The latest mass murder spree, this one in California, has once again led the media to focus on guns. The killer’s family has announced through their attorney that they are in favor of gun control and “staunchly against guns.” The family’s attorney added something that makes more sense: “My client’s mission in life will be to try to prevent any such tragedies from happening again. This country, this world, needs to address mental illness and the ramifications from not recognizing these illnesses.”
The father of one of the victims blames guns and gun people too, apparently. “…craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA” are the focus of a fist-waving emotional tirade, here.
I can understand and forgive the emotions generated by the terrible grief the loved ones of innocent murder victims experience. The tool of the murderer becomes a symbol, and then the focus, of their pain. At the time the last statement was made, the speaker may not have known that the killer committed his first three murders with a knife.
The killer’s family is “staunchly against guns”? Did that include the killer himself? Like the disgruntled ex-cop who turned rogue and gunned down a series of cops and innocent victims in SoCal some fifteen months ago, using the same “assault weapons” he railed against in his sick manifesto, the same document in which he praised the gun prohibitionists? Food for thought, there. This latest homicidal creature has left behind a long manifesto, a self-portrait of a psychopathic, misogynistic narcissist. He writes in part that he is “…Divine.! I am the closest thing there is to a living god. Humanity is a disgusting, depraved, and evil species. It is my purpose to punish them all. On the Day of Retribution, I will truly be a powerful god, punishing everyone I deem to be impure and depraved.” Read his screed yourself
Elliot Rodger, Santa Barbara mass shooting suspect, "My Twisted World" manifesto by Matthew Keys
Before this latest killer’s YouTube videos were taken down, I was able to review some of them. Watch it below before it disappears again. He comes across as a creepy reincarnation of Sal Mineo, but with much less acting ability. He overdramatically recites an obviously rehearsed tirade, complete with a repeated, hokey “heh-heh-heh” chuckle that reminds one of cartoon villains. Celebrating his own magnificence as “a supreme gentleman” and an “alpha male,” he bemoans the fact that he’s a 22-year-old virgin whom girls don’t want. If his approach to people in real life was anything like his video selfies, it’s no wonder he creeped them out.
I’m one of those who’ve long bemoaned the publicity mass murderers get, which in turn makes more of these thwarted losers want to commit murder to get their fifteen minutes of fame. “I wanna see my smiling face on the cover of the Rolling Stone”? That would be Tsarnev, the Boston Marathon bomber, who wound up exactly there. Make the cover of Time or Newsweek? The monsters of Columbine and Virginia Tech did. Other losers were apparently inspired to follow their example.
Maybe the world SHOULD see this latest aberration’s YouTube videos, to see what kind of thwarted loser does things like this.
But, instead, we’ll hear demands for gun bans and lower-capacity magazines. Like that impaired this one: early reports are that he had three “high-capacity” 9mm pistols and some forty loaded magazines, all of California-compliant ten-round capacity.
I wonder how many will overlook the most glaringly obvious lesson of this atrocity: That the slaughter of the innocent stopped as soon as the perpetrator met lawfully-armed resistance.
Mas, your summation is spot-on:
” I wonder how many will overlook the most glaringly obvious lesson of this atrocity: That the slaughter of the innocent stopped as soon as the perpetrator met lawfully-armed resistance.”
Not me. Not mine. Not today.
They use anything to push the agenda.
They ignore common sense and facts.
On this Memorial Day weekend my mind is more focused on real heroes of this nation. Losers and those who implictly apologize for them are not worth my time.
Recently I was talking with a news executive. I asked him which would be easier to sell to the networks, an hour-long special on mass killers or an hour-long special on heroes like the teachers who saved kids at Sandy Hook or the CHL that stopped the New Life Church killer.
He hemmed and hawed.
When will they acknowledge that he killed 3 with a knife and I hear one with a car before he used his guns.
That is one sick SOB. It took all I could muster to watch the whole thing.. As usual instead of blaming others he needed to take a hard look in the mirror.
