I am uncomfortable discussing ableism and related topics linked to mental illness for several reasons. One is that I don’t know enough about it to ask people to pay a lot of attention to what I have to say. Despite the whingings of my many detractors, I actually do tend to know a fair amount about the stuff I do talk about, such as race and racism, issues of gender related to both biology and politics, evolutionary biology, human foragers, and climate change. Indeed, I wrote my theses on these things. Well, some of them. But when it comes to mental illness outside of issues related to interesting things the brain does (I know something about brains) and certain cultural aspects (I’ve looked into so-called “culture bound mental illness”) I’m out of my league.

So why am I writing about it now? I’m not, as you’ll see. This post started, as so many things have lately, with a post over on the Future of Skeptics venue, Teen Skeptics. There, Olivia took issue with a certain thing a certain person said (we’ll get back to that) and from that starting point provided an important discussion about the equation of mental illness with criminality, or more exactly perhaps, the equation of mentally ill persons and criminals. Continue reading Mentally Ill, Criminals, Obama, Olivia, Guns →

I wrote a post on the murder off Trayvon Martin. Here.

Those who support unfettered ownership and sales of guns say no, but they are just making that up. A recent study says yes. Check it out.

A gun rights group that plans a rally this week on Old Dominion University’s campus will have some unwanted company when it gathers today on Kaufman Mall to push for less-restrictive weapons policies.

The group will be confronted by gun control advocates who said they’ve organized a counterdemonstration in support of a university proposal to ban concealed-weapon permit holders from bringing guns into school facilities.

“Decisions about campus safety should be made by administrators, faculty and students, not by extremists… who contribute nothing …

Details

Let’s just hope this does not lead to anyone … targeting anyone.

Continue reading Gun Nuts Attack NRA →

Since he is a minor his name has been withheld. The 14 year old boy in South Carolina called the police to tell them that he had attacked his father, his grandmother, and his great aunt. He told the police he’d be there when they arrived, possibly waiting outside. When police appeared on the scene they found the boy with his hands in the air out in front of the house, and inside were his dead father and dead great aunt, and a critically injured grandmother, all three attacked with a dull butter knife and a small piece of twine.
Continue reading 14 year old kills most of his family with a butter knife and a small piece of twine →

1) Clay Duke tried to kill several school board members, but missed from a distance of between 6 and 8 feet with his Smith & Wesson pistol. Indeed, over 25 rounds were fired in the small public space, all aimed from a short distance, and only one fatal shot occurred. This puts an end to the idea that if everyone in every public meeting had a pistol that the bad guys would be easily dispatched.

2) Duke had previously been in trouble for a gun related stalking event in which he actually discharged a firearm. Only in a society with very little serious concern over gun ownership could a clearly mentally unstable man who had previously fired a gun in the commission of a crime still be allowed to have a pistol.

3) Once again, a major story in which firearms were used and the press has not even posed the question as to where the firearm came from, if it was legally owned, etc. I know Florida is a fairly lawless state when it comes to guns, but it is still an important issue. What nefarious force causes reporters to be unable to answer this question? Does the gun lobby really control that much advertising in standard news outlets?

4) Duke was, clearly a teabagger, given what we know of his politics. So this particular incident can be chalked up as yet another violent right winger. At least he did the right thing in the end, I suppose.

We need stricter gun laws.

Samuel Hengel is, or should I say was, a mentally disturbed, probably depressed student in a rural area of Wisconsin who showed up at school yesterday with a pistol. He used the firearm to hold the teacher and students in one of his classes for several hours. (details here)

Scary part (well, there’s several scary parts): He actually fired the weapon a few times and kept everyone in the room for something like an hour or an hour and a half before school authorities were aware that there was a problem.

Anyway, he fired his weapon a number of times, shooting various objects, and finally on one of those occasions police stormed the room and Hengel shot himself. The word has just come down that he died in hospital of the self inflicted wound.

So yes, Samuel Hengel wins this week’s Poster Boy for Gun Control Award. But what we really, really need to know is this: Where did he get the damn guns (there were two pistols)? A related question: Why is it not routine for reporters to insist on knowing, and thus reporting, this fact in cases of rampage, school shooting, or other violent acts involving a firearm? Sometimes we find out, sometimes we don’t. In this case, no one is saying anything about it,and that’s fairly typical. The current story mentions “where” the weapons may have come from only in the context of how he got them from a hiding place outside the classroom, into the classroom. The real question is this: What is the name of the adult who owned the two pistols Hengel used?

Gun control. I used to be against it. Then I was indifferent. Now I’m realizing that we need it big time, because people are too stupid to be trusted to behave intelligently (is that a tautology? sorry..) without strict regulation from society, when it comes down to it.

Prove me wrong.

PS: This is a great example of how arming principals and teachers and janitors and stuff would have little effect. They didn’t even know it was happening. If the teacher in the room was known or suspected to be armed, he may have shot her dead first, instead of merely blowing away the projector.