Illinois Shooter was Treated with Psych Meds Prior to ShootingRampage

On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:
"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence. Remember the
University of Texas bell tower shooting? There were no medications
involved prior to that incident--just one deranged, mentally ill
student. I think someone is drawing the wrong conclusions.

Therefore, Frank's interpretation is just as good as that of the
journalist--and twice as entertaining.

On Feb 21, 12:59*pm, marcia wrote:
On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:

"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence. Remember the
University of Texas bell tower shooting? There were no medications
involved prior to that incident--just one deranged, mentally ill
student. I think someone is drawing the wrong conclusions.

Well said. This is a fact that the anti-medders ignore.


Therefore, Frank's interpretation is just as good as that of the
journalist--and twice as entertaining.

"marcia" wrote in message
...
On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:
"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence.

Wrong again

Among the specifically school-related attacks the site documents a


In 1988, 31-year-old Laurie Dann, who had been taking Anafranil and Lithium,
walked into a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Ill., and began shooting.
One child was killed and six wounded.

Later that same year, 19-year-old James Wilson went on a shooting rampage at
the Greenwood, S.C., Elementary School and killed two 8-year-old girls and
wounded seven others. He'd been on Xanax, Valium and five other drugs.

Kip Kinkel, a 15-year-old of Springfield, Ore., in 1998 murdered his parents
and proceeded to his high school where he went on a rampage killing two
students and wounding 22 others. Kinkel had been prescribed both Prozac and
Ritalin.

Patrick Purdy, 25, in 1989 opened fire on a school yard filled with children
in Stockton, Calif. Five kids were killed and 30 wounded. He been treated
with Thorazine and Amitriptyline.

Steve Lieth of Chelsea, Mich., in 1993 walked into a school meeting and shot
and killed the school superintendent, wounding two others, while on Prozac.

10-year-old Tommy Becton in 1996 grabbed his 3-year-old niece as a shield
and aimed a shotgun at a sheriff's deputy who accompanied a truant officer
to his Florida home. He'd been put on Prozac.

Michael Carneal, 14, opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting
in Heath High in West Paducah, Ky. Three died and one was paralyzed. Carneal
reportedly was on Ritalin.

In 1998, 11-year-old Andrew Golden and 14-year-old Mitchell Johnson
apparently faked a fire alarm at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark.,
and shot at students as they left the building. Four students and a teacher
were killed. The boys were believed to be on Ritalin.

In 1999, Shawn Cooper, 15, of Notus, Idaho, took a shotgun to school and
injured one student. He had been taking Ritalin.

April 20, 1999, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, shot and killed 12
classmates and a teacher and wounded 24 others. Harris had been taking
Luvox.

Todd Smith walked into as high school in Taber, Alberta, Canada in 1999 with
a shotgun and killed one and injured a second student. He has been given a
drug after a five-minute phone consultation with a psychiatrist.

Steven Abrams drove his car into a preschool playground in 1999 in Costa
Mesa., Calif., killing two. He was on probation with a requirement to take
Lithium.

In 2000, T.J. Solomon, 15, opened fire at Heritage High School in Conyers,
Ga., while on a mix of antidepressants. Six were wounded.

The same year Seth Trickey of Gibson, Okla., 13, was on a variety of
prescriptions when he opened fire on his middle-school class, injuring five.

Elizabeth Bush, 14, was on Prozac. She shot and wounded another student at
Bishop Neumann High in Williamsport, Pa.

Jason Hoffman, 18, in 2001 was on Effexor and Celexa, both antidepressants,
when he wounded two teachers at California's Granite Hills High School.

In Wahluke, Wash., Cory Baadsgaard, 16, took a rifle to his high schooland
held 23 classmates hostage in 2001. He has been taking Paxil and Effexor.

In Tokyo in 2001, Mamoru Takuma, 37, went into a second-grade classroom and
started stabbing students. He killed eight. He had taken 10 times his normal
dosage of an antidepressant.

