5 wounded, attacker dead - UC Merced

[chiver78]

link


A man wielding a knife went on a rampage at the University of California's Merced campus, stabbing five people before he was shot dead by police, officials said.

The violence unfolded about 8 a.m. PT in the school's Classroom and Office Building. The suspect was taken down within 20 minutes, the school said.

Two of the victims were airlifted to the hospital, but all were conscious, the school tweeted.
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ok, so it isn't a gun this time, but wtf is wrong with people??

[happyhoix]

I'm beginning to think it's a kind of contagion. A violence virus.

[ArchietheDragon]

Nov 4, 2015 17:20:40 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I'm beginning to think it's a kind of contagion. A violence virus.

Like zombies

[Virgil Showlion]

SSRIs linked to violence?

I take an SSRI. They're insulting me.

I'll kill them! I'll strangle them with their entrails! I'll tear off their ears and wear them to town!

That'll teach 'em to correlate things I do with violence.

[chiver78]

Nov 4, 2015 17:50:14 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

So can we at least now start having the conversations that it's not the guns it's the people who are the root of the violence?

I don't think anyone on this board has ever said it's not the people who are the root of the violence. the discussions have tended toward keeping the guns away from the people that can't be trusted to handle them properly. have you been reading the same threads I have?

[Tennesseer]

Survival rate seems to be higher with knives.  Also give the intended victim a literal fighting chance.

[djAdvocate]

Nov 4, 2015 17:50:14 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

So can we at least now start having the conversations that it's not the guns it's the people who are the root of the violence?

when has that NOT been the conversation?

so, the next question is- how armed do you want your crazy person to be?

[fishy999]

Nov 4, 2015 20:21:40 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Survival rate seems to be higher with knives.  Also give the intended victim a literal fighting chance.

Won't stop the snarky ban knives comments from the gun supporters- but no doubt- the only dead person is the attacker- doubt if it was an AR-15 people would have been so lucky.

Plus- you can RUN from a knife.

 

[Opti]

How can you focus on the cause when we know next to nothing about the dead attacker and even less about his first victim? Everyday people kill or stab each other over arguments and domestic unhappiness. Its rare people conjecture about that because they do not see that as random violence and aren't as worried they might be involved. But sometimes they are, when a very mad husband or boyfriend goes after the woman in her workplace.

 

Without knowing who his first target is, conjecture on the cause is to me pure mental masturbation.

The first student was likely the target and then he stabbed a construction guy because he stopped him from hurting the first student further. The stabbing of the woman just sitting there might have been displacement especially if his original target was a woman he knew and was mad at. Would he have stopped at one victim if he had not been interrupted? IDK.

[Opti]

Nov 5, 2015 7:57:36 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

Nov 5, 2015 7:48:13 GMT -5 Opti said:

How can you focus on the cause when we know next to nothing about the dead attacker and even less about his first victim? Everyday people kill or stab each other over arguments and domestic unhappiness. Its rare people conjecture about that because they do not see that as random violence and aren't as worried they might be involved. But sometimes they are, when a very mad husband or boyfriend goes after the woman in her workplace.

 

Without knowing who his first target is, conjecture on the cause is to me pure mental masturbation.

The first student was likely the target and then he stabbed a construction guy because he stopped him from hurting the first student further. The stabbing of the woman just sitting there might have been displacement especially if his original target was a woman he knew and was mad at. Would he have stopped at one victim if he had not been interrupted? IDK.

Yeah...'cause we don't have any other cases that we could possibly study.  If only there have been other cases of violence that we could use to learn from. 

So you want to talk about the causes but exclude this case? I don't think this is going to be something as easy to resolve as the former going postal issue was, that changed how the US Postal service was run so it was not as stressful.

I think the focus on mental illness is just as incomplete as a focus on guns. The cases that hit the news do not share enough commonality nor do we get enough information IMO to make good judgments.

[Tennesseer]

Worker a 'hero' for facing attacker at California university

The main road to enter the campus remained closed to outside traffic Wednesday night and classes were canceled until Friday at university about 120 miles south of Sacramento in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley. Police were allowing students who live on campus to come and go, but anxious parents waited in their vehicles at the end of the dark roadway about a half mile from the campus entrance.

Among them were Larry and Yen Little, who drove about 110 miles from their home in Elk Grove to pick up their daughter Dana. Larry Little said he knows incidents of campus violence are rampant.

"I knew someday it might, but I was just hoping it wouldn't happen here. It's a small campus out in the country," said Little. "Thank god the guy didn't have a gun, shooting people, killing them."

Stabbings involving multiple victims on college campuses have not raised as much alarm as mass shootings since the attacks do not usually result in as many deaths or injuries. Several U.S. colleges have been the site of violent attacks involving bladed weapons.

Worker a 'hero' for facing attacker at California university

[midjd]

Essentially the study says that there was an increase in violence for a subset of people taking these medications.

