14782867/detail.html

So I just got home from work (I'm on midnights now) and I clicked on the Drudge Report when I saw a headline about yet another shooting rampage. I clicked on it and I was horrified to learn that it happened in Omaha, Nebraska (which is near where I grew up). Apparently some punk went berzerk in a mall with an SKS rifle, killing 8 people and wounding 5, and then turned his rifle on himself.

I mean, unfortunately these tragedies seem to get more and more commonplace, but it's really jolting when it happens in your own backyard, especially since I've been to that mall several times.

If your life is so horrible and you simply must off yourself then fine, but why take innocent people with you who had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with your problems? Because you want to be famous? If that's the case, then learn to play the guitar or some damned thing?

Why couldn't this turd just have thrown a toaster into his bathtub or something?  >:( >:( >:(

i have to be honest, i really wish the press and media would agree not to give these people any attention. this guy was even more explcit than that bozo at virginia tech that he was doing it solely to get attention.

man, it's just plain freaky how often this is happening these days.l

Yeah, he apparently wanted to be famous. That's what it said in his suicide note. IMO, they shouldn't have released his name, picture, or anything. Let him burn in hell without the fame. Now you're gonna have people go on and on about how he was misunderstood, he was just a kid, blah blah blah, not to mention possible copycats. ::)

What a horrible horrible tragedy though. I could not fathom what the family members of the victims are going through. :\'(

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.  :\'(

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.  :\'(


Me too...this kind of thing should never happen for any reason. I wish people weren't so insane in the brain. What's his deal, anyway? ::) :\'(

This is so very sad. :\'(

This is a sad occurance. It takes a lot of psychiatric problems to do this kind of thing. The biggest one of all is insanity. The increase in this kind of violence just shows me how bad things are getting with both parents having to work to support their family. That means children are left to their own devises. This is just going to get worse.

Yeah, he apparently wanted to be famous. That's what it said in his suicide note. IMO, they shouldn't have released his name, picture, or anything. Let him burn in hell without the fame. Now you're gonna have people go on and on about how he was misunderstood, he was just a kid, blah blah blah, not to mention possible copycats. ::)

What a horrible horrible tragedy though. I could not fathom what the family members of the victims are going through. :\'(
A lot of people would want the person's name revealed,if only to diss the person's family. ::)

My question is what would cause a person to do this. What psychiatric issues was he facing? Also I would like to know what society can do to help others from doing this.

My question is what would cause a person to do this. What psychiatric issues was he facing? Also I would like to know what society can do to help others from doing this.


For the same reason my brother threatened to blow up the Potter County court house.  It is impossible to explain it to someone who hasn't dealt with this type of individual.  As for you comment about insanity.  There is no real medical definition for "insanity".  As for helping others from doing this.  I think taking people who make these kind of threats seriously is a start.  When my brother starts on a tangent, we let him rant,rave and vent.  It seems to work.

For the same reason my brother threatened to blow up the Potter County court house.  It is impossible to explain it to someone who hasn't dealt with this type of individual.  As for you comment about insanity.  There is no real medical definition for "insanity".  As for helping others from doing this.  I think taking people who make these kind of threats seriously is a start.  When my brother starts on a tangent, we let him rant,rave and vent.  It seems to work.


I know the insanity from personal experience. I experienced the insanity myself.

There is a form of brain injury that will cause this kind of behavior.  It involves the frontal lobe which controls emotion.  This isn't an excuse but perhaps an explanation.  How you protect society from people like this is more difficult to say the least.

There is a form of brain injury that will cause this kind of behavior.  It involves the frontal lobe which controls emotion.  This isn't an excuse but perhaps an explanation.  How you protect society from people like this is more difficult to say the least.
sorta like a phineas gage kinda thing?

hey davey, has there even been a metal song about phineas gage? that would be a good subject for a metal song.

sorta like a phineas gage kinda thing?

hey davey, has there even been a metal song about phineas gage? that would be a good subject for a metal song.