I don’t think “they” will come away with any understanding. It doesn’t fit their agenda.
Just goes to show you never know when or where.
Watch your six, and Gail’s too.
Marc
Thanks, Mas, for providing this material, and for an excellent perspective.
The parents knew he was troubled, called police. They saw his videos, but nobody searched his room then and thereafter periodically? The people he threatened were not notified. Not institutionalized? Epic parenting and authorities failure.
It is such a shame that no one who knew this individual recognized his abnormal behavior and tried to find help for him. As expected, the anti-gun crowd has already begun to blame the gun rather than the killer, all but ignoring the fact that he also used two other weapons, a knife and a vehicle, to kill or attempt to kill his victims. Insanity will not be prevented through legislation but the ability to protect oneself just might be.
I agree with Steve Harris. Did they need a flashing neon sign saying this man had serious mental issues?
So the killer’s family was staunchly against guns. How does that square with dad’s involvement with a movie series featuring kids killing kids? I’m detecting some distinct duplicity.
Knife, car and gun. Can we just blame the killer?
The killer’s family may be “staunchly against guns” but they sure made a lot of money from a movie portraying teenage gladiators playing a deadly version of paintball.
I don’t think the parents are grief stricken – they are relieved, and they are worried that somebody will start to blame them for producing a psychopath. People might start to ask questions about brain damage or child abuse. So they shout and wave their arms in the air and tell everyone that guns are to blame, or the system is to blame, or that Capricorns (or Cancers – would be more appropriate, or whatever sign he was) are always unstable on the cusp of this or that, or something else. They will shift the blame to anything or anyone else to protect their social position, and to gather unto themselves the coveted mantle of victimhood.
They are accomplices before the fact, because they didn’t get their son the help he needed. They are accomplices after the fact, for refusing to face the reality that their son was a ticking time bomb, just waiting to explode.
As to him being a virgin, he could have driven to Nevada in six hours, and relieved himself of that handicap over any three day weekend. The fact that no California girls would consort with him shows rare good judgement, and gives me hope for the future of that state and the republic.
This guy was not sick he was pure EVIL stopped only by force. Our Gov’t. seems to think that if enough of this kind of evil continues people will start to scream to take guns away from everyone. I really don’t know if this is a sickness or a spoiled rotten child who didn’t get what he wanted and in his eyes this was the ultimate payback. If the latter then it is evil and not a sickness. Does our Gov’t. think that the sheep out number the sheepdogs? Are they just waiting for people to say enough is enough and just turn in all the firearms? With the sales of firearms being like it has for the last decade it seem like the sheepdog population is growing instead of dying off. Things like this is going to happen until there are enough armed citizens that these (sick?) evil people are going to know that they will not succeed but dye in a hail of bullets. The Bible says if the Blind leads the Blind they will all fall into a ditch. The blind people who scream at a mechanical device and not the operator are truly blind. Losing a love one seems to only make them even more blind to what is really the cause of the mass murders and that is the PERSON who was the operator of a mechanical device. I can understand the Dad that lost his son hurting but I can’t understand him placing the blame on who deserved it. Is there a medication that will cure evil? I understand some people that are truly sick and can be helped. This Kid was not sick he was pure evil. If things didn’t go his way he would just kill the people who brought him his misery when it was his on self that brought that on. After watching the video it only makes me want to hold my kids and wife closer and keep a firearm really more than one on me at all times which I do. When are people going to wake up and see that we don’t live in a paradise but a fallen world. Our founding Fathers even seen this and with the second amendment made our God given rights even harder for someone to take away from us. I thank God that he put people like John Moses Browning, Samuel Colt, Daniel Wesson & Horace Smith and the many other gun designers and manufactor in place to where I don’t have to cower in a corner or stick my head in the sand but can use what firearms that are there. But when are the sheepdogs going to be able to protect all the sheep instead of the one under their roof. I think we as gun owners should be as load but wiser than the idiots who scream guns are evil and point out that only people are evil. When?
