Newtown Shooter Had Asperger Syndrome, And Some US Gun Facts

Zero Hedge ^

[Perdogg]

As we reported last night, buried inside the NYT biopic of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza was arguably one of the most important missing pieces in the story, at least so far, which could provide clues into partially explaining yesterday's tragic loss of young life, namely that the 20 year old man suffered from Asperger Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism (two conditions which are being merged in the upcoming update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) manual of mental disorders), which has been traditionally associated with social communication difficulties, including flat affect, and one which in some clinical studies has been shown to have a causal link to violence. In other words, in addition to the surge in the debate over national gun control and access limitations (ignoring that the perpetrator of the biggest school mass murder in US history - the Bath School disaster - used openly purchased dynamite and no guns, also ignoring that in the US there are roughly 300 million firearms), perhaps there should also be a broad discussion as to the risks of social misadoption of children with autism and other social and behavioral disorders.

[TheBattman]

Lots of brilliant people who have made large contributions to society. Van Gogh, Jefferson, Edison are speculated to have had it. Hell, most of the engineers I have known are certainly candidates.

Mass murderers, all....

Or not...

[TheBattman]

Mental illness is real. There are abuses and malpractice does happen, of course, but the conditions are very real.

So we need to ban anything than one with a "mental illness" might use to inflict harm or death...

Mental illness has become the catch-all excuse mechanism. Are their real medically-identifiable mental illnesses? Yes. Is every "odd" person, or "socially awkward" person mentally ill? NO.

[TheBattman]

Or the 3000-4000 babies murdered in their mother’s wombs each and every day...