White Supremacist in Buffalo Murders 10 people.

[DarkAmbient]

Some 4chan users probably feeling a bit nervous too.

[qwerty123456]

Is it so hard to perform a mandatory check by a psychiatrist to establish violent/psychotic behaviour or not before issuing weapons of mass murder to lunatics?

Obviously it's not full proof, but a lot of shootings could be prevented.

Well half the people who buy guns do so because they are paranoid. Mental health checks would cut into profits.

[Paranoid Android]

Maybe posted and I missed but there was an security guard at the grocery store, a retired police officer. He shot at the terrorist and his rounds couldn't penetrate his body armor. So another point here is people buying this body armor cause, You Know it's for when the bad gubbbbbberment comes and gets you.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Maybe posted and I missed but there was an security guard at the grocery store, a retired police officer. He shot at the terrorist and his rounds couldn't penetrate his body armor. So another point here is people buying this body armor cause, You Know it's for when the bad gubbbbbberment comes and gets you.

It takes a good guy with a gun (loaded with armour piercing rounds) to stop a bad guy with a gun...

[D3thray]

"Mental illness" and "ignorance" aren't excuses or explanations. This shit happens because some people are evil. Morally deficient people who seek to harm innocents. They don't get that way because they're "mentally ill". Nor is it because they're "ignorant". That kind of venemous hate is entirely separate; a character failing that runs deep and wouldn't be corrected if they got psychiatric care, nor if they were offered information to educate them out of their ignorance.

Every time people use either for an excuse, it's an attempt to hand-wave some measure of the offender's personal responsibility for their actions, and it's gotta stop. These assholes aren't mentally ill, and they're not acting out of ignorance. I've known poorly-educated people with schizophrenia who were lovely, and the worst they got was terrified if their symptoms were getting the better of them, not violent.

This guy, and those who do similar acts, are evil. They are awful, hateful, violent people, and they're the only ones responsible for their choices.

Dunno if it’s hand-waving away culpability so much as one of the standard gun rights arguments but I agree, 100% responsible if you pull the trigger. Let him fry.

[Endus]

If ISIS and other Islamic terrorism isn't dismissed as mental illness, this shouldn't either. It's the exact same pattern: young man indoctrinated by propaganda and misinformation deliberately crafted to rile him up and take matters in his own hands because of a mistaken belief that his way of life is under attack. This dude literally had a checklist longer than my arm of what he needed to do this shooting, which included getting fresh batteries for his go pro and other gear, and a dry run test of his mobile streaming equipment. And then the powerful elite who did the indoctrinating, in this case, will wash their hands of it, while we start wars against the other indoctrinators.

People like Fucker Carlson should share culpability with this shit for much the same reason Charles Manson did. They pushed their followers into action. And Carlson is so much worse than Manson, because he's speaking to millions of potentially violent extremists, not a hundred or so.

Stochastic terrorism should be a crime. One punishable by 20+ years in prison. I mean 20 as a minimum sentence.

[D3thray]

If ISIS and other Islamic terrorism isn't dismissed as mental illness, this shouldn't either. It's the exact same pattern: young man indoctrinated by propaganda and misinformation deliberately crafted to rile him up and take matters in his own hands because of a mistaken belief that his way of life is under attack. This dude literally had a checklist longer than my arm of what he needed to do this shooting, which included getting fresh batteries for his go pro and other gear, and a dry run test of his mobile streaming equipment. And then the powerful elite who did the indoctrinating, in this case, will wash their hands of it, while we start wars against the other indoctrinators.

The constant drumbeat of ‘you need to hate x people because of y’ certainly can be pointed to as at least partially if not wholly causative. Kinda makes one wonder why more politicians aren’t shot now that I think about it.

[muto]

Glad I live in a country where I don't have to be worried about being gunned down while doing my groceries.

Oh you do. Mass shootings can happen anywhere. There might be less of a chance, but they can still happen. There are too many guns in the world. And not all smugglers can be stopped.

[Sett]

Tots and Pears for all.

[uuuhname]

Oh you do. Mass shootings can happen anywhere. There might be less of a chance, but they can still happen. There are too many guns in the world. And not all smugglers can be stopped.

it's only in America where nearly 200 mass shootings occur, THIS YEAR SO FAR. this is such a uniquely American thing, to the point where you'd think that would elicit some sort of reflection on the state of our society...

