When the facts are not known it is far too easy to jump to conclusions as with yesterdays murderous rampage.
What are the facts so far?
Santa Barbara County sheriff Bill Brown said three men had been killed in Rodger’s apartment prior to the beginning of the shooting spree. They were stabbed “repeatedly with a sharp object” in “a horrific crime scene”
The three shot dead were named as Katherine Cooper, 22, and Veronika Weiss, 19, UCSB students who were shot outside a sorority house, and Christopher Ross Michael-Martinez, 20, another UCSB student who was shot at a delicatessen.
On Saturday evening Dr Stephen Kaminski of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital said four injured people had been treated and released and seven had been transferred to a trauma centre. Of those individuals two were in good condition, three in fair condition and two in serious condition
The killer apparently suffered from Asperger syndrome and had been under psychiatric evaluation and was considered to be very mentally disturbed.
Yet:
Brown said all the guns had been legally purchased from federally licensed dealers and registered to Rodger.
He also used knives and his car as a weapon.
What this says to me are two things.
1] There is a lack of help for severely mentally disturbed members of our society.
2] The gun laws at present fail completely even when they are apparently applied.
You can add in all the hate, fear and loathing of various groups around the world, and yes, much of that is to blame as its effects on fragile people can be horrifically frightening.
The only observation that I have is that once again we fail to recognize the signs, possibly due to lack of resources, possibly due to lack of caring.
On 30 April, Brown said, deputies made contact with Rodger to check on his welfare after a request from a family member. Brown said it had been “determined that he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary mental health hold”.
The warning signs are often there, yet we seem incapable or unwilling to have adequate mental health care.
That is the only conclusion [thus far] I can draw from this tragic event.