This really is making me think Clayton is onto something big time when it comes to treatment for the mentally ill. The A&M shooter’s parents know he’s as crazy as a shithouse rat, and a danger to himself and others, know he’s buying guns, and yet they do nothing? I have a standing order with all my close family that is I ever start wandering off the reservation, they are remove the guns from the house.
In an interview with KPRC, a local television station, Caffall’s stepfather, Richard Weaver, said Caffall was a “ticking time bomb†who quit his job nine months ago and vowed never to work again.
“He was crazy as hell,” Weaver said. “At one point, we were afraid that he was going to come up here and do something to his mother and me.”
Now the question is, who else knew this guy was “crazy as hell,” and did nothing?
They already try to charge people for failing to report lost and stolen guns. Why not charge people for failing to report dangerous people? It’s for the common good and all that.
/sarcasm
I don’t know the context of this quote (was it before the identity of the shooter was released?), but if it means what it sounds like, it’s pretty disturbing: “The minute I saw the TV I knew it was him,” said Weaver. “I’ve been that worried about him.”
I hate to sound like I’m advocating for collective responsibility, but really?? It’s like these folks knew everything except the place and time and didn’t say a word.
Here’s another report from a different outlet citing an interview with the stepfather:
It’s like these folks knew everything except the place and time and didn’t say a word.
You, mike, our host, lots of other Internet kibitzers ought to take note of the rest of what Clayton says about our current system: it’s nearly impossible to get someone like this off the streets before they draw blood.
It’s not quite as hard to get an NICS disabling adjudication, Virginia actually did that with the VT shooter, but further illustrating the problem VA failed to follow up and ensure he got the ordered treatment, or that this was reported to the NICS.
I gather the organizing theme of his book is his brother’s schizophrenia, and the family’s inability, post-deinstitutionalization, to do much of anything for him.
My default assumption prior to learning more about these situations is that they’re similar, with the family and friends knowing the shooter is a time bomb, but their hands are tied … plus people like this are by definition dangerous to take action against. Especially if you want to avoid having to shoot your son, brother, whatever, if you are so lucky as to be able to chose that over getting killed yourself.
Those first couple of sentences make it appear as if the crazy person you are talking about it Clayton Cramer.
Who “he” is referring to is less clear than it could be due to the lack of a transition, but you’re only likely to read it as Clayton if you do so in isolation from the title. And if you’re doing that, you’ll be totally as sea as to what the posting is about for quite a bit.
“Now the question is, who else knew this guy was “crazy as hell,†and did nothing?”
Probably everyone but the gun dealer, but guess who’s going to be blamed for not knowing?
I’m beginning to worry that we have become desensitized to mass shootings:
http://www.blackwiththeblues.com/2012/08/an-american-problem.html
I’m beginning to worry that we have become desensitized to the 30,000 driving deaths each year, or the 100,000 people killed in the US each year by their doctors. So yeah, let’s focus on the ridiculously small number of mass shootings in a country of over 300 million people instead of focusing on things that actually have a chance of killing us.