Newtown school shooter = Aspie?

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Yes. Just like you are not allowed to stack heaps of cocaine or to build a nuclear bomb in your living room.

I know this was not addressed to me, but I still respond.

Trying to contain my rage at some of the Facebook replies I'm reading.

It's not working.

Yes, but those things apply to EVERYONE, not a specific group of people. My issue is thaf they'd be singling out people on the spectrum. Most of which are not violent. It'd be discrimination.

This particular facebook comment is particularly grinding:

This lady calls herself an educator? Yeah, time for her to get a new job. What nerve to say that autistic children do not feel a sense of right or wrong. Autistic children cannot function in an environment not designed with them in mind and the more they are forced into such environments, the more they are going to act out against their own will. It's not a matter of morals, it's a matter of functioning!

No, I agree. I think the U.S needs tougher and restrictive gun legislation. But I was also acknowledging that it still won't completely prevent incidents such as these.

A part of me thinks that the problem is in the way society is structured. It fosters alienation and neglect of those with mental health problems.

I misunderstood you, jetbuilder.
I didn't mean that autistic people shouldn't own guns, but others should be allowed.
I mean that NOBODY should be allowed to personally own guns and/or keep them in the house.

I wrote the article on Examiner, it was my attempt to try to temper some of the ignorance that I saw coming from the news last night. I have a 15-year-old with autism, and three of my cousins have Asperger's. I thought that some of what was being said last night is not only ignorant, it is dangerous. I truly hope that the article did not cause offense to anyone (aside from the comments that some have left, which should offend everyone, especially "educators.")

What a horrible, useless educator.
I have worked in education for 30 years. My mother has been an educator for even longer.
We've both seen many non-autistic children who say horrible things.
We've also worked in special education and the autistic children I taught all happened to be sweet, mild mannered children without aggressive tendencies. My mother taught even more autistic children, teenagers even, and there was only one who had an obsession with blood and knives. None of the others were particularly aggressive.
I have personally seen non-autistic children act extremely cruel as bullies, but I never saw an autistic child act in the same way.

Ugh. As an aspie who runs an after school chess club at a K-5 school, this is just another reason to actively keep my diagnosis a secret.

As far as gun laws go, I'm not completely against ownership of guns, but tighter gun laws just make sense. Personal protection? The woman who legally bought the guns ended up dead by them. Hunting? Sure, buy a hunting rifle if you can pass a background check. Citizen militia that can rise up against an oppressive government? In the days of chemical and biological weapons, as well as aircrafts carrying bombs, are you kidding? Assault weapons? I know you may have played with GI Joes when you were younger and watched action shows where it looked cool, but toys these are not.

It's really unfortunate when a portion of our uneducated citizenry take every tragedy like this that shows up in the news and goes "how convenient for the liberals, now they have another excuse to talk about banning guns!" I realize that even if guns were outright banned, there would still be people who would find ways to shoot and kill(or massacre in other ways) people, but there's no denying that numbers wise it would avert some of these tragedies. If there's a legal reason to own a gun such as hunting, using them on shooting ranges, or safely using them on private property, and you can pass a background check then go for it, but if anything guns probably do need to be a bit less accessible.

Now if you're one of those people who thinks these events might be part of a secret government plot to gain support for tighter gun restrictions? You probably shouldn't be owning a gun to begin with.

Why? What makes people with Asperger's so special? Why is it so hard to even consider the possibility that Asperger's, or some other co-morbid condition, may have been atleast partially responsible for this crime? If he did have Asperger's this does need to be take into consideration and cannot be ignored.

Nothing wrong with that posting. It is quite true. Not all people with Asperger's are dangerous, but some are. Some people with Asperger's can function well in society, some can't. Some autistics have a great capacity for empathy, others don't.

My nephew has Asperger's. He is a very violent person and only focuses on his needs and does not even consider what his actions will do to other people.

I do not mean he is not responsible for his crime. I mean that the fact that he has Asperger's is not the main problem. It is the same when they report that the killer was from an ethnic minority. Both those things could be contributing factors to the crime a person has committed (in the case of ethnic minority probably only because of social exclusion), but they are not the only cause. The problem is that when people read about a person of a certain minority group committing a crime, a lot of people turn against this minority group.
This is not about the killer, but about the responsibility of the media to the many people who share something with this killer but are not killers..
Here in Britain there have been persistent news reports about disabled and chronically ill people being scroungers, and the result is that their is an increase in aggression against these people.
Such reporting can result in demonization of groups.

You say that 'it needs to be taken into consideration and not ignored'. And who should do that? The general public? The gossip newspapers?
I must admit that so far I have seen a lot of good, non-judgemental reporting of this case, so it may not be so bad.

Personally I think that the focus ought to be on the victims anyway. And the heroes.
Her, for instance:

"The headteacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School was killed as she lunged at the gunman, according to reports.
Town officials said Dawn Hochsprung died when attempting to tackle the gunman after he forced his way into the school."

http://news.sky.com/story/1025785/hero- ... -at-gunman

There are dangerous NTs too.

ruveyn

overall aspies are less dangerous too

It is true that there will probably be a momentary stigmatization for those on the spectrum, but this will only be momentary as you will get counterviews expressed in the media the Asperger's wasn't the main cause. The reason why Asperger's is now thrusted into the national spotlight is because we need to understand what made this guy tick, and if he had Asperger's this shouldn't just be ignored.

As a future gun owner, I wouldn't be surprised if the gun grabbers are considering a gun ban for Aspies! I hope not!