-CNN
Hat tip Daily Nexus
It has been a bad year for the University of California at Santa Barbara, and much of it has been reported on this blog with humorous overtones. Last night's incident is in no way humorous. At about 9:30 last night, a young male gunman opened fire in the adjacent community of Isla Vista, scene of a recent spring break riot. When it was over, 7 people were dead including the gunman, who apparently shot himself. His identity has not yet been released. It appears he was enraged at women who had rejected him. One of the shooting scenes was a sorority house.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/24/justice/california-shooting-deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
The Daily Nexus, UCSB's newspaper, reports that the killings involved multiple drive-bys at many locations. They further report that the driver died after a crash as he was being chased by police. According to the Daily Nexus, it was not clear if the suspect committed suicide or was shot by police.
http://dailynexus.com/2014-05-24/shooting-spree-results-in-seven-dead/
In the comment thread, one of the readers says that the gunman was a Santa Barbara Community College student.
* Update: Fox News is reporting that the gunman is believed to be Elliot Rodger, 22-year-old son of Hollywood film director, Peter Rodger.
Let's see, he's not Jewish, he's not Muslim, he's not a Roman Catholic priest, he's not a former veteran of the Weather Underground or the SLA who somehow got paroled in a plea deal, he's not on the staff of the Obama White House, gosh Gary, which of your enemies are you going to pin this one on?
ReplyDeleteMaybe John Boehner and Ted Cruz have left him with the twisted idea that he has a constitutional right to a woman's devotion, and if he doesn't get it, a 2nd amendment right to take it out on any woman within reach?
No, I don't believe that either... maybe our cities are just overcrowded, you know, like rats or rabbits in an overcrowded cage, and it drives people psycho. Or maybe in a population of 300 million, a tiny percentage of nut jobs is a larger whole number with a larger number of targets within range.
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteRepeat after me. The guy was crazy. We have a lot of crazy people in the is country and it's very hard to institutionalize them.
Repeat after me... there are a lot of crazy people in the world, and it's very hard to institutionalize them...
ReplyDeleteThat was my comment. You were supposed to refute it.
ReplyDeleteSaiarlys,
ReplyDeleteThis shooter was mentally ill! He had a diagnosis of Autism Specrtrum Disorder.
Squid
I expanded on it Gary. Couldn't you tell?
ReplyDeleteSquid, would you be surprised if it turned out that a good portion of the ISIS foot soldiers had autism spectrum disorder?
I have a conspiracy theory to offer though. The man's father worked on production of "The Hunger Games." There is a small fringe group taking that movie as a paradigm for where President Obama is leading our nation, which is forming clubs to oppose... whatever... using the movie and books as a kind of ideology.
Ergo, this kid is the first foot soldier to fall fighting what he believes is the Panem government on behalf of these clubs!!!
(Sensible as any conspiracy theory, eh?)
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteI have an even better conspiracy theory. Maybe the foot soldiers of the ISIS are all in-breeds? Would that explain the beheadings?
I suspect that a lot of the foot soldiers of ISIS are the same louts who would have been hot wiring cars, running extortion rackets, beating up old ladies to steal their purse, and putting contracts out on rivals, if something more attractive and high status hadn't come along.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's the Iraqi and Syrian mafia families who team up to form a crime commission.
ReplyDelete