ANOTHER CASE OF THOSE DISORDERED MINDS AMONG US
(…and the difficulties involved with preventing their sudden onsets of killing rampages)
The recent event at the Navy Yard, in Washington, D.C. is another case of those disordered mind among us…and the difficulties involved with preventing their sudden onsets of killing rampages.
To be able to do that we face treading a very fine line between taking effective measures to make us better aware of their presence, and, determining and containing their potentials for mayhem and slaughter, as in this one. Unfortunately, when these incidents happen, we tend to stampede ourselves with knee-jerk reactions into making erroneous assumptions, with renewed calls for gun controls, pro-con debates about the nefarious role of the NRA, PTSD, and other irrelevancies,
The fact that the individual in this instance was also a former military serviceman, a IT specialist hired as a sub-contractor by a defense contractor, with authorized access to an otherwise extremely “secured” facility, will no doubt raise questions about how the commonality of such backgrounds may be relevant, but these would also be erroneous assumptions.
Disordered minds…are disordered minds, so the real questions we should be asking ourselves instead should be…do we have the means for early detection and evaluation of these to determine their potentials for violence…without either stigmatizing them or violating their civil rights?
Apparently…we don’t…or such tragic episodes would rarely happen.
The few common factors that do seem to exist with such individuals are, unfortunately, imbedded in the very complex matrix of human brains, with no two being quite alike. Thus attempting to apply a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. Nevertheless, there is one common factor that does stand out with all of them…and that is…a pattern of previous aggressive behavioral responses disproportionate to the causes of them. In some respects these might be analogous to those rumblings and fuming often occurring before explosive volcanic events. Thus, perhaps what is needed is a better system and protocols for sharing such behavioral patterns, by making these part of their individual background records, when considering whether they should be allowed access to any kind of firearms, or considered for any kind of security clearance.
The difficulty here, however, is how do we differentiate between such behavioral incidents as being just reflections of cultural influences supporting violent resolution of conflict (as we see almost every day in the news), or, as being deeper symptoms and precursors of early stages of mental health problems (similar to what happens with something like Alzheimer’s disease). At the moment, we have no quick-fix and clear answers to such questions.
The reality is that there will probably never be such answers. About the only thing we can do is that, much like earthquakes, we can predict that they will happen…we just don’t have any ways of knowing how or when they will occur.
CENTURION