There will be in about 10 minutes,.

sorta like a phineas gage kinda thing?

hey davey, has there even been a metal song about phineas gage? that would be a good subject for a metal song.


Yeah, exactly like that.

Phineas Gage, had a bad day, metal rod went through his skull!
Phineas Gage... bad temper.. other stuff..

.. hell with it.

Phineas Gage, had a bad day, metal rod went through his skull!
Phineas Gage... bad temper.. other stuff..

.. hell with it.
i meant one that's already written!  ;D dont hurt yourself. lol.

i meant one that's already written!  ;D dont hurt yourself. lol.


There's a band called Phineus Gage, but it's spelled different.. based on him though.

My question is what would cause a person to do this. What psychiatric issues was he facing? Also I would like to know what society can do to help others from doing this.

Nothing.

The homicidal madman is a figure dating back to antiquity.  The mass murderer with firearms is nothing new either, though the phenomenon seems to be on the rise since the mid 20th century from Charles Starkweather and Charles Whitman to James Oliver Huberty and George Jo Hennard to Cho Seung-hui and this sonofabitch Robert Hawkins. 

How many of us grow up unloved, abused, and neglected?  How many of us feel alone and rejected by society?  How many of us suffer from compulsive behavior and rage?  How many of us suffer a psychiatric break that scrambles the moral compass?  All told, one or more of these experiences is affecting perhaps 6 in 10 people on a given day.  But how many of us take up arms and gun down strangers? The number is statistically insignificant, even among the populations of violent criminals and dangerous anti-social personality-types with aggressive, disassociative behavior.  Your forensic profilers in the FBI can narrow down to a slim margin the characteristics that make a person most likely to commit mass murder, but there are no signs a person can exhibit which will make mass murder a certainty. 

The "successful" mass murderer lashes out with sudden compulsivity and no one saw it coming or he keeps his plans hidden and checks his behavior until the fateful day.

I'm sorry to say our modern society is stuck with mass murderer as a sympton that will declare itself from time to time.  It's statistical insignificance will be always outweighed by the worldwide fright it summons. 
:o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_murder

How the hell do you walk into a mall and get to the third floor with a SKS rifle (which is not a small weapon by any means) without being noticed?

There's three factors I see in these types of crimes: being supremely pissed, not having any hope and lacking a conscience. A LOT of people experience the first two, often together, but the third is why these types of crimes don't happen everyday.

Dare I say... that some people are either born or raised totally defective and void of any positive attributes. In a nation of almost 300 million people, there's going to be a nutjob here and there that slips through the cracks and goes unnoticed... until it is too late.

Ant

I live near Omaha and I've been in that mall many times for school field trips and with my friends. I'll never look at Westroads the same way again. It just feels so weird knowing a place you've been to many times has a horrific event like this and gets media attention all over the world. I just don't know how to explain it... Anyway, my thoughts and prayers go out out the the victim's families and friends.  :\'(

I live near Omaha and I've been in that mall many times for school field trips and with my friends. I'll never look at Westroads the same way again. It just feels so weird knowing a place you've been to many times has a horrific event like this and gets media attention all over the world. I just don't know how to explain it... Anyway, my thoughts and prayers go out out the the victim's families and friends.  :\'(


Yeah, like I said it's really jolting when something like that happens in your own neck of the woods.

This morning after I got off work, I saw a video online from some TV station in Phoenix of a high-speed police chase that happened yesterday, it ended when the punk driving the getaway car (he had just robbed a bank)  drifted into the oncoming lane at 90 mph and deliberately crashed into another car head on, instantly killing both himself and the other driver.

After hearing about the Omaha tragedy and now seeing this, well, I kind of have to try not to be depressed right now.  :(

(Whereabouts do you live, anyway? I'm from the Lincoln area originally.)

I saw a video online from some TV station in Phoenix of a high-speed police chase that happened yesterday, it ended when the punk driving the getaway car (he had just robbed a bank)  drifted into the oncoming lane at 90 mph and deliberately crashed into another car head on, instantly killing both himself and the other driver.


