UPDATE: This began as a story about the Charleston spree killer, but further research has found that the killer was a prohibited person, “gifted” a firearm for his 21st birthday, two months after a felony arrest which made him a prohibited person (until and unless charges were dismissed or he were acquitted). What’s more, it seems to be coming out that the scumbag’s mother didn’t trust him with a gun and took it from him, only to have her son steal it from her possession prior to committing this atrocity.
Read on for the details…
Infowars, the notorious site headed up by the 9/11 Truther Alex Jones tries to tie drug use and abuse to mass killers.
As we previously highlighted, virtually every major mass shooter was taking some form of SSRI or other pharmaceutical drug at the time of their attack, including Columbine killer [scumbag’s name redacted], ‘Batman’ shooter [scumbag’s name redacted] and Sandy Hook gunman [scumbag’s name redacted].
As the website SSRI Stories profusely documents, there are literally hundreds of examples of mass shootings, murders and other violent episodes that have been committed by individuals on psychiatric drugs over the past three decades.
Once again, Alex Jones and crew are touting a tenuous link at best. According to Dr. David Grossman and other formally educated types, this makes about as much sense as blaming heart medication for heart problems.
Grossman is leading research proving that long periods of playing violent video games (think Grand Theft Auto, among others) among pre-teens and young adolescents does far more damage to young peoples’ psyche than any pill. The games reward killing and other anti-social behavior, in essence training our young people to kill without remorse.
The US military uses shooting simulators to do much the same for our troops with great success. Only according to Grossman, the military does it while simultaneously teaching recruits to focus the aggression upon the enemy, not upon innocents or good guys as some of these games like Grand Theft Auto.
And guess who spent lots of time in his room as a child? Our church spree killer. From Reuters:
[scumbag’s name redacted]’s uncle, Carson Cowles, recalled telling his sister, the suspect’s mother, several years ago that he was worried about [scumbag’s name redacted], and that the “quiet, soft-spoken boy” was too introverted.
“I said he was like 19 years old, he still didn’t have a job, a driver’s license or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time,” Cowles said in a telephone interview.
That wasn’t all:
[scumbag’s name redacted] appears to have had difficulties at school. He had to repeat his first year at White Knoll High School but left mid-way through his second attempt, according to the local school district. He then went to Dreher High School in a different district for the final three months of the academic year before leaving in 2010. Neither district had records of him completing high school.
So, you’ve got a kid who can’t finish his freshman year at high school over three semesters, drops out and sits in his room day in and day out. Does anyone want to guess what he was doing in his room. Can you spell “video games”? I thought you could.
The media is making a big deal about his racist leanings. It’s odd, because a third or more of his Facebook friends were black.
What’s more, we hear a description related from at least one of his former classmates that the killer was a strange loner who was suspected of abusing drugs.
(CNN) – Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham said his niece, Emily, was in an 8th grade English class with [scumbag’s name redacted], the suspect in the Charleston church massacre.
“He was quiet, strange, very unsocial and everyone thought he was on drugs,” Graham, a U.S. Senator from South Carolina, said of the suspect in an telephone interview with CNN, relaying the description from his niece Emily and sister Darline Graham Nordone.
Certainly, just looking at a photograph of the loser would be enough to indicate someone who didn’t fit in with the majority of his peers.
As a rule, we won’t publish the name or likeness of spree killers to give them any notoriety or fame, but suffice it to say, he looked like a weirdo.
All of that aside, the father GAVE his son a handgun and supposedly gave it to him for his 21st birthday, two months after he faced FELONY charges. The killer was ineligible to own or possess a gun. If his father presented his legally prohibited son a firearm for his birthday as has been reported, then it’s time to lock up the father.
The mother had better sense, not trusting her drug-abusing, loner, sits-in-his-room all day playing video games son to have a gun, so she took it away.
According to the killer’s friend, the dysfunctional loser stole the gun from his mother prior to carrying out the attack. From The Gateway Pundit:
Justin Meek, a friend of Charleston shooter [scumbag’s name redacted], spoke with Greta Van Susteren tonight. He told Greta that [scumbag’s name redacted] took the gun from his mother that he used in the mass murder. He said [scumbag’s name redacted]’s mom didn’t trust him with it so she took it away.
I really like Grossman, but his theories on video games are not gospel. Psychos are gonna psycho. Now if you’re a psycho, playing GTA and popping SSRIs aren’t going to help. But blaming one or the other as a root cause for these psychos going on killing sprees makes about as much sense as blaming the gun. (Hint: what percentage of violent video game players and SSRI takers *didn’t* commit mass murder yesterday?)
Full disclosure: never played GTA, won’t let my kids play those kinds of games, but I’m sure I’ve racked up over a million kills over the years on other games. I’m a stable and responsible, gun-owning family man.
My kids have already agreed that violent video games won’t be played in their house. They sure as hell won’t be played in ours. (Grandpa and Grandma’s house is an internet-free, and smart-phone free zone for all but an hour or two a day when they come to visit.)
At the same time, if my kid was a high school drop out who did nothing but sit in his room all day and take drugs, it would seem reasonable and prudent not to be giving him or exposing him to guns.
Something went off the tracks with that family. Seems the mom was the only one with some common sense.
Racism is a learned trait.
I’m pretty sure most families teach their kids to judge a person’s character through their words and actions, not by the color of their skin.
SSRIs elevate the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. They are used to treat depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. They can also used to treat other conditions, such as post menopause hot flashes.
SSRIs are a red herring – they are not the problem. The person taking the SSRIs is the problem.
Once again, we have a troubled individual, legally forbidden from having a firearm, stealing one. The press found a childhood friend who was willing to accuse this guy of racism – and the press had its story line. The facts and the truth don’t really matter.
At least some of the people around this guy knew there was a problem and that he was dangerous. If the father gave him a gun while he was under a felony indictment, then the father is culpable.
Lt. Col. Grossman points out that we have raised a whole generation of kids/young adults on violent games/movies. They have been trained to kill, and have committed hundreds, if not thousands of simulated murders. Most of people will not kill for real – but, a few on the fringes will. The violent games/movies increase the odds of it happening.
Obama came out and said that the USA is the only country with a mass killing problem. We all know that is a lie the press will not challenge. Once again, our President is jumping for joy over the blood of innocent victims because he sees an opportunity to advance a political agenda.