The Tourist
Moderator
RJM said:its one guy with a screwed up view as to how to vent rage.
I'd like to first thank you and PT111 for taking an open minded stance.
As to your last comment, the odds are that you are absolutely right. For some reason, set off by some stimuli, the guy opened fire. However, let's let the authorities give us all of the facts.
My main argument is that we first look to his medicine cabinet in an effort to rush to judgement on his reasons and mindset.
I can hear many of you saying, "Well, isn't that the real reason?"
Okay, I'm bipolar. Let's assume that we here at TFL read a link from the WSJ saying "Biker Beats Student Senseless." Since the details might be sketchy, someone says, "Hey, that's Chico and he's a mental patient." Within a few more posts someone remarks, "Gee, I wonder if he's off his meds?" And by the end of the page another member here is certain to post, "He always did give me the creeps."
In a very shorthand way, we are doing that same thing now.
But for the sake of the debate, let's suppose that my wife and I went downtown to the theater district My wife was accosted by a Nazi skinhead who simply happened to be a student. I defended her.
My diagnosis, my ownership of a motorcycle, the Nazi's registration as a student and the injuries he sustained would all be meaningless. In the effort to beat the competing media to the punch, the sensational aspects of the story were placed up front, the truth taking a decided back seat. The actual story was simply routine self-defense.
But, "if it bleeds, it leads."
Don't make that same mistake every time some tabloid starts identifying people as "patients." It boils down to the same epithet used to describe you as a "gun nut."