It’s time for us to undertake whatever course is necessary to somehow screen for aberrant and psychotic behaviors which make it possible for individuals to accept that walking around with a plan and the means to create slaughter is somehow a path which can achieve anything.
It’s time for us to have, since professional security is impossibly expensive at almost all schools, vetted and screened volunteers FROM THE LOCAL TOWNS, to provide active security.
It’s time for us to admit when these idiots can get guns, getting guns is too easy, and the process NEEDS REFINEMENT.
It’s time for us all to admit that when this happens if ONE PERSON, THE RIGHT PEOPLE ARE ARMED and TRAINED, this cannot happen to this extent, and maybe not at all.
It’s time to do whatever research is necessary to find the process which can scientifically identify these people.
It’s time.
12 comments:
Who saw this coming?
WHO?
Surely, someone. Likely someone in the immediate family.
It is rare for someone to commit a horrific deed without at least other person knowing that something was terribly wrong.
I saw this happen with the family of the one confirmed sociopath I've known -- a student in my 6th grade class.
I pled with the parents over and over again to "Do something!" They did not. They refused to believe that their son was a sociopath until the day that he tried to kill his father. And even then, the family continued to "shelter" the sociopath in one way or another.
You are completely right AOW, i also blame society and his close environment on not acting on the 'warning signs' that something was wrong.
Thus far the information is that the guns were registered to the killer's mother. Whether they actually belonged to her and he stole them OR she was acting as a straw purchaser (highly illegal) for her son is not known and like everything else with this traedy te informationmay change.
The family will almost NEVER say to themselves that their child is a mass murderer of children in waiting who had to be stopped.
They are saying to themselves, the right opportunity to speak to their child has not yet come. They are saying the child is troubled, but NOT A KILLER like this.
Just like the child you taught, AoW. The family will NOT turn their child into a lifetime of either institutionalization or who knows, because this scenario today is simply not acceptable.
In my junior high everyone received aptitude and intelligence tests, and when I became eligible to be an officer at the C level, I had to take every MMPI type test imaginable before I would even be allowed to interview where I had worked already for 8 years (The results scared them, and with good reason).
Surely we can at least screen in order to identify those who should receive PERSONAL ATTENTION. A professional is not some parent afraid to identify their child to some uncaring black box machine of authority
From ABC News:
4:52 p.m: Neighbors described Adam Lanza to ABC as “odd” and displaying characteristics associated with mental illness.
Epa,
The student whom I mentioned above started showing signs of sociopathy as early as 2nd grade. By the time that 6th grade rolled around, the situation was a nightmare.
I believe that the parents waited until 9th or 10th grade to try to come to terms with the issue. By then, intervention was too late, IMO. Extraordinary steps were taken to cover up the young man's problems -- and the danger that he posed to others.
Maybe there really is no such thing as effective intervention. Sociopaths appear not to have a conscience.
I last saw the above-mentioned individual in 2009. His parents were supporting him, but required that he live several states away and never spend a night under the same roof with them. He is unemployed and always has been as far as I know. Likely, he receives SSDI as he was certified as a sociopath. Yes, certified by a psychiatrist. I saw the papers.
There was something very scary in those papers, and I've never gotten over it: the papers actually stated that, according to the young man's own words, I was the only person who ever cared about him, who ever tried to help him.
I hope that I never have to cross paths with him again. Really. He is the one person whom I actually fear.
BTW, the above individual was a bed wetter, a fire starter, and cruel to animals.
He was also friendless. Absolutely friendless. All others in his peer group shunned him. I saw that last aspect with my own two eyes when he was in 2nd or 3rd grade.
Eerie beyond belief.
With all due respect, Epa, your post is long on emotional reaction and short on practical specifics, in terms of offering ideas about how to control the acquiring of a gun.
This could open a can of worms.
In Argentina if you want to get a license to have a firearm, you need to get a report from a government employed or recommended psychiatrist who has to say you're "normal" before you can get a gun.
One of the questions the psychiatrist asks is "Will you use this gun for self defense or for the defense of your family members if your lives were at risk" and if you say "yes" to that, then you are declared "not normal".
The more control you give the government, the more you give your freedoms away.
There are mentally unstable people all over the world but governments are not going to fix that. Families need to fix this problem. Neighbors need to fix this problem. People themselves need to come together to fix these ills of the society.
In one of those rare instances I think I may have to disagree with Epa, if he is sugesting that EVERY child in the U.S. needs to be screened to see if they need "personal attention".
From whom? The government? Some detached psyciatrist who thinks they know btter what's rht for the child than the parent? AYFKM?
That does not sound lie the Epa I've come to know, to allow the gov't to decide who is fit for society and who needs re-education, institutionalization etc.
Do we need to keep guns out of the hands of evil like these?
Absolutely. I'll never arue othereise.
Is the screenin of every child in the U.S. for somesort of disorder when no symptoms are present the way to do it.
Absolutely not. I'll neebr arue in favor of it.
Or am I (& tbe Wild Turkey) misundersanding you?
As for armed security (in another thread) The idea s ludicrouos. Do we stop at the schools? Why? The malls? Why? The movie theaters? The grocery stores?
And do you really want to live in a society where your every public move is watched over by an armed rent a goon? Because remember, just as they're watching everyone else, THEY'RE WATCHING YOU AS WELL. And then who is to say the person won't strike somewhere elee where there is less or no armed security?
So instead then why not just ISSUE a firearm (with appropriate training) to EVERY able bodied American. Whether they like it or not.
We need common sense solutions. Emphasis on common sense.
In Switzerland is it compulsory for citizens to keep their firearms after their obligatory (militia) military service. Hence in theory every household in Switzerland has a gun and they're required to keep it (none of that BS about, "I am a pacifist and don't like guns").
But Switzerland also depends on and trusts its citizens that in times of trouble they will be there to help the nation out since Switzerland does not have a regular military.
Its a great idea to have every able bodied American armed. But the government is trying to fundamentally change the country and the last thing they want is to have the citizens of America protecting their constitution with guns...so I don't see it happening anytime soon.
I have to say this....
Every school psychologist whom I personally know is incompetent. A ditz -- at best.
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