Aspies and school shootings

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This guy said on his website: "They all must die." He went into the school with two sawed off shotguns. He wounded eleven people. None of the injuries were life threatening. He went in wearing a gas mask, which reduces vision, then he locked himself in a room and set off smoke bombs.

This guy was too illogical to be an aspie, and I'm glad of it. If he had been an aspie, it would have been much worse.

No doubt. I've actually had someone tell me that if I ever went postal, the only thing left would be a smoking crater.
I had to laugh... realistically speaking, I'd probably get bored halfway through the inevitable standoff and start drawing or something, only to wonder why all the SWAT guys were there, once they eventually showed up, simply because I'd've temporarily forgotten why I was there in the first place.

An Aspie with a gun and a grudge, on a mission... bad combo.

I'm a Special Ed teacher so I see it all. I think that Aspies just are not cut out to be school killers. That sort of person is a Psychopath. That term has really been tainted by our media, basically it means a severe lack of empathy. I see that many Aspies post pictures of their pets. They have empathy for their pets and love certain people. A Psychopath has little or no empathy or love. Think of it as a severe emotional disability. These sort of kids stick out like sore thumbs in the the school system also. They don't interact in a normal way and I am sure that they both bully and are bullied much more often then normal. Thing is, they often don't weigh the consequences of their actions. If they feel bad, it is because they got caught.

Aspies are nice people who often have had a hard time of it and may still be bitter. They may dislike social institutions and even certain rules, still, generally they play by the rules of society. They just play more on the fringes of the game.

I think most of the kids that shoot up their school are bullies. Now they are bullying with a gun.

I think it's more the opposite, people have a tendency to snap when they've been bullied beyond a tolerable point. Columbine is somewhat an example of this happening, two guys get fed up getting harassed and decide to get vengeance on the school for their misery (might be irrational, but they were probably psychotic). It's proven they were feeling that way because one guy was let freed without harm during the shootings, because they saw him as a nice guy to them, as this guy was like a friend to them. I saw a documentary on it once.

Most kids who shoot up schools are "bent"...like a spoon. These are not just mean people. They may appear normal on the outside but inside the whole thought process is very abnormal. Normal people don't go and shoot people when they are bullied. There are a million other ways to respond and pretty well everyone does respond in a different way without killing people.

Just like most people who commit suicide are not just sad. They usually have very significant mental disorders like Schizophrenia. I read some where that 1/4 of Schizophrenics will successfully commit suicide.

I have read that in the Columbine shooting, one of the kids was a psychopath and the other one was just bitter and depressed. Apparently it was a symbiotic relationship; the depressed person provided the organization which psychopaths lack while the psychopath played to the other kid's depression and encouraged a violent solution. The depressed one was bitter and angry but had an emotional problem; the psychopath completely lacked any empathy for others and wanted to hurt them out of raw hatred and contempt.

The people who are truly having a rough time and feeling miserable may sometimes fantasize about hurting others who they perceive as having mistreated them but are unlikely to act upon it. Psychopaths would feel little reason not to act upon their feelings of disdain for others if they didn't care about getting caught.

If the shooter was a psychopath, there will be evidence of aggression, manipulation and deceit, and other problems related to the psychopathic personality before the shooting. Any social problems a psychopath experiences are related to their aggression and untrustworthiness rather than social ineptitude as in the aspie's case.

People with Aspergers have been known to commit mass shootings. BUT there are usually MANY other problems besides.

I dont think logic is an excuse.. We may use more logic but after living in a world that is based out of illogics, dont you think that would have its toll on people who would rather use logic?

I started this thread because I thought maybe some of these loners could be aspies.. now I'm getting the impression some of you think that, simply out of personal thought and logic, that aspies are completely incapable of it..

Logic doesnt mean "wont commit crime" or "murder to any degree" so I dont know where this thought process is coming from

In Australia, a large high school has 1000 students in total from year 7 - 12 (about 160 students per year group).

In US, (I believe) high schools are about 3x this size (over 400 per year group).

I wonder whether the larger number of students per year group leads to a greater feeling of "being lost in the system" and abandonment/alienation?

Tortoise, can you comment?

thanks

I can imagine it would be, as you're in a larger area where you're supposed to be, but with an enormous amount of people around you. When you see many, many people around you who you probably won't see again until the week after, it leads to a greater sense of isolation. You can just feel walled in.

I went to a rather large high school grades 9-12 my senior class had 473 graduate. I liked it it gave me the ability to fade into the background that I think would have been harder in a small school but that was the way I liked it what is good for one might not be good for all though. We did have a murder my senior year though not at school I was knew the victim and one of the killers. None of them had Aspergers but they all were pretty well messed up.

Yea I'm feeling along these lines. Really anyone is capable of doing harm, given the right problems. I don't think Aspies are any more or less inclined. If an Aspie were to carry out such an act, I would imagine they would carry it out as they do any other of their "interests", with lots of consideration and thought.

I don't believe that using logic to solve problems means you will always come up with a answer that makes sense to most people. I think that's something I even find hard to understand sometimes. I tend to use logic too much and "overthink" everything. But in a sense you could "miss a forest for the trees". Logic doesn't always *make sense* because it's just a construct of ideas that are connected together. I think of it like a errector set or legos. Just because you are building a bridge, doesn't mean you will be able to walk across it. You might find out in the middle of walking across that you made an error and fall. Or in my case, I sometimes I just fall. Maybe when I'm drowning at the bottom and wondering why, maybe, just maybe, right before I drown I think... "OH CRAP! I did something wrong!" hehe

Another of my favorite quotes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"
I've let logic lead me to my near doom before...
If anyone has been in debate class or studied law, you should know that you can argue any point of view and have it make sense if you are clever enough.

"by"...not "buy".

I'm sorry but I have seen a number of Aspies in our school and they are just not the shootum up type. We have a budding Psychopath in our school. He adores Hitler and the killing of the Jews. He reads about mass killers like Ted Bundy. He draws graphic and sadistic pictures. He is racist, sexist, and hates any sort of authority figure. He makes threats and has no remorse.

Then we have an Aspie student. He is one of the nicest kids I know. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He speaks softly and likes to draw. When things go wrong he becomes anxious and may miss school. Yes, these are ancedotal stories and observations but I hope they illustrate a point.

I'm sure statistically speaking there are Aspie killers but I would bet that such killers would be way below the norm, considering their population.

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Big schools, say over 800 students, does lead to a situation where staff does less group communication. Everyone is in their own department in different corners of the school. It's easier to lose track of the needy and abnormal kids.

I occasionally find it amusing to speculate on what the original nazis would have thought of most of these "white power" types who admire the nazis so much.