There is something fundamentally wrong with a certain portion of our youth in America today. In looking at these mass shooting the majority are being carried out by youths between the age of 17-30.
With that said we are going to have to start taking being more serious in taking notice of any warning signs on these individuals before they occur. We had some red flags here and we had red flags on the looser in Aurora both were past over maybe too lightly.
California must have millions of guns. I’m sure they sit locked up in safes until their owners use them to shoot paper, flying clay targets, steel targets or game animals. On May 24th, as far as we know, the only gun in CA which hurt people was in the hands of a monster, an evil, self-centered man, who thought he was a god. Only one gun misbehaved {yeah, right!} on May 24th, and the blind anti-gunners want to ban all guns owned by civilians. How absurd. But their argument works on uneducated people, who are also people who can and do vote.
The Founders trusted “We the People.” Maybe they made a mistake. Or, at least, some of the “People” have failed to educate themselves. People like that need a Master.
I don’t get it. This guy (monster) drives a BMW and has a father that is an assistant director for a box office smash movie hit, lives in CA and he can’t get laid? All he had to do was wear one of those sandwich signs.
My parents were divorced when I was 7 too. My mother remarried and I had a step father I didn’t get along with. My father remarried 3 times more and for awhile I had 2 step siblings. My parents remarried again 1 year before I got married. I am now 64. Give me a break.
This was a whiny ass spoiled brat that thought the world owed him a life on a platter. I didn’t read the whole manifesto, but it is plainly apparent that he really enjoyed life when he had it served to him on a platter. I guess he wanted his father to get him fixed up with one of the starlets eager to make it in the movies.
i did not watch his 10min video nor read his 141 page manifesto. i don’t know what has warranted change in your publicizing policy. to be honest, such resentment is probably what drove the perpetrator to do his deed and i imagine for every negative opinion there is an equal positive that will feed the next killer. to make it obvious: by calling him a loser here, he will be called a hero elsewhere.
speaking of obvious, what is the point of labeling the perpetrator a loser? better yet, has there been any mass-killer that has not been a “loser“?
Before the act he claimed to be a god, but when met with armed resistance, he killed himself like the rest of his kind do. Funny how that works.
Complain about the NRA and get your 15 minutes of fame! I think that is the driver.
Your dad’s a movie producer and you can’t get laid? That’s telling too!!
Sometimes a mook is just a mook, no?
So the killer’s family was staunchly against guns. How does that square with dad’s involvement with a movie series featuring kids killing kids? I’m detecting some distinct duplicity.
To be “fair,” the gladiators in Hunger Games did not have guns. Ironically, being armed with everything but guns doesn’t seem to have dropped the body count.
OTOH, “Since the first Hunger Games movie hit theaters, there has been an increased interest is the sport of archery. Membership in USA Archery has increased by close to 50 percent, and many new enthusiasts are at the competition level.”
http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/the-hunger-games-brings-archery-into-focus
The FBI has a team available (Behavioural Analysis Unit) that could have stopped him. But did the cops want to do anything…noooo….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/fbi-disrupted-150-mass-shootings-violent-acts-attorney-general-eric-holder-article-1.1549473
This guy was acting out in public but was never arrested or committed!
It should have been easier to get him into the mental health system and away from the public.
It is always easy in hindsight to see the signs of “mental illness”.
I believe that this guy, and most of the other calculating mass murderers were not mentally ill. That’s why they could pass without confinement or incarceration. They had totally given themselves over to evil. They had all intended to kill and then die.
They weren’t strictly psychopaths either. Psychopaths don’t have a conscience like normal people but they do have self preservation instincts.
They had a desire for fame, Maybe we could prevent some future people doing the same again by never mentioning their name after the first 3 days. Just refer to them as the Columbine, Tucson, etc scumbag losers.
