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> "Normal people don't take a gun out of their safe, load it, throw a bunch of rounds in the back of their car, put on a bullet-proof vest and go shoot-up the n

> "Normal people don't take a gun out of their safe, load it, throw a bunch of rounds in the back of their car, put on a bullet-proof vest and go shoot-up the neighborhood community center, church, school or mall." You've missed the point of the article I shared with you. The point was normal people under extraordinary circumstances can be pushed to breaking point and take it out on others. Normal people do not always behave normally.

rebootthesystem 11y ago
No, I read the article and stand by my conviction that the people you are referring to are not normal. Lot's of folks experience extraordinary circumstances during their lives, few, very very few, resort to violence as a result. Not everyone is "wired" to deal with life's challenges the same way. I had a friend who committed suicide after losing his business in 2009. Sad. On the other hand, I've been bankrupt --as in lost it all, not a dime to my name-- and suicidal thoughts never entered my mind. In fact, I hussled and worked hard for very little until I could start a small business. That article has an agenda, follow the money trail and you might discover what it is.
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  Sure, not everyone deals with stress in the same way, but an 'us vs. them' mentality isn't helpful. We're all capable of bad things, just like we're all capable of good things. As for the article's agenda, perhaps it had one, but it appears to be an agenda backed up with facts, for example: “Fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness,”
- DanBC 11y ago
  People with a mental illness are very much more likely to be the victims, not perpetrators, of violent crime. When we look at violent crime we see almost all perpetrators do not have a diagnosed illness, and also they do not have a diagnosable illness. You are falling for the conjunction fallacy. You see "violent", and insist "violent and mentally ill" even though violent is more probable.
  - rebootthesystem 11y ago
    I think you are reading what you want into my statement, not what I am saying. You are taking "crazy" to mean what you want it to mean. You are an intelligent person. You HAVE to know that I do not mean someone with autism or a developmental disorder. That would be sick and repugnant. But that's not what I mean. And you know it. What I mean is someone with such a mental illness or sickness or reality distortion that they can justify picking up a gun and killing twenty children. A person has to be sick in the head to do something like that. Sick in the heart too. Use whatever terms you care to pull out of the dictionary but we all know what we are talking about. Someone has to be "crazy" (define it as you wish) to behave in such ways.

rebootthesystem 11y ago

No, I read the article and stand by my conviction that the people you are referring to are not normal. Lot's of folks experience extraordinary circumstances during their lives, few, very very few, resort to violence as a result. Not everyone is "wired" to deal with life's challenges the same way. I had a friend who committed suicide after losing his business in 2009. Sad. On the other hand, I've been bankrupt --as in lost it all, not a dime to my name-- and suicidal thoughts never entered my mind. In fact, I hussled and worked hard for very little until I could start a small business. That article has an agenda, follow the money trail and you might discover what it is.

ZenoArrow 11y ago
Sure, not everyone deals with stress in the same way, but an 'us vs. them' mentality isn't helpful. We're all capable of bad things, just like we're all capable of good things. As for the article's agenda, perhaps it had one, but it appears to be an agenda backed up with facts, for example: “Fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness,”
DanBC 11y ago
People with a mental illness are very much more likely to be the victims, not perpetrators, of violent crime. When we look at violent crime we see almost all perpetrators do not have a diagnosed illness, and also they do not have a diagnosable illness. You are falling for the conjunction fallacy. You see "violent", and insist "violent and mentally ill" even though violent is more probable.
- rebootthesystem 11y ago
  I think you are reading what you want into my statement, not what I am saying. You are taking "crazy" to mean what you want it to mean. You are an intelligent person. You HAVE to know that I do not mean someone with autism or a developmental disorder. That would be sick and repugnant. But that's not what I mean. And you know it. What I mean is someone with such a mental illness or sickness or reality distortion that they can justify picking up a gun and killing twenty children. A person has to be sick in the head to do something like that. Sick in the heart too. Use whatever terms you care to pull out of the dictionary but we all know what we are talking about. Someone has to be "crazy" (define it as you wish) to behave in such ways.