Was Asperger's to Blame for a Recent School Shooting?

It's been said on numerous and almost countless news sites.  The shooter had Asperger's Syndrome.  And repeatedly the same source posts article upon article that the shooter and his Asperger's were not related.  I normally don't even feel the need to bold face or underline things, but since people need to be reminded time and time again that they aren't related, I felt the need to.  I could probably even justify myself if I highlighted them, circled them, and pointed arrows at them.  Instead let me point out perhaps 3 sources that you could read before I carry this any further.

Leave autism out of mass shootings (CNN) by Alex Plank

Is autism a link to violence (NBC News) by staff, KSBY News

No Link Between Asperger's Syndrome And Violence, Experts Say (Huffington Post) STEPHANIE NANO

Ok, so I hope you at least read one of those and have a clear enough picture, if you didn't before.  People with Asperger's syndrome have problems with social queues.  They have problems showing empathy.  And yes sometimes they do reactively lash out.  They typically do not strike back with plans thought of ahead of time.  Not to say that 1 out of 1 million won't.  It's just very unlikely.  As a matter of fact, someone with no problems with psychological or in this case neurological background is more likely to do such a thing.  I said it in a previous post that anybody could do something this horrible.

So, you might ask about the lack of empathy shown by autistics.  Well, certainly they don't show it much, but the thing with autism is that a person with autism quite often feels more than what they show.  It's a type of communication that they have a problem showing.  It may not feel normal to them to express it.  It may not feel comfortable for them to show it.

As for me, it is very hard to show my emotions.  However when they do they, come pouring out all at once.  Sometimes in tears, by myself or in front of people.

But they lash out reactively.  Yes, unfortunately many of us do or have in the past.  This is more typically in our younger years.  When we get older we learn how to manage our impulses.  Those that react, react out of fear and pain.  There's always a reason for it, whether necessary or not.  The ones that do might hit someone or push someone.  That's about the extent of it.  Later, we learn not to do that as we grow up.  Still there are temper problems even into our adult hood.  Many have learned to manage this as well.

As for me, growing up I have hit or shoved people in my younger years and mostly in my youngest years.  My impulse to hit a bully turned into hitting solid objects.  I have hurt and somewhat skinned my knuckles on walls, in the past.  Yelling?  Yeah, I have yelled in the past, too.  This is still an on going thing, but it's exceedingly rare for me to be in a situation where I feel enough of or the right kind of pain to yell.  Ok, I yell at my video games, but who hasn't?  They're out there.  Show of hands.  :)  The last time I yelled I was in a room with people I knew well enough.  The first and main ingredient is something to be be outraged about.  So if I feel someone did or said something that I'm completely outraged by then that's the number one ingredient.  That's not all.  Without the rest of these ingredients I will not lose my temper.  It must be a room where I feel no very easy way out of.  I must know many of the people in the room well enough otherwise I'm more apt to walk out or cry.  No open spaces.  I'm more likely to walk away, if someone displeases me at Wal-mart.  Not many strangers.  People are scary.  I don't know what to expect.  So to summarize it must be in a place I normally feel comfortable in or rather be very familiar with and that goes for the people, too.

Another thing about Aspergers is that people that have it follow a certain moral code.  Many people have their own, but typically follow what our teachers brought us up with.  We're more likely to follow the law when we can at all help it.  We don't like to stand out.  I don't speak for all autistics or aspies when I say the following.  When I was growing up and even some now, I'm more likely to socialize or get some understanding from people older than me.  I was more able to be myself around authority figures or those that are in a position to help me with services or jobs.

So is it any wonder why we sometimes do get mad and show it?  After all, we're typically the victims of bullies of any form.  We're the ones that don't seem to fit in.  We're the ones that are lonely.  So to add to that, now we're being stigmatized by people that read one story on a shooting and now believe there's a correlation, because the media messed up and later admitted it.  But many people read the one story and stick to that.  They don't care what is said later.  They think they have all the information.  The media can't apologize enough, but to be gracious for their apologetic efforts in fixing that, I can only forgive them.  But I'll have a harder time with those ignoring the press's later statements that violence like the shooting and Asperger's is not related.  Those people I have little sympathy for, because they don't often use their heads.  I make no apologies for what I'm saying to any of those that believe in a non-existent correlation.