If that is true, it makes the issue even tougher. Banning certain types of weapons for those who take (or have taken) SSRIs would likely cause a lot of people to avoid treatment... but I do think SSRIs are usually helpful for the majority of users. 

And with the number of people taking SSRIs at any given time, even having a tiny subset overly prone to violence is a scary thought... 

 

[happyhoix]

Nov 4, 2015 20:57:16 GMT -5 fishy999 said:

Nov 4, 2015 20:21:40 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Survival rate seems to be higher with knives.  Also give the intended victim a literal fighting chance.

Won't stop the snarky ban knives comments from the gun supporters- but no doubt- the only dead person is the attacker- doubt if it was an AR-15 people would have been so lucky.

Plus- you can RUN from a knife.

 

Yes, you can run from a gun, plus I think if I was in a classroom and someone was threatening us with a knife, I would be a lot more likely to gang up on the guy and rush him. You'd have a much better chance of overwhelming him and disarming him then you would someone with a gun.

Although - who am I kidding - I would probably be trampling other people in my attempts to flee the room. I'm not chicken, but let's just say I'm not heroic, either.

[Tennesseer]

Nov 5, 2015 10:24:03 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Nov 4, 2015 20:57:16 GMT -5 fishy999 said:

Won't stop the snarky ban knives comments from the gun supporters- but no doubt- the only dead person is the attacker- doubt if it was an AR-15 people would have been so lucky.

Plus- you can RUN from a knife.

 

Yes, you can run from a gun, plus I think if I was in a classroom and someone was threatening us with a knife, I would be a lot more likely to gang up on the guy and rush him. You'd have a much better chance of overwhelming him and disarming him then you would someone with a gun.

Although - who am I kidding - I would probably be trampling other people in my attempts to flee the room. I'm not chicken, but let's just say I'm not heroic, either.

Cornered, you would all fight-and win.

[happyhoix]

Nov 5, 2015 10:28:36 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Nov 5, 2015 10:24:03 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Yes, you can run from a gun, plus I think if I was in a classroom and someone was threatening us with a knife, I would be a lot more likely to gang up on the guy and rush him. You'd have a much better chance of overwhelming him and disarming him then you would someone with a gun.

Although - who am I kidding - I would probably be trampling other people in my attempts to flee the room. I'm not chicken, but let's just say I'm not heroic, either.

Cornered, you would all fight-and win.

I like to think I would. I used to be pure flight and no fight, but as I've gotten older, crankier and more sour, I think if some punk started brandishing a knife I'd probably want to kick his ass.  

[Opti]

Nov 5, 2015 9:00:53 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

Nov 5, 2015 8:11:11 GMT -5 Opti said:

So you want to talk about the causes but exclude this case? I don't think this is going to be something as easy to resolve as the former going postal issue was, that changed how the US Postal service was run so it was not as stressful.

I think the focus on mental illness is just as incomplete as a focus on guns. The cases that hit the news do not share enough commonality nor do we get enough information IMO to make good judgments.

When exactly did I say focus on mental illness? 

Let me help,  I didn't. 

So can we at least now start having the conversations that it's not the guns it's the people who are the root of the violence?

Here might be a good place to start (and I haven't read about this particular attack yet, but I will).

I've bolded the relevant bits for you.  

With 3 million or so guns in the hands of Americans,  it's a pretty easy conclusion to draw that the guns aren't the cause of violence otherwise there would be a hell of a lot more shootings.   The only common denominator is people are involved,  therefore that's what should be studied and investigated  otherwise we (global we) are taking the easy way out and solving a symptom rather than the problem.    

It is still a small subset of people who do these crimes. Numbers-wise, if it was only about mental illness, things would be much worse than they are.

•Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year.1
•Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S.—10 million, or 4.2%—experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.2
•Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%.3
- See more at: www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers#sthash.MSRlL7dH.dpuf

But overall, the mentally ill commit crimes roughly at the same rate as the mentally healthy population.

I think part of it is cultural.

I'd like some real research on all these cases. SSRI use and antidepressant use has risen worldwide. Are other countries really having this issue as bad as we are?

The research noted a particular rise in in the use of SSRIs like Prozac and Seroxat.

The OECD figures showed Iceland to have the highest prescribing rate, at 106 doses a day for every 1,000 inhabitants in 2011, up from 71 a decade earlier.

Behind Iceland is Australia, then Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal. The lowest levels were seen in Chile and South Korea.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3024604/More-two-thirds-people-taking-antidepressants-NOT-actually-depression-Doctors-discover-not-meet-official-criteria.html#ixzz3qdzT5D9Q
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www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3024604/More-two-thirds-people-taking-antidepressants-NOT-actually-depression-Doctors-discover-not-meet-official-criteria.html

(FWIW, I think it is a combination of many things - culture, weapons, etc.)