Does anyone have a mentally ill relative who is capable of a mass shooting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it possible to get a type of long-lasting medication patch or shot like you might use for birth control so that people with mental illness have to at least go to a doctor to have it removed before deciding to go off meds? I'm not suggesting forcing it but just that the added step of having to see a doctor and discuss why it's a bad idea to go off the meds might help keep them on more!

The only thing this kind of rhetoric accomplishes is to stigmatize mental illness so that people who need help are less likely to seek it. People with mental illness are not the problem re: mass shootings. The insane accessability of extremely lethal guns is the problem. There's no reason to think the Vegas shooter had any mental illness. The only reason people are talking about that is because our culture's only two explanations for mass shootings are Muslim terrorist or white mentally ill loner.

Even if you accept that our gun laws will never change, the factors that most correlate with serious violence are not mental illness, but: a history of childhood abuse, binge drinking, and male gender. (See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318286/) Should we require all men to take that drug that doesn't allow alcohol to metabolize? That would probably save more lives than your "patch for the mentally ill" idea.

I'm sorry, but I'm mentally ill and I don't think you can commit mass murder without being mentally ill.

I have a distant cousin who is a preteen and it wouldn't surprise me to learn he's done something like this years from now. His parents keep guns in the house.

It's pretty meaningless for public policy or even worrying-about-your-family-members purposes to use a circular definition in which "anyone who commits a mass murder" is mentally ill. It only makes sense to talk about mental illness as a risk factor if you are talking about people who are identified as having a mental illness before they commit murder.

[Anonymous]

The Vegas shooter was described as friendly and even extroverted by at least one former neighbor.

Just weeks ago the guy texted his brother to see how he had made out during Hurricane Irma and to find out how his elderly mom was doing.

Irma wasn't that long ago. Would a guy who was contemplating a horror like this even notice a weather event in another state?

[Anonymous]

TBH, I'm not sure this one did. A 64 yo with no criminal history, military or extremist ties, or apparent motive manages to pull off the deadliest mass shooting in US history, acting alone, and then kills himself before police get to the room. Seems legit.


There is also the odd position of the two broken windows. They don't look like they belong to the same room, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TBH, I'm not sure this one did. A 64 yo with no criminal history, military or extremist ties, or apparent motive manages to pull off the deadliest mass shooting in US history, acting alone, and then kills himself before police get to the room. Seems legit.


There is also the odd position of the two broken windows. They don't look like they belong to the same room, IMHO.

I think he may have blown the lock off of a connecting door into another hotel room and fired from both his hotel suite and from that adjoining room. I saw a diagram somewhere of a possible layout for his room and now I'm not sure where I saw it.

Has it been confirmed that he killed himself? At one point I heard that the police had killed him. I don't know which is accurate.

His former neighbor said that he told her he was a professional gambler and speculator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those with mental illness commit crimes at a lower rates than the general population. No I don't worry about this. If I had loner pro-gun family members I would worry.

"Mentally ill" is what happens when the criminal is White and Christian. When the criminal is Muslim and non-White it means that they are terrorists.

So you don't believe that the shooters in Littleton Colorado, Sandy Hook, and Tucson were mentally ill? Interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP,

Mass shootings are still a very rare event. I wouldn't worry that your brother would do this unless he's made threats are collects guns.

the sandy hook, Littleton Colorado, gabby Gifford, Virginia tech and at least one of the columbine shooters were obsessed with guns long before the shootings.

Thank you. My brother has never been violent and has no guns. The only person he has ever hurt is himself. he has broken his hand and toe while he was in a rage. he punched a window and kicked a wall.

I'm so sorry he's had a hard time. I'm sorry you worry about him. As a family member, we can only do our best to support (not enable) one another. Life is hard and complicated. Sometimes it just plain sucks.

[Anonymous]

The jury is still out whether personality disorders belong with mental illnesses (while they all belong in psychiatry). There is a distinction. You can't medicate a psychopath to make him less of a psychopath. Not a mental illness but a personality disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

Mass shootings are still a very rare event. I wouldn't worry that your brother would do this unless he's made threats are collects guns.

the sandy hook, Littleton Colorado, gabby Gifford, Virginia tech and at least one of the columbine shooters were obsessed with guns long before the shootings.

Since when are yearly mass shootings a rare event?! This is ridiculous - we can't go anywhere now without fear - concerts, church, school, movie theaters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it possible to get a type of long-lasting medication patch or shot like you might use for birth control so that people with mental illness have to at least go to a doctor to have it removed before deciding to go off meds? I'm not suggesting forcing it but just that the added step of having to see a doctor and discuss why it's a bad idea to go off the meds might help keep them on more!

No, we don't drug people in the US against their will. BTW: in Neveda you can buy unlimited ammunition. Something is wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those with mental illness commit crimes at a lower rates than the general population. No I don't worry about this. If I had loner pro-gun family members I would worry.

"Mentally ill" is what happens when the criminal is White and Christian. When the criminal is Muslim and non-White it means that they are terrorists.

+1

The white males just didn't get the mental health assistance they needed, even a multi millionaire. Black or brown or Muslim? Thug or terrorist.

[Anonymous]

It's really offensive to find this in the Family Forum. This isn't about family relationships at all. This isn't about mental illness really either. It's about your anxieties and will soon devolve into a political argument.

[Anonymous]

I don't think I do. And I don't buy it that the shooter's family had no idea. I think they weren't close at all and didn't know much about the guy anymore. But I don't buy it that he didn't have a history of mental illness.

I'm just thinking out loud here: But do you think mental illness can kick in as people get older? My parents get meaner and more heartless the older they get. My dad has been a f***ing a**hole in the last year and he is 66. My mom has always been mean, but she gets meaner and more selfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Vegas shooter was described as friendly and even extroverted by at least one former neighbor.

Just weeks ago the guy texted his brother to see how he had made out during Hurricane Irma and to find out how his elderly mom was doing.

Irma wasn't that long ago. Would a guy who was contemplating a horror like this even notice a weather event in another state?

Where are you getting your info from? The neighbor said the man was like living next to nothing and showed no emotion at all. She said it was like living next to air. And I don't think that if your mom is in the middle of a hurricane and without power, texting your brother to ask if she got power... that's not really showing much concern AT ALL. That is doing the bare minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those with mental illness commit crimes at a lower rates than the general population. No I don't worry about this. If I had loner pro-gun family members I would worry.

"Mentally ill" is what happens when the criminal is White and Christian. When the criminal is Muslim and non-White it means that they are terrorists.

So you don't believe that the shooters in Littleton Colorado, Sandy Hook, and Tucson were mentally ill? Interesting.

NP. Wow, way to miss the point. Turn it around. That poster is not saying that those white mass murderes were not mentally ill, he is saying muslims who commit the same types of crimes are not considered mentally ill, they are terrorists. Which is another way of saying that somebody who turns to terrorism has to have some sort of mental illness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't know if the shooter was mentally ill or not. I saw his brother being interviewed about it and his brother was in a complete and total state of shock. I saw an interview with one of the shooter's former neighbors and she said that he was friendly and personable. Didn't talk politics, didn't seem to be angry about anything. The neighbor was also shocked that he would do something like this.

The reaction seems to be that this was a fairly normal, every day guy who must have just snapped which is scary as hell.

I think there are plenty of people who like this shooter have very dark minds and ideas that they hide well behind a facade and that is why you can't truly know who might or might not become one of theses mass shooters.