California Killings

I listened to a wise psychologist on the news this morning who explained that disturbed people would watch all the publicity this story got and want it for themselves.  That innocent people lost their lives to a deeply angry and psychotic individual wouldn't matter to them as long as they got the attention and publicity they felt they deserved.  This is egotism taken to the extreme.

I often wonder why psychotics like this don't just take their own lives instead of first taking the lives of others but, of course, suicides don't get much attention.  The answer seems to be that the public shouldn't dwell on the killer but on the victims and that seems to be what the newscasters have been doing lately.

But I'd like to know what drove the killer, who seemed to have so much...money and looks...to feel violently cheated because he didn't have more.  He apparently never understood that his shortfalls came from his own personality.  In real life, we usually reap what we sow but maybe he either didn't know how or was unable to blend in with others.  That makes for a very lonely and angry person.

Most of us feel like that at times but most of us will never take the deadly step of striking out and hurting another person because that is something we could never do under any circumstances.  Then, is it all only in the way we choose to deal with our problems?  Or is it a physical mental illness that forces one to choose to kill?

I'm one of the many who believe that extremely violent video games and movies are a large part of the problem.  They desensitize the participants to killing and the consequences which follow violence.  Maybe the games and movies aren't as dangerous for strong minded individuals but what effect do they have on even slightly disturbed people?  Time will tell.

The first recorded instance of mental illness should prohibit that person from ever in their life purchasing or owning a gun.  Granted, there are other murder weapons available but a gun is what can cause the most damage.  The 22 year old killer in this most recent instance possessed many guns legally and he had been mentally disturbed since he was a child.  

Law makers in the United States should be ashamed that, even after Sandy Hook, they never took the correct action to put more restrictions on gun owners.  The NRA should be ashamed that they fought gun restrictions.  The rest of the citizens should be ashamed that they didn't put more pressure on their leaders to change the laws on gun control.  Stricter gun control laws can only help.