After listening to one of the victims father fume at the NRA, I got the impression, the victims father DID NOT care for the NRA, or us law abiding gun owners, way before this tragedy even happened. That’s the impression I got. And yes, this kid is nothing more than a criminal.
All or nearly all of these mass-shooters would be weaving baskets in institutions, were this to be fifty years ago. I have yet to hear a victim’s relative go off on the federal government driven deinstitutionalization push that started in the early 1960’s (that gave birth to higher crime, homelessness, and mass-homicides).
I’m not suggesting a wholesale return to the 1950’s. But the present state of affairs is a cruel joke on everyone, everyone but those looking for an excuse to reign in freedom. Empty the asylums then turn the whole country into a nanny state.
It does not have to mean a wholesale return to life-long institutionalization. But the current scheme of don’t intervene unless it is certain that someone will hurt themselves, and then tell them to take medicine that makes them feel bad and shortens their life, for the rest of their life, is a complete failure. The Finns, in the Lapland area, are doing some interesting things with schizophrenia–actually curing it, without medicine. I don’t know what the answer is, but is anyone seriously asking?
In this particular case the creep may not have been mentally ill, but a product of Hollywood. Half of what Hollywood does is to glorify casual sex–a teenager is a loser in the movies until they do the deed–and to glorify violence, especially revenge violence. When Hollywood crashes into the real world, and this happens, well obviously it is the fault of some farmer in Nebraska who has a pistol in his safe. Hollywood selling sex and violence contribute to a sex-obsessed creep turning violent? Nah, it has to be the mere existence of a law-abiding gun owner out there somewhere.
@Steven R: Many, indeed most, mentally impaired persons are genuinely mentally impaired but are not subject to involuntary commitment. To be subject to IC, you must be proven by clear and convincing evidence (which comes very close to being “beyond a reasonable doubt”) to pose a serious risk of injury to yourself or others. Many states add, because there’s no clear link between most mental impairments and dangerous behavior, an “overt act” requirement: a requirement that it be proved that you’ve actually done something which injured or risked injury to yourself or others and in those states it’s not enough to show that the mental impairment might incline you to being dangerous. Other states do not have such a requirement and there’s not yet been a determination as to whether it’s constitutionally required.
Just because a person is mentally impaired does not mean, of course, that he or she is not liable for their criminal acts. Just like most mentally impaired people are not subject to involuntary commitment, neither are they so impaired or impaired in such a way that they could avail themselves of an insanity defense.
For the “I hate cops and blame them every time crowd”, as nearly as I can ascertain, they had no probable cause that would have convinced a judge to issue a 72 hour involuntary evaluation warrant at the time of the interview with this subject and his parents.
Contrary to internet wanna be lawyers, police have no power to commit someone for mental evaluation, only a judge can do that. They will never get a judge to sign such a warrant for an adult subject on the basis of hearsay evidence of third parties (the “manifesto” had not surfaced at the time). All they had at the time were the statements of the parents (which included the fact that he was receiving counseling from a mental health professional) and their own perceptions of the subject after interviewing him personally.
If anti-social internet rants and hear-say evidence were enough to deprive a person of their liberty, a good percentage of those posting their anger on “you tube” and some blogs would be clogging the hospital psych-wards as we discuss this.
A chilling look into a warped mind.
We now have more reasons to be alert to moves against our rights by people who blame an inanimate object for its use and politicians who really don’t care about reducing violence & crime but just use emotion to further their agenda of disarming the population so the next step can be accomplished.
You don’t make people safer by disarming them; You make them slaves.
Let’s cut to the chase. Modern society has trained those under 40 to be self indulgent narcissists who have seen 20 gazillion murders on TV, killed thousands on video games, have NO RESPECT for anyone or anything. When the self indulgent hippie liberals took over the USA in the 60s, society went in the toilet. In the 60s I used to say: “Someday these hippie freaks will be running this country”. Now they are. And their grandchildren are voting… and the HotWheels kids are designing cars. yuck.