VT
Brynn and I were talking about what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday and I have to say I am deeply confused and sad for those students. I have spent the last month and a half going to my classes everyday, completely immersed in my own world of thoughts and I can only imagine that that's where all of those kids were when stuff went down.
I was reading the Globe&Mail's coverage on it and there was a q and a with a "Shootings Expert (?!). The fucking questions people had written in with blew my mind. Someone actually asked how to recognize the people that are likely to do shit like that. COME ON PEOPLE!
The interesting thing I read and wanted to share was this.
Shelly Fernandes from Canada writes: My question is how often is mental illness believed to play a role in mass murders, and which mental illnesses in particular.
Dr. Elliott Leyton: In general, Shelly, legal mental illness plays a role in perhaps 4 per cent of homicides. But when we look into your question, we immediately run into definitional problems. Surely at an ethical level, anyone who wants to kill someone is 'mentally ill.' Yet many of these killers do not display any other of the scientific characteristics of mental illness than this bizarre desire to kill. it's very tricky.
And I am still left with the question "Who would do something like this?" I guess the point is, we still don't really know.
I just don't understand how so many people died at this school and I hate to point it out, but there were so many more in comparison at Dawson. It blows me away to think that there was some luck in the situation here because it's awful to say, but now I see that it could have been a LOT worse.
What is it that is making schools such an open target for mass murder? Especially vs a job or something of that nature. Why all these colleges and universities? It makes me wonder about going to school and what I am thinking about, realizing how fast that could all change. Even in a place I find I feel so safe...
My heart goes out to all those kids and families in Virginia right now. I can;t imagine how they feel.
I was reading the Globe&Mail's coverage on it and there was a q and a with a "Shootings Expert (?!). The fucking questions people had written in with blew my mind. Someone actually asked how to recognize the people that are likely to do shit like that. COME ON PEOPLE!
The interesting thing I read and wanted to share was this.
Shelly Fernandes from Canada writes: My question is how often is mental illness believed to play a role in mass murders, and which mental illnesses in particular.
Dr. Elliott Leyton: In general, Shelly, legal mental illness plays a role in perhaps 4 per cent of homicides. But when we look into your question, we immediately run into definitional problems. Surely at an ethical level, anyone who wants to kill someone is 'mentally ill.' Yet many of these killers do not display any other of the scientific characteristics of mental illness than this bizarre desire to kill. it's very tricky.
And I am still left with the question "Who would do something like this?" I guess the point is, we still don't really know.
I just don't understand how so many people died at this school and I hate to point it out, but there were so many more in comparison at Dawson. It blows me away to think that there was some luck in the situation here because it's awful to say, but now I see that it could have been a LOT worse.
What is it that is making schools such an open target for mass murder? Especially vs a job or something of that nature. Why all these colleges and universities? It makes me wonder about going to school and what I am thinking about, realizing how fast that could all change. Even in a place I find I feel so safe...
My heart goes out to all those kids and families in Virginia right now. I can;t imagine how they feel.