Once again, I find myself to be bombarded by the media about the mental state of some soul going over the edge and destroying lives. Once again, I find myself being angered by the assumptions being made about people like me. That's not to say that there aren't mentally ill people with violent tendencies. They do exist. But here's the thing; not all of us with mental illness are likely to turn on other people. Many of us turn inwards on ourselves.
Even more dangerous, to me, at least, is the predominate theme that perhaps the shooter had Asperger's. Er...no. In my experience, I know that I wouldn't even dream of hurting other humans, even as they have done harm to me. Aspies are capable of empathy, even if we have a difficult time reading the cues. We do have feelings; the problem is in how those feelings are being communicated. Now, people with Asperger's can have co-morbid conditions; mostly depression and anxiety, but I also have ADHD and OCD as well. But these conditions have mostly caused me to turn against myself, and not others so much.
The thing that set me over the edge with this talk of possible diagnosis of the shooter was listening to Stephanie Miller this morning, mentioning it so casually as if that was the root of the shooter's mental state issues. No...just no. Aspies are not as likely to commit these kinds of crimes. Rather we tend to be the victims of crimes. Please, knock it off with the ignorance before it hurts someone. We really should be talking about how we deal with mental health issues, by all means. But don't use it as an excuse to "other" people who have these issues. Wait until all the information is out before making conclusions.
And for all the people blaming violent video games, I would suggest you all go back and watch Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. He debunks that theory perfectly.