All Crimes Are Committed By Someone Mentally Ill?

First off, no.  Actually most crimes are committed people that are completely sane by medical standards.  Ok, now that we've got my main point let's get to it.  I miss the old days when crimes were committed by psychos and psychopaths as people called them.  Crazies.  There wasn't anything specific to people's rationale as to why someone did something.  It's just like pointing out that there was just simply something wrong with the person and it's true isn't it?  A poor person needs money to pay a bill.  Well, he has a gun.  He can hold up the local store clerk and in the process, oops, kill him.  Was their something wrong with the person.  Of course, but the person can be perfectly normal.  All he needed was a big motivator.  Maybe his heat was being shut off this winter.  And you know people can't go without heat.  Many people can't stand that.  So there's his motivator.  We don't usually see why a person does what they do.  Often times the crimes are simple and for simple reasons.

Now we have school shootings.  This is a more complex situation.  Lately the one thing that's been trending in the news in so many shootings or other crimes is "this person has asperger's."  Not sure where this has come from entirely.  I suspect since the term is a trending topic as of late and people are learning more about it, it's on people's minds.  Now people really don't understand what asperger's is all about.  They know the basics of it.  A couple things that stand out are the awkward behaviors and the other is the lack of show of emotion.  Well, rest assured, as we, like every normal person is, that although we are capable of it, the likeliness that we would do such a thing is generally the same as all normal people.  Just like the guy that shot up a store clerk for his gas bill I mentioned earlier.

The apparent lack of emotion is the big indicator for people.  "He's not showing any emotion  He must have asperger's," is probably what people are thinking.  Well, actually when someone commits a crime that big, they often lock their emotions away in their head.  Seems to be a normal thing to do for some people, really.  Try to hide their guilt, so they hide emotion in the process of hiding their guilty look.

But school shootings are complex situations.  There's a lot we don't know.  There's a lot that we don't see.  There's a lot we can assume.  We try to rationalize people's behavior now.  It obviously doesn't make it right, but we're all looking for a reason.  We're all looking and asking why.

In the end though, we have someone that did something.  We can't stop it.  We can't read minds.  As much as we like to think we have control, we don't.  We like to think we can take care of these things.  We all want that power.  But we simply can't do that.  All we can do is deal with it when it comes and pray for those lost and those hurt.

Live like nothing can go wrong.  Love like nothing can stop you.  You never know when the unexpected may happen.  Don't live worrying about it.  Don't try too hard to rationalize it.  If it's not in your best interest, then just leave it be and bandage and pray for those left behind.

The Copyright Debate

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My take on the whole copyright deal.  I couldn't get everything in this video that I wanted, but I got the just of it.

New laws needs to be made and negotiations between people on the sides of fans and people against the "infringement" need to take place.

The internet is like this...  Say you're on the street and you get to talking to someone new and suddenly you get on the topic of "Family guy" and you just happened to buy the episode and put it on your phone.  So you talk about "Family Guy" and you show him part of the episode from your phone.  Now imagine this taking place on the internet.  The internet has a different feel to it.  When you click a link to a copyrighted video, it's like bumping into someone on the street happening upon someone with the same taste and thinking it's funny.  The thing I'm saying that we should start seeing the internet this way.  The internet just has a different feel to it than real life.  Copyright is no different in or out of the internet, but it is being treated VERY differently.  We need to make it clear that real life is a very different beast than the internet, but we should treat it the same way we do real life.  The thing is is that the internet is crystal clear and you see everything.  You see things happening that you don't see in real life so clearly.  With the internet, it's right there in front of your face and at your fingertips.