On Dec 25, 12:00*am, nestork wrote:
I'm one person who questions the notion that anyone who takes a gun and
kills a whole bunch of people, is, by definition, mentally ill.

The guy that shot up the movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado was a PhD
student for crying out loud. *He certainly had enough gray stuff between
his ears, and he knew the difference between right and wrong.

Doing something horrible does not automatically mean that person is
crazy. *Perfectly level headed people can decide to throw their life
away if they feel their life is so screwed up that it's not salvagable.
It's a stupid decision, it's desperation, but it's not mental illness.

I would not call someone who decides to commit a massacre
"level headed". And there is a distinction between being crazy to
the point that you don't know right from wrong and just
having a mental illness. The Aurora guy was seeing a psychiatrist,
so he must have had some mental problems. Perhaps in time
we'll find out what exactly they were.




So, if the NRA wants the US Government to put together a list of
mentally ill people, what about everyone who thinks their life has been
wasted and that they're a failure. *We need to make a list of those
people to make sure they never get their hands on a gun, too.

--
nestork

The problem with that would seem to be that I haven't seen
evidence that these latest folks who committed these acts
felt their lives have been wasted and that they are a failure.