Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

Thanks for highlighting that.

really belongs on one of those "what the fuck is wrong with people/nuclear holocaust in 3 seconds" threads :-/

doesn't get much more fucked-up than that

Why do I even look at these threads?

I still can't believe that story. (Sadly, I can believe it happened in the Boston area.)

I really wish I hadn't even looked at this thread.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/nyregion/04hostage.html?hp

now with extra xenophobia. Yay, America.

^^ Huge conclusion-jump in that post -- see other thread for context

P.S. Re: the above thing about mental illness and society, I'm pretty sure most everything we know indicates that lots of deep mental illness has a big biological component, but the behavior that illness actually results in is heavily shaped by culture and environment.* But a lot of this is environment/culture in the kind of deep-down way that you can't exactly just decide to change one day.

* E.g., there are minor neuroses (like weird phobias) that are common and specific to certain cultures

Countries with stricter gun control like Britain and Japan (I think) have fewer shooting sprees and drive bys than we do in America. I think there are countries where cops don't even regularly carry guns.

and yet Japan has highest suicide rate in the world

also they grope womens on the train

and work way too hard and enjoy rape porn

also cartoons with school girls with penises.

Americans don't enjoy rape porn AT ALL.

Well, yes, limited access to guns is a pretty obvious physical way of keeping people from behaving certain ways with them

I was using that as an obvious example of behavior being shaped by culture and environment. Maybe if the Japanese had as easy access to guns as Americans do, they'd be less into rape porn and shoot each other more.

The fact that a country has a social problem doesn't imply anything about the success/failure of its gun control policies, does it?

"Country X places a high prices on tobacco products and as a result few of their citizens smoke nowadays."
"Yeah, but Country X's students score poorly on Science and Reading Comprehension."

??

Maybe we should be arming Japanese when they come to US just to see.

this is where i'm from. trying to get in touch with my mother, but she's a hospital administrator right down the road from the shooting and likely is very busy atm. she left me a voicemail earlier saying everything was ok, so im hoping for the best, but i'm really freaking out right now

Here's hoping she and staff are working well and helping people

Best wishes to you and yr ma, k3vin.

Japan has had several mass killings in recent years, but thankfully the death tolls have been smaller. The attackers have used knives. Gun violence is very unusual in Japan and usually involves organized crime hits.

xpost

Aum Shuriya bitchez

Shinrikyo even

god I can't type today

yeah when i first saw the headline all it said was new york state (i.e., not nyc) so i kind of gasped but i am not from that part, glad yr mom is ok k3vin

talked to my mom, everyone we know is ok. my stepfather performed surgery on one of the '5 taken to a hospital' and he is going to live. it's a pretty small city with shitty internal communication, so my mom said they thought there were going to be around 40 deaths earlier, but now it appears there will be under 20.

i have a feeling we'll be seeing more and more of these.

> ^^ Huge conclusion-jump in that post -- see other thread for context

It's my specialty. I'm not just going to give it up.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/03/state/n092921D51.DTL&tsp=1

Killer Santa used coke before rampage.

i have a feeling we'll be seeing more and more of these.

― Beatrix Kiddo, den 3 april 2009 20:10 (3 hours ago) Bookmark

feels like we are already?

3 police officers killed in Pittsburgh. The carnage continues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/us/05pittsburgh.html?hp

now with extra xenophobia. Yay, America.

― Zero Transfats Waller (Oilyrags

or not, since the shooter was an immigrant. small relief, for some reason.

strange as it sounds, it is possible for immigrants to be xenophobic.

rolling 2008 disgruntled shootings thread

dr phil in behind the times shocker

And so it continues :(

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/04/5-children-father-found-d_n_183207.html

guh guys killing their entire family and then themselves is like a fucked up category all its own. and in everyone of these stories there's a neighbor or someone saying "eh, he seemed like a nice guy"

yep, bottling up all that depression and rage away from the neighbors is key to the formula

i am calm in the knowledge that every neighbour i've had thinks i'm a surly asshole

Actually, I think there have been societies where murder is virtually non-existent

wanna come up with some examples, cause I don't buy this at all / have never heard of such societies outside of the lyrics to 'cortez the killer'. "strong social cohesion" isn't gonna overpower certain mental/psychological disorders that some people are simply born with.

― iatee, Monday, March 30, 2009 3:13 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

bambuti pygmies

guh guys killing their entire family and then themselves is like a fucked up category all its own.

This is about ownership -- or, even more creepily, a deep-seated belief that your wife and kids are really just extensions of you, and your failure is their failure. Cannot emphasize this enough.

Sure it's a tragedy for all parties but forgive me if I can't find any sympathy for men who emotionally, deep down, believe that kind of thing. "Since I can't care for this thing I created, it is mine to take out of the world when I go."

or, indeed, women.

Sure. But that's a different phenomenon.

i think it's the same dynamic, whether it's fuelled by power (in the cases by father) or despair (as the few high profiles cases involving mothers in ireland have maybe been), though- "you can't go on without me".

now with extra xenophobia. Yay, America.

lol

Hmm. Maybe you've had more cases in the news involving mothers -- I don't feel like that's very high-profile here. Seems like...we think mothers kill from post-partum depression or anger/frustration (shaken baby syndrome), but we don't have the ownership thing so much.

Maybe you've had more cases in the news involving mothers

yeah, definitely (ireland). whether that's a reporting thing or otherwise, it's hard to say, but i don't think it would account for all of it (a guy killing his family would still be front page news in a country this size, but i suppose a mother even more so).

It's an interesting question whether it's in the reporting, or in the different societal conceptions of mothers that apply different pressures to people.

The gunman in the Pittshurgh police shooting was apparently one of the Alex Jones/tin hat crowd.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09095/960750-53.stm

Even more charming stuff.

yeah, definitely (ireland)

Is Ireland the only place that has a folk history of songs about infanticide? (OK, I know - a whole different thread but it immediately struck me when I read that.

fwiw i don't dislike kate (and very much enjoy her music posts, particularly those about how pink floyd does or does not rule; would totally read a book)

and i can understand that transitioning would become one's most important topic

but her personal posts have become increasingly solipsistic -- which is fine in certain circumstances -- but i think rather less so in a thread discussing mass shootings. that's all