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It's not that hard to find instances of crazed people committing murder or other serious acts of violence. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3356115/Alab

It's not that hard to find instances of crazed people committing murder or other serious acts of violence. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3356115/Alabama-man-murdered-three-friends-meth-fueled-killing-spree-sexually-assaulted-witness-hunt-roadkill-deer.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3356115/Alabama-man-... http://mtstandard.com/crime-and-courts/missoula-motel-murder-suspect-says-meth-fueled-attacks-accomplice-provides/article_8e558f4d-9aa3-5336-acc8-3b510fdaf9ae.html http://mtstandard.com/crime-and-courts/missoula-motel-murder... http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/arizona-man-meth-set-bed-fire-murder-panic-article-1.2493720 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/arizona-man-meth-se... http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/04/fort_payne_man_now_charged_wit.html http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/04/fort_pay... http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/compensation-for-mother-of-woman-murdered-by-crazed-hammerwielding-motherinlaw-20160204-gmmcz4.html http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/compensation-for-mother-of... http://somd.com/news/headlines/2016/20355.php http://somd.com/news/headlines/2016/20355.php European nations will likely have fewer such problems than we do - our population is much more violent. As Scott Alexander once quipped, "Who'd have thought populating half a country with the descendants of a group of people called "Border Reavers" would cause so much trouble?" https://twitter.com/slatestarcodex/status/672540086932779009 https://twitter.com/slatestarcodex/status/672540086932779009 I'm not trying to say that the police were justified in this incident - note that I'm a huge critic of American policing. I'm merely pointing out that the threat is quite real.

Zigurd 11y ago
That's not what I was asking. I was asking: Does armed security, or, for that matter, armed police make for fewer such cases. There are places where security guards and police do without guns in normal duties. Perhaps it's, at least in part, because policing and security sets the tone, that they have to do more deescalation before drawing a gun, that they have less violence. [EDIT:] Has anyplace ever become more safe by putting more guns in the hands of armed security and police?
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  Presumably the incident where the crazed lady stabbed the (unarmed) security guards could have been prevented by tazering her. Having practiced (simulated) knife combat, I'd certainly consider a long range weapon to be more effective than grappling. If you are charged with protecting people from a crazy lady with a knife, would you turn down the tazer or gun? (If you believe it doesn't improve your odds of survival, you of course would.) Given that many of these crazy people incidents happen away from security guards, it's hardly clear that "policing and security sets the tone". The US is just a highly violent place. What sort of evidence are you looking for?
DanBC 11y ago
Mental illness is not a predictor of violent behaviour. You're falling for (probably) conjunction fallacy and confirmation bias. You find newspaper reports because those incidents are rare compared to all other murder; you use those newspaper reports (of rare events) to say "look how common it is". (The SOMD link isn't loading for me) Note that all but one of your links involve drug abuse. Here the violence isn't due to mental illness, but to drug abuse. Drug & Alcohol addiction is a predictor of violent behaviour. (Much stronger than mental illness.)
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  Although I doubt you are correct, I didn't actually make any claims about mental illness. You seem to be arguing against something I didn't say.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    This is a thread about mental illness, and you are using slurs associated with mental illness ("crazed"). If you're not talking about mental illness you probably need to be more careful with your lazy use of stigmatising language. When many people keep misunderstanding what you say perhaps the problem is with your poor communication style, not their comprehension. > Although I doubt you are correct Your inability to provide a cite has been noted.
    - yummyfajitas 11y ago
      A quick google search suggests various mental illnesses (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and the catch-all "serious mental illness" category) are strongly linked with violence. http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/resources/consequences-of-lack-of-treatment/violence/1381 http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/resources/consequence... http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mental-illness-and-violence http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mental-illn... The latter article also describes a study suggesting "matched controls" (read: siblings of mentally ill people) are also disproportionately violent which is interesting. Many citations are provided therein. I didn't provide it because it's completely tangential to the main point, namely that there exist crazed and violent people who should be tazed and tied up. I'll note you didn't provide a citation either.

Zigurd 11y ago

That's not what I was asking. I was asking: Does armed security, or, for that matter, armed police make for fewer such cases. There are places where security guards and police do without guns in normal duties. Perhaps it's, at least in part, because policing and security sets the tone, that they have to do more deescalation before drawing a gun, that they have less violence. [EDIT:] Has anyplace ever become more safe by putting more guns in the hands of armed security and police?

yummyfajitas 11y ago
Presumably the incident where the crazed lady stabbed the (unarmed) security guards could have been prevented by tazering her. Having practiced (simulated) knife combat, I'd certainly consider a long range weapon to be more effective than grappling. If you are charged with protecting people from a crazy lady with a knife, would you turn down the tazer or gun? (If you believe it doesn't improve your odds of survival, you of course would.) Given that many of these crazy people incidents happen away from security guards, it's hardly clear that "policing and security sets the tone". The US is just a highly violent place. What sort of evidence are you looking for?

DanBC 11y ago

Mental illness is not a predictor of violent behaviour. You're falling for (probably) conjunction fallacy and confirmation bias. You find newspaper reports because those incidents are rare compared to all other murder; you use those newspaper reports (of rare events) to say "look how common it is". (The SOMD link isn't loading for me) Note that all but one of your links involve drug abuse. Here the violence isn't due to mental illness, but to drug abuse. Drug & Alcohol addiction is a predictor of violent behaviour. (Much stronger than mental illness.)

yummyfajitas 11y ago
Although I doubt you are correct, I didn't actually make any claims about mental illness. You seem to be arguing against something I didn't say.
- DanBC 11y ago
  This is a thread about mental illness, and you are using slurs associated with mental illness ("crazed"). If you're not talking about mental illness you probably need to be more careful with your lazy use of stigmatising language. When many people keep misunderstanding what you say perhaps the problem is with your poor communication style, not their comprehension. > Although I doubt you are correct Your inability to provide a cite has been noted.
  - yummyfajitas 11y ago
    A quick google search suggests various mental illnesses (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and the catch-all "serious mental illness" category) are strongly linked with violence. http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/resources/consequences-of-lack-of-treatment/violence/1381 http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/resources/consequence... http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mental-illness-and-violence http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mental-illn... The latter article also describes a study suggesting "matched controls" (read: siblings of mentally ill people) are also disproportionately violent which is interesting. Many citations are provided therein. I didn't provide it because it's completely tangential to the main point, namely that there exist crazed and violent people who should be tazed and tied up. I'll note you didn't provide a citation either.