I didn't realize that happened yesterday. I thought it was an old video clip. It was really awful to watch. I didn't know for sure both drivers were killed until you typed it, but I did have the feeling that no one could survive a crash like that.

Ant

Yeah, like I said it's really jolting when something like that happens in your own neck of the woods.

This morning after I got off work, I saw a video online from some TV station in Phoenix of a high-speed police chase that happened yesterday, it ended when the punk driving the getaway car (he had just robbed a bank)  drifted into the oncoming lane at 90 mph and deliberately crashed into another car head on, instantly killing both himself and the other driver.

After hearing about the Omaha tragedy and now seeing this, well, I kind of have to try not to be depressed right now.  :(

(Whereabouts do you live, anyway? I'm from the Lincoln area originally.)
reminds me that when we had the sniper attacks here in 2001 (or was it 2002?), one of them happened at a gas station i used to go to all the time to fill up after work.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.  :\'(

I agree we should be thinking about the victims,It is to bad at times like this the media almost glorifys the bad guy,repeating the story over and over.It's also tragic that some people take a tragic situation like this and Virginia Techand think they too can become "famous",for commiting such an act. Do any of these people ever seek counseling instead of taking their madness out on inocent people. There are lots of ways to get help.

I agree we should be thinking about the victims,It is to bad at times like this the media almost glorifys the bad guy,repeating the story over and over.It's also tragic that some people take a tragic situation like this and Virginia Techand think they too can become "famous",for commiting such an act. Do any of these people ever seek counseling instead of taking their madness out on inocent people. There are lots of ways to get help.


Why are so many people going batsh*t insane these days?  :-\\

I wrote this in 'Things you should never say to someone' (Playful Penguin Place) the other day ... in response to ...


That was a load your mom should have swallowed.



Now wouldn't you like to say something like that to these creeps (to put it mildly ... very mildly) ... who go into shopping centres ... and randomly blow away total strangers ..... before ... blowing themselves away ? If only those scum could get the order right !  >:( >:( >:(





Today, I spotted this thread. So ...


This does seem to be now a worldwide phenomena .... not just the USA ... although many of us spectators expect that in a country with so many guns out there. However, we've had incidents such as the Dunblane massacre in a  childrens school in Scotland, 1996 .... and the Port Arthur massacre in remote Tasmania (of all places ...) the same year.

I strongly detest that these major, MAJOR  arseholes ... who we've never heard of .... are suddenly on everyone's lips ... 'FAMOUS'  8-P ..... (usually in death ... 'cos they're such gutless cowards ultimately ... and can't face a lifetime of their shame /deserved hatred for the consequences ....). Their names will live long in history, long after many of us fine folk are forgotten. How ironic !

The chances of a massacre happening to any of us ... it's remote ... but this kind of thing just adds to the stresses of everyday life, and of course ... depresses many of us as we become numbed by yet another of these outrageous final acts.

Words about this type of thing ... 'explanations' ... anger, sadness, pain ... nothing relieves us for some time. We all die a little more ....  :-X

How the hell do you walk into a mall and get to the third floor with a SKS rifle (which is not a small weapon by any means) without being noticed?


Ant

If I saw that I'd step briskly out of the lunatic's range and call 911 on my cell phone.  You could tell mall security, but they're only going to do the same thing.  Why waste time? "OK buddy, you're banned from the mall!"  That's not gonna cut it.  Maybe mall cops should get special tactics training and patrol with high-powered rifles.  That punk kid will think twice before he palms that video game!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/04/fal.gif

But seriously,once the guy with the SKS rifle is among the shoppers, blood is going to spill. 

If I saw that I'd step briskly out of the lunatic's range and call 911 on my cell phone.  You could tell mall security, but they're only going to do the same thing.  Why waste time? "OK buddy, you're banned from the mall!"  That's not gonna cut it.  Maybe mall cops should get special tactics training and patrol with high-powered rifles.  That punk kid will think twice before he palms that video game!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/04/fal.gif

But seriously,once the guy with the SKS rifle is among the shoppers, blood is going to spill. 
did you ever see "elephant"? that's one of the interesting things about it, this kid sees the two crazy shooter guys walk into the school dressed in camo and holding automatic weapons but it just kinda freezes up the witness guy, he doesn't know what to do. he walks up to a couple of other people who are starting to walk into the school and tells them not to go in but other than that he just walks around in a daze, it doesn't really register. i have a feeling that might happen, it would just seem too surreal.