[D Luniz]

The constant drumbeat of ‘you need to hate x people because of y’ certainly can be pointed to as at least partially if not wholly causative. Kinda makes one wonder why more politicians aren’t shot now that I think about it.

The MANY bills passed to fund for them to hire private security

[Strawberry]

I don't see how you can actually pin this as anything else but mental illness. Racism is mental illness.

[Draco-Onis]

it's only in America where nearly 200 mass shootings occur, THIS YEAR SO FAR. this is such a uniquely American thing, to the point where you'd think that would elicit some sort of reflection on the state of our society...

There's plenty of reflection it's time to resign ourselves to the fact that America has accepted that tens of thousands of people getting shot and killed every year is a small price to pay for guns. We have even gone through great length to make sure the real numbers never come out since they don't matter apparently.

[DarkAmbient]

Just had a look, and America's homicide rate per capita is 5 times that of the United Kingdom. Dem guns sure do make it easy to commit mass murder, or just plain old murder. I doubt anything will change there though.

[Draco-Onis]

Just had a look, and America's homicide rate per capita is 5 times that of the United Kingdom. Dem guns sure do make it easy to commit mass murder, or just plain old murder.

It's a feature not a bug guns are easy to get gun violence keep escalating sending more and more people to jail all the while ignoring any root cause with corporations making profits all along the tragedy chain. It's also good to keep in mind that America's numbers are a severe undercount because gun data is edited and limited.

[Endus]

I don't see how you can actually pin this as anything else but mental illness. Racism is mental illness.

Because racism is not mental illness. It's not a disease you can't control. It's an intentional choice, to hurt innocent people, because the hurting makes you feel better. Because you're an evil shitmonger of a person.

Moral failings are not mental illnesses. These people aren't sick. They're just shitty, shitty people.

[PhaelixWW]

I don't see how you can actually pin this as anything else but mental illness. Racism is mental illness.

Hatred is a mental illness. Evil is a mental illness.

You can't "pin" this on mental illness because these types of mental illness are not exculpatory.

The guy was aware of and in control of his actions. The only place to "pin" this is firmly on him and anyone who supported him.

[Fargus]

Oh you do. Mass shootings can happen anywhere. There might be less of a chance, but they can still happen. There are too many guns in the world. And not all smugglers can be stopped.

If mass shootings are defined by > 3 deaths, then we've had three of them in 26 years... two of them being domestic incidents out in rural areas. And I don't think we've ever had a mass-shooting at a shopping mall, so yeah, I'm not going to worry about it.

- - - Updated - - -

Because racism is not mental illness. It's not a disease you can't control. It's an intentional choice, to hurt innocent people, because the hurting makes you feel better. Because you're an evil shitmonger of a person.

Moral failings are not mental illnesses. These people aren't sick. They're just shitty, shitty people.

What are your qualifications to define whether someone is mentally ill or not, regardless of what they did?

[Elegiac]

What are your qualifications to define whether someone is mentally ill or not, regardless of what they did?

It's irrelevant because even if they have some form of mental disorder it is still not exculpatory for taking stock in racist beliefs nor acting on them since racism is a societal and systemic phenomenon, not an individual one.

Whinging about mental illness is a canard for not examining how society creates and feeds tragedies of this sort. In this case, the fact Fox News and Tucker Carlson are legally protected stochastic terrorists.

[Endus]

What are your qualifications to define whether someone is mentally ill or not, regardless of what they did?

Why should I need "qualifications" to refuse to accept a sourceless and baseless claim, rather than expecting concrete evidence to be provided to back it up?

You want to argue this guy, or people like him are "mentally ill", give me their official psychiatric evaluation and diagnosis, or at least the testimony of whichever medical professional conducted that analysis.

Absent that? Why would I ever allow an exculpatory claim like "mental illness" in the door, when "malice and evil intent" fully describe the racist terrorist's actions?

You want to make the claim you pony up evidence. I'm just refusing to accept wild claims based on nothing, expressed with the intent of reducing this violent murderer's responsibility for their choices.

And frankly, even if they have a mental illness, unless it's one that carries delusions or psychotic breaks as symptoms, they wouldn't be a factor here anyway. Being depressed or having ADHD or anxiety problems don't make you go on a racist murder spree you livestream and post a racist manifesto to the web. That's explained by "being an evil, racist shithead".

You don't need to be "mentally ill" to do something this abominable. The Nazis weren't "mentally ill". All it takes is being an awful, violent person. That's a personal, moral, character failing, not "mental illness".