Heard one report he had shown a firearm the night before
to his landlord. She thought nothing of it. Red Flag?

K.T.
1973 911 E 2.4 MFI
1983 911 SC
1978 911 SC
1965 Devin "D" / 1967 912 Power Plant

Today on the Fox and Friends morning they were not using his name.

I showed my Glock to my neighbor a few weeks ago. Should I have been arrested?

Yes.
But we know you.

;)

In a nation of 300 million I would think this would happen once a week..

This stupid kid was just 19. Kicked out of his house, a drug and drink problem, fired from McDonalds, broke up with his girlfriend and in trouble with the law.

When all was going bad, suicide looked like his way out. But after all those tens of thousands of hours of slasher flicks and blast away video games, he could not just kill himself.. He had to act this s&*t out. Sick, sick, sick.

Please pass our feelings and prayers to his family.

Yes, yes indeed. This is a small world.

Turns out one of the dead was from Bloomington/Normal:

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/12/06/news/doc4758569aeee81224759104.txt

sure, blame the video games. I'm sure that is it...

I can remember being young and depressed and toying with the idea of suicide but obviously never acted it out.

However the thought of killing other people never entered my mind... can someone shed some light on what kind of mental illness brings on this type of behavior?

Violent video games are a commen thread with these guys. Look it up.

I was very depressed from maybe 13-17. Even suicide never really entered my mind. That would have given my tormentors victory (in my mind). I did contemplate "striking back", but never did.

By and large most people can put up with an awful lot, how many of us had a run in with bullies when we were younger? How many of us enjoyed watching either violent films or playing violent games? How many people in general cope with poverty and tough times without flipping out?

Most normal people cope just fine, its just a tiny percentage that simply aren't "wired right" that carry out these completely ****ed up outrages.

Psychotic behaviour truth be told can in a lot of cases be spotted fairly early on, problem is most people don't know what to look for or if its your own child, you could easily fall into denial.

There are no easy answers.

When I was so poor I couldn't afford to pay attention, no prospects for women or money, didn't know how I was gonna make rent, even if the thought of suicide had entered my head, the thought of hurting innocent strangers never even came close to entering my head. Geeze, if I were contemplating suicide and wanted to take some others with me, I'd at least target those who really had it coming - child molestors, pushers, murderers, etc. That'd be a way to go out without the whole world cursing your name for eternity.

This guy clearly wanted the notoriety that comes with targeting innocent people.

I certainly think more like Rick does- if I was going to 'tip over' and take people out, it wouldn't be innocent people at the mall. It would be pedophiles. I would set up my own sting operation and see how many I could get away with. But lucky for them, I am never going to tip over.

s_wilwerding- I hope your dad can get past this. Its not a very nice thing.

Some Thoughts:

The Landlord was interviewed extensively on CNN last night. She seemed like a nice and caring lady. She said that she NEVER knew that he had a gun, never saw a gun but she knew that the boy's father was in to guns and that he had been around them growing up.

The Landlord took the kid in because "he was a lost puppy" and that the kid's parents didnt want him. She said that when she took him in 1.5 years ago, he would sit in the fetal position chewing his nails all day. Eventually he started to come out of his shell and got a girlfriend and a job. Unfortunately he lost both recently. The Landlord said that he was always a well-behaved kid, even more well-behaved then her own kids sometimes. She said that 1 hour before he did this, he called her to say "thank you for everything" but he didnt indicate what was about to happen. Then, she had to go because the FBI was there.

2) No one is "blaming" video games, or "blaming" violent movies, or "blaming" guns... but there is a link between the proliferation of violence in our society to the increasing nature of these events, which are occuring with young people.

Imagine this, if you can... kid is troubled, lonely and possibly abused... perhaps the family or friends have some guns around and he gets some training on them... finds these video games which are "cool"...spends many hours at a time wasting people in the graphic video games or watching violent films, internet sites etc. Hangs out with similiar kids, with similar messed up minds..... his increasing alienation with the world, combined with some twisted fantasies which are "fed" by the exposure to the video games = the creation of these type of events in his mind which eventually he carries out in reality.

Maybe that didnt happen in this case, maybe it did...but it is very common among people like Cho, Columbine idiots etc.

3) This type of event is becoming more and more common. This was the 3rd mass mall shooting this year, and of course there was VT earlier etc.

4) It is a pretty scary world for kids and people who grow up without love, respect, guidance and understanding. Lots of people like that out there. Mental illness is part genetic, but quite a lot of it is 'learned behaviour' that comes as a result of years of trama and troubled situations. Unfortunately our society feeds this and it appears that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what will happen in the next 20-50 years.

So we can assume he had an ILLEGAL firearm...right?

"Maruca Kovac described Hawkins as well-behaved, although
"he had a lot of emotional problems, obviously."

"She told the Omaha World-Herald that Hawkins showed her an assault rifle the night before the rampage, but because of his mild demeanor she wasn't alarmed."

K.T.
1973 911 E 2.4 MFI
1983 911 SC
1978 911 SC
1965 Devin "D" / 1967 912 Power Plant