Did anyone see the press conference the authorities did defending why they released him from his last psychiatric hospitalization after he threatened his stepmother (I think I have summarized too long a period of time here).  I read that he has been in and out of trouble and the psychiatric system (including residential facilities) since he was about 14.  He was removed from the home though parental rights were never severed.

How he got in without anyone seeing a rifle that size and why did he have to also take out innocent vicitims were my questions, too.  We still have very lax security in malls, though.

The day after this massacre, a guy walked into the mall in Muskegon, MI, with his hunting rifle because he was supposed to meet someone at the sport shop entrance to have it cleaned.  Instead of carrying it into the mall in some kind of case, he walked into the mall via the foodcourt entrance with it out in the open.  :o  Needless to say, that triggered at least one panicked call to 911.  No charges were filed as the police say he had no criminal intent and it was just a misunderstanding.  I think if you are that stupid (as to take a weapon into a mall right after a massacre has occurred), you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near firearms.

Did anyone see the press conference the authorities did defending why they released him from his last psychiatric hospitalization after he threatened his stepmother (I think I have summarized too long a period of time here).  I read that he has been in and out of trouble and the psychiatric system (including residential facilities) since he was about 14.  He was removed from the home though parental rights were never severed.

How he got in without anyone seeing a rifle that size and why did he have to also take out innocent victims were my questions, too.  We still have very lax security in malls, though.

The day after this massacre, a guy walked into the mall in Muskegon, MI, with his hunting rifle because he was supposed to meet someone at the sport shop entrance to have it cleaned.  Instead of carrying it into the mall in some kind of case, he walked into the mall via the foodcourt entrance with it out in the open.  :o  Needless to say, that triggered at least one panicked call to 911.  No charges were filed as the police say he had no criminal intent and it was just a misunderstanding.  I think if you are that stupid (as to take a weapon into a mall right after a massacre has occurred), you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near firearms.


Residential Psychiatric facilities only make these kind of problems worse.  They do not permit you to have any sort of emotion or real life situations.  You don't go to a job, you go to program.  You don't "hang out with friends", you participate in peer interactions".  You are separated from society and it's norms.  Trust me, I know.  I was in one for three years.  Perhaps maybe the Mental Health system itself should share some of the blame.  As for how he got the firearm into the mall.  Mall monitor people for theft, not massacres.  As for the innocent victims?  I'm going o assume he had no comprehension of people around him.  If it's possible for someone to think the world revolved around him and his emotional needs that would be the case.
Sad thing is that I know people who have that kid's mentality.  It's scary stuff when people separate you from society.

Residential Psychiatric facilities only make these kind of problems worse.  They do not permit you to have any sort of emotion or real life situations.  You don't go to a job, you go to program.  You don't "hang out with friends", you participate in peer interactions".  You are separated from society and it's norms.  Trust me, I know.  I was in one for three years.  Perhaps maybe the Mental Health system itself should share some of the blame.  As for how he got the firearm into the mall.  Mall monitor people for theft, not massacres.  As for the innocent victims?  I'm going o assume he had no comprehension of people around him.  If it's possible for someone to think the world revolved around him and his emotional needs that would be the case.
Sad thing is that I know people who have that kid's mentality.  It's scary stuff when people separate you from society.


I agree.  In the old days they used to just warehouse the mentally ill in barbaric hospitals.  After 10 years as an inpatient, a person stood no chance on the outside.  Nowadays it's just the opposite.  Even acute cases have trouble getting insured for more than a week or two. 

Plus the staffs of these places are notoriously incompetent and think it's cute to play frikkin' head games and treat the patients like children.  Nurse Ratched was no exaggeration!
::)