Gun Control thread (merged many)

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Lance Corporal Charles Whitman of the USMC, who saved a fellow marine by single-handedly lifting a jeep. Honorably discharged from the USMC, he lived an ordinary life, he was close to his mother, who was undergoing a divorce from her abusive husband, and suffered from severe headaches, resorting to the use of aphetamines to try to dull the pain.
A perfectly normal person, who one day decided to murder his wife and mother, and then take to a tower and snipe his way through 46 people.
His autopsy found a tumour in his brain which may have been responsible for some of his behaviour, but otherwise it remains a mystery how a clever, talented Marine who loved his mother and wife, would suddenly choose to kill both of them and then attack innocent bystanders. Not even Whitman could understand it.

So...how do you stop that? Arrest everyone who used to be a Marine? Or arrest everyone with an IQ over 130? Everyone with a tumour?

He didn't just drop everything one day and shoot a bunch of people, you cut out an entire month between the time he visited psychiatrist Dr. Maurice Heatly and the murders.

From his July 31st suicide note referencing his March 29 visit to the University of Texas Health Center:

However, lately (I can't recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts. These thoughts constantly recur and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks. In March when my parents made a physical break I noticed a great deal of stress. I consulted a Dr. Cochrum at the University Health Center and asked him to recommend someone that I could consult with about some psychiatric disorders I felt I had. I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come overwhelming violent impulses. After one session I never saw the Doctor again, and since then I have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail.

A full month before he killed a Doctor knew what he was planning but couldn't or wouldn't do anything.

From Dr. Maurice Heatly notes:

He readily admits having overwhelming periods of hostility with a very minimum of provocation. Repeated inquiries attempting to analyze his exact experiences were not too successful with the exception of his vivid references to “thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people”.

Dr. Heatly told him to make an appointment for next week or to stop by to talk at any time. That never happened, not the following week or the next two weeks after.

There is also evidence that Whitman was abusing drugs like the amphetamine Dexedrine and over the counter pain killers in the months leading to the shooting.

While a tumor may have cause Whitman's murders there were warning signs in the month(s) leading up to it.