Everybody heard about the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. A tragic event in which 26 year-old student Christopher Harper-Mercer opened fire on his classmates, killing nine of them. This tragedy is the latest in an unbearably high number of school shootings occurring within the past 5 years.
A very large amount of imbeciles - many of them likely the same who criticized peaceful people after the Sandy Hook shooting - have blamed Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high-functioning Autism that has never been linked with violence to others by any research, for this atrocity. Harper-Mercer was diagnosed with the disorder as a child and grew up with his mother, who also has Asperger's. Christopher's father, Ian Mercer, believed that if Christopher had not been living in a house with his mother, who owned 14 guns which she kept all fully loaded in her home, that the shooting would not have happened. Yes, there is a high likelihood that had automatic weapons not been made readily available to him, this would not have happened - but that is an issue of gun control.
There is no reason whatsoever that the actions of Christopher Harper-Mercer, nor Adam Lanza (the Sandy Hook shooter mentioned earlier), should be blamed or linked at all to Asperger's. Their violence is something completely abnormal for people with Asperger's, who are normally harmful to nobody (save for themselves, as they generally have a very high tendency to harm themselves). Many Autistic children have been ostracized and bullied around the times of these attacks, solely for the purpose of enforcing guilt by association.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/06/us/oregon-umpqua-shooting-mother-online-posts/
I completely agree with you. When people hear stories about people like Lanza or Mercer, they just assume there is something wrong with, such as Autism. In reality, children who have Autism are just like most of us. They don't want to hurt anyone and they should not be treated any differently.
ReplyDeletePeople like to distract from the real problem--glorfication of violence and gun control. Also society has such a terrible and uneducated view of Autism and other intellectual disabilities.
ReplyDeletePeople like to distract from the real problem--glorfication of violence and gun control. Also society has such a terrible and uneducated view of Autism and other intellectual disabilities.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Zoe, Becca, and Jack. The real issue here isn't whether or not he had Asperger's, the real issue is gun violence.
ReplyDeleteThe only time we ever see mental illnesses brought up in news coverage is when it's pinpointed as an excuse for mass violence. The issue isn't people with Asperger's syndrome. The issue is world wide ignorance of mental illnesses. The issue is that mental health care that is so inaccessible for so many people. The issue is that it's easier to get a gun than it is to get a driver's license. People who are mentally handicapped are statistically more likely to be the victims of crime, not the perpetrators. I'm sick of the media antagonizing mental illness. Mass shootings are preventable. Mental disabilities are not.
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