Thoughts on Killings In Santa Barabara

Posted by Jack

On no, not another murder rampage and this time we have seven young people dead in Santa Barbara - police ponder the motive.   Okay, now before I get into my thoughts on this one, I want preface this article with my heartfelt condolences and they go out to the victim’s friends and families.   This is a terrible, terrible, tragedy that shouldn’t have happened, but it did.   Now, once again we must look at how it happened so we can learn and possibly prevent future similar occurrences.  The problem is, these are one in a million kind situations! They are so unique they’re are not likely to be repeated. Or at least repeated in exactly the same way. So, its hard to craft a text book kind of response.  But, there are things we can learn and we should.  Now my thoughts…

In the midst of his grieving the father of a deceased victim lashes out, and he thinks he knows exactly who to blame for his son’s death!  And he does, and no doubt this is based on his previously held beliefs about guns too.   So, he blames the politicians who won’t confiscate all our guns like he wants. And he blames the NRA that tries to preserve our 2nd amendment right, A right that he has no use for as he goes on in an angry, grief stricken tirade.   I can forgive his anger and frustration, but not his stupidity…sorry, but he misses the mark by a mile. This guy is totally wrong…first, we blame the killer! This Dad missed that part in his rush to blame guns. Then we take a close look at how this kid came to be a killer. And then we ought to look what was available to us to intervene in these killings…not lambast the NRA!

BIG CLUE: The killer left a message behind in the form of a Youtube video and we should all take a look at it.   If you dare to watch this disturbing video, you can clearly understand his motive and how it’s so hard to stop a crazy person like this guy. He could have had a bomb, or used a club, so knee jerk gun confiscation is NOT the answer for this case! A victim’s father thinks all the fault belongs on politicians and the NRA. Yeah and he maybe should watch that video too, maybe it will enlighten him?

This privileged young man was mean to the core and it took time for him to become this person. Where were his parents? Where was his psychiatric intervention?
This person was totally lacking in an ability to have compassion for his fellow human beings. He’s thinking the whole world revolved around him and his needs.  He was narcissistic to the max and that is a turn off his parents should have clued in on. He was obviously troubled, frustrated, and angry at females and males alike because of his jealousy and his self-centered needs.   I could see why he didn’t have many friends. What a jerk!   He thought he was so superior that he commanded a virtual God-like complex.  A classic loner, bitter, seething with anger and blame.  But, then he tips his hand and he posts very public comments about his plot to wreak havoc and the clues were all missed!     How could this have happened… we need to find out who didn’t do their job, because we had advanced warning and it still happened.  That part is most troubling to me.  We had warning signs in the Gabby Giffords shooting, we had warning signs at Sandy Hook and we had more warnings in Denver… at some point we, as a society, have to be more aware, we have to make a concerted effort to speak up, to use the law, to investigate and take action that we are legally empowered to take.   This involves the parents, friends and teachers of the suspect.  It involves social services, particularly mental health.  The courts and law enforcement play a huge role… but in this case like so many others the system and the social network failed us.

Here’s the killers video link…  http://us.cnn.com/2014/05/24/us/elliot-rodger-video-transcript/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

The question now is will the California legislature take advantage of this tragedy to do more gun grabbing?  They typically have a knee jerk reaction to such tragedies…they pass a law and take something away from law abiding people.  Or they do something equally as dim witted, like make the area around this particular campus a gun free zone!    As if, all it takes is legislation and this murderous violence will stop… we did that.  Didn’t work.

The left will not let this tragedy go to waste that much you can bet on.  Maybe this will help push through that stupid micro-imprinting the firing pin of firearms sold in CA.

One thing we keep skipping past is people with mental illness can be extremely dangerous.  They should not have weapons and they should not be left to their own devices, free to roam among us.  Whether they are armed with a knife, a gun, a bat or driving a car,  sometimes it’s necessary to lock up the mentally ill.   The left doesn’t want to address this part, even though we already have the laws necessary to place these people in custody for their safety and ours.   We have laws that make it fairly easy to remove guns from their residences…if the circumstances warrant.  In short we have the tools, but too many of the agencies that are supposed to act….don’t.  Now there’s something to look into!  That’s something that father who thought it was the NRA’s fault ought to be checking into and rallying support to fix!

We generally have a lot of clues before their mental impairment causes them to do something terrible.  In this case the alleged killer posted a crazy angry Youtube video rant implying he was about to do something terrible.  Maybe we ought to look at ways to get such people identified and into a secure treatment center before they kill somebody? Just a thought?  And here’s another thought…Chico is currently a magnet for people with mental problems and our plan to build a wet shelter or daycare centers downtown for transients probably won’t help keep us any safer.  Ask the dozens of victims of stabbings by crazy bums last year if they think building more homeless facilities will help?  I’m curious what they would say.

In this latest rampage our law enforcement professionals paid the killer a little visit over a month ago.  It was on a welfare check…oh, and they found that he was fine and they didn’t even ask him about guns or knives or if they could look around in his apartment to really make diligent effort.   No doubt now they are thinking about many “What if’s…”

Santa Barbara, California (CNN) — Elliot Rodger stood in the doorway, talking to sheriff’s deputies who had come to check on his welfare, and worried that his plan to kill was over.

Last month, officers visited Rodger, 22, who they say killed six people and himself Friday night, at his apartment in Isla Vista, California.

“I had the striking and devastating fear that someone had somehow discovered what I was planning to do, and reported me for it,” Rodger wrote toward the end of a 137-page account of his life. “If that was the case, the police would have searched my room, found all of my guns and weapons, along with my writings about what I plan to do with them.

Rodger wrote that a wave of relief came over him when the deputies left. “If they had demanded to search my room … (t)hat would have ended everything. For a few horrible seconds, I thought it was all over.”

After that, Rodger wrote, he kept one of his guns and some loaded magazines near him so if police came back to his apartment, he would try to shoot them and escape. “Thankfully, all suspicion of me was dropped after I took down the videos from Youtube, and the police never came back.”      http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/25/justice/california-shooting-deaths/