Charleston Shooter: Racist or Mentally Ill?

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He knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it anyway. He's an awful person.

cyberdad,

Introversion does NOT mean you don't have friends.

Introversion:



http://psychology.about.com/od/trait-th ... ersion.htm

http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2015/ ... re-bloody/

From what we've heard so far, he could be both, either and possibly other things as well.

If only the USA could finally confront the situation with its gun laws.

How so? The U.S. Supreme Court opinions in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_ ... _v._Heller ), and McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._Chicago ) do a good job of explaining the state of the matter. I agree with both opinions, of course. Those who don't are free to their opinions, but the Court opinions remain the supreme law on the matter until further notice.

Obviously I respect your opinion and that of the Court, but from a European perspective it seems inexplicable that the US Second Amendment still allows people to carry handguns and other firearms when murders such as those committed in Charleston happen on a regular basis. It was understandable to have such a law while the original settlers were establishing themselves in violent frontier territories, but with all the death and carnage is it the right law for the 21st century? Did Roof really believe that he was defending himself?

Thank you. But, I wasn't commenting on Roof. Between 1993 and 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice determined that "[t]here were 11,101 firearm homicides in 2011, down by 39% from a high of 18,253 in 1993" while "[n]onfatal firearm-related violent victimizations against persons age 12 or older declined 70%, from 1.5 million in 1993 to 456,500 in 2004" ( http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf ).

Those are some awesome decreases in violent crimes. The most suspected reason is attributed to the much publicized and rapid national increase in state concealed-firearm permits, and the decrease of violent crimes related to the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation published a report in 2014 ( https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/s ... -incidents ) which stated that "[a]ctive shooter incidents are becoming more frequent—the first seven years of the study show an average of 6.4 incidents annually, while the last seven years show 16.4 incidents annually."

But, Northeastern University Criminal Justice Professor James Alan Fox was quoted immediately in a TIME magazine interview ( http://time.com/3432950/fbi-mass-shooti ... misleading ) as stating that "[i]f active shooters are removed from the equation, [...] mass shootings in fact have not been rising over the last few decades, and both the number of incidents and the number of victims has remained relatively steady since the 1970s."

So, it appears that U.S. violent crime over the last 22 years has decreased significantly. At the same time, firearm sales have skyrocketed for a variety of reasons ( http://www.breitbart.com/big-government ... -conducted and https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/ ... h_year.pdf ).

This all translates into that old adage "more guns, less crime."

Thanks for going to the trouble of finding those interesting statistics, AspieUtah. As you say, the decrease in violent crime is spectacular - what was it like before!! ! Yet, perhaps because of the nature of sensationalist 24 hour media and social networks, observers always get the impression that gun crime in the USA is on the rise. Let's hope it keeps on decreasing.

You are welcome!

Well, the violence in the 1980s and early 1990s was limited largely to broken urban communities and the occasional rural community (think Breaking Bad). I can't remember an incident in my state, for example. Yes, the Murdoch-ization of broadcast television has turned the evening news into Jerry Springer freak shows 24/7. I compare this brand of news reporting to the 1970s and 1980s Saturday Night Live mock-newscasts about "KILLER BEES" as the instant rating booster for local broadcasters. The old truism that "if it bleeds, it leads" in news means that decreases in violent crime aren't sexy. So, reporters won't likely even tell those facts to their spouses, let alone to the public. The resulting misunderstanding pervades, and, I believe, there are some who benefit from that fact.

I think it's silly that NBC would say something like that, because I'm thinking most of us, here, were pretty smart, in the ninth grade. I mean, com'on, Lincoln didn't have any formal schooling, at ALL, IIRC, he taught, HIMSELF----just like many of US, here (meaning, we teach ourselves, so much).

That's not to say that he wasn't a member of some kind of "White Power" community, or whatever, but.....

If only the USA could finally confront the situation with mental illness----if, in fact, that's what it was, of course.....

There has been a new article out and it was about that this was drug related.

@League_Girl: I can't find it----everything I've found, is regarding racism.....

Could you provide a link, please?

I looked on facebook but the problem is posts get buried on my wall and in groups and then you have to start over when you refresh the page so I did a search to try and find that particular article but I found one of the others instead that mentioned his drug use.


http://www.infowars.com/charleston-shoo ... outbursts/


I googled Dylann Roof drug use.

Both

You can be both. Mentally ill, and racist.

Is Andre Brevik mentally ill? Or just an extreme ideologue?

Or do you have to be insane to be that extreme an ideologue (enough to shoot a hundred plus people).