Duane Morrison, 53, shot and killed a girl at Platte Canyon High School in
Colorado in 2006. Antidepressants later were found in his vehicle.

In 2005, 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise on the Red Lake Indian
Reservation in Minnesota was under the influence of the antidepressant
Prozac when he shot and killed nine people and wounding five before
committing suicide.
Another case involving a school-age youth ? although not at a school ?
happened in 1986, when 14-year-old Rod Mathews of Canton, Mass., beat a
classmate to death with a baseball bat while on Ritalin.

And just a few among the dozens of incidents cited, but not apparently
related to schools:


William Cruse in 1987 was charged with killing six people in Palm Bay, Fla.,
after taking psychiatric drugs for "several years."

The same year, Bartley James Dobben killed his two young sons by throwing
them into a 1,300-degree foundry ladle. He been on a "regimen" of
psychiatric drugs.

Joseph T. WesBecker, 47, just a month after he began taking Prozac, shot 20
workers at Standard Gravure Corp. in Louisville, Ky., killing nine. Eli
Lilly, which makes Prozac, later settled a lawsuit brought by survivors.

In 1991, 61-year-old Barbara Mortenson, on Prozac for two weeks,
"cannibalized her 87-year-old mother ?"

In 1992, Lynnwood Drake III, shot and killed six in San Luis Obispo and
Morro Bay. Prozac and Valium were found in his system.

Sixteen-year-old Victor Brancaccio attacked and killed an 81-year-old woman,
covered her corpse with red spray-paint. He was two months into a Zoloft
regimen.

While on four medications including Prozac, Dr. Debora Green in 1995 set her
Prairie Village, Mo., home on fire, killing her children, ages 6 and 13.

Kurt Danysh, 18, shot and killed his father in 1996, 17 days after his first
dose of Prozac. "I didn't realize I did it until after it was done. ? This
might sound weird, but it felt like I had no control of what I was doing,
like I was left there just holding a gun."

In 1998, GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Paxil, was ordered to pay $6.4 million to
surviving family members after Donald Schnell, 60, just 48 hours after
taking Paxil, flew into a rage and killed his wife, daughter and
granddaughter.
The website also cites psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce, in a speech
advocating for the treatment of children and youth.

"Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because
he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, towards
our elected officials, towards his parents, towards a belief in a
supernatural being, and towards the sovereignty of this nation as a separate
entity. It's up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well ? by
creating the international child of the future," Pierce told a 1973
childhood seminar.

Breggin's conclusion that whatever mental manifestations were causing Cho's
dangerous behavior, resulting in a professor asking for him to be removed
from her class and two complaints of stalking, there was a solution.

"The answer to vengeful, violent people is not more mental health screening
or more potent mental health interventions. Reliance on the whole range of
this system from counseling to involuntary treatment failed. There is not a
shred of scientific evidence that locking people up against their will or
otherwise 'treating' them reduces violence. As we'll see, quite the opposite
is true," he wrote. "So what was needed? Police intervention."

He wrote that "it's not politically correct to bring criminal charges
against someone who is 'mentally ill' and it's not politically correct to
prosecute him or to remove him from the campus. Yet that's what was needed
to protect the students. Two known episodes of stalking, setting a fire, and
his threatening behavior in class should have been more than enough for the
university administration to bring charges against him and to send him off
campus."

He continued with a warning, "And what about drugs for the treatment of
violence? The FDA has not approved any medications for the control of
violence because there are no such medications. Yes, it is possible to
temporarily immobilize mind and body alike with a shot of an 'antipsychotic'
drug like Haldol; but that only works as long as the person is virtually
paralyzed and confined ? and forced drugging invariably breeds more
resentment.

"Instead of offering the promise of reducing violence, all psychiatric drugs
carry the potential risk of driving the individual into violent madness. For
example, both the newer antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and
Celexa, and the antipsychotic drugs such as Risperdal and Zyprexa, cause a
disorder caused akathisia ? a terrible inner sensation of agitation
accompanied by a compulsion to move about. Akathisia is known to drive
people to suicide and to aggression."

He said he's been writing for more than 15 years about the capacity for
psychiatric drugs to cause mayhem, murder and suicide, but it wasn't until
2005 when the FDA issued a warning that such drugs produce "anxiety,
agitation, panic attacks ?"

He said in the Columbine case, Harris "looks the most like Cho. Both were
very emotionally disturbed in an extremely violent fashion for a prolonged
period of time."

Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of Virginia Tech's English department, said Cho's
writings were so disturbing he was referred to the school's counselors.

"Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if
it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things
or just how real it might be," she said. "But we're all alert to not ignore
things like this."

In a statement posted on the TeenScreen opposition site, Sidney Taurel of
Eli Lilly noted that it would be "unreasonable" to expect "that there is
such a thing as a risk-free drug."

Another website concerning the psychiatric drugs, called RitalinDeath, also
documents some of these cases, as well as additional ones.

Dr. John Breeding concluded in a report shortly after Columbine that there
were about five million school children now being given psychiatric drugs,
and the number had been doubling every 10 years since the 1970s.

"This has got to be a cause for major alarm in all adults," he said. "The
bottom line is that we are giving stronger and stronger psychiatric drugs to
more and more children. Many of our children are taking more than one of
these drugs at a time, and many of these drugs were never even tested and
approved for children."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=55310

Remember the
University of Texas bell tower shooting? There were no medications
involved prior to that incident--just one deranged, mentally ill
student. I think someone is drawing the wrong conclusions.

Simply wrong.

Whitman was prescribed Dexedrine

Whitman had abused the drugs.



Therefore, Frank's interpretation is just as good as that of the
journalist--and twice as entertaining.

You are here to be entertained?

On Feb 22, 12:47 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:
"marcia" wrote in message

...

On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:
"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence.

Wrong again

Among the specifically school-related attacks the site documents a

In 1988, 31-year-old Laurie Dann, who had been taking Anafranil and Lithium,
walked into a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Ill., and began shooting.
One child was killed and six wounded.

"had been taking" implies she had gone OFF her meds and may have been
actively psychotic because her mood wasn't being controlled by the
Lithium.


Later that same year, 19-year-old James Wilson went on a shooting rampage at
the Greenwood, S.C., Elementary School and killed two 8-year-old girls and
wounded seven others. He'd been on Xanax, Valium and five other drugs.

Again, "had been" implies he was no longer taking the drugs. Xanax and
Valium are both benzodiazapines, minor sedatives with known to
disinhibit people at high doses. I doubt a doctor would have
prescribed this combination; therefore, it suggests the shooter may
have abusing drugs off prescription.


Kip Kinkel, a 15-year-old of Springfield, Ore., in 1998 murdered his parents
and proceeded to his high school where he went on a rampage killing two
students and wounding 22 others. Kinkel had been prescribed both Prozac and
Ritalin.

"Had been prescribed" does not mean he was taking the meds. Careful
choice of words designed to imply meds were the cause without
substantiation. Bias showing.


Patrick Purdy, 25, in 1989 opened fire on a school yard filled with children
in Stockton, Calif. Five kids were killed and 30 wounded. He been treated
with Thorazine and Amitriptyline.

If he were still taking his thorazine, I can almost guarantee he
wouldn't have had the energy to shoot someone. Suggests a
schizophrenic (who the med is prescribed to) off medication.


Steve Lieth of Chelsea, Mich., in 1993 walked into a school meeting and shot
and killed the school superintendent, wounding two others, while on Prozac.

Does not prove Prozac was the cause of his behavior.


10-year-old Tommy Becton in 1996 grabbed his 3-year-old niece as a shield
and aimed a shotgun at a sheriff's deputy who accompanied a truant officer
to his Florida home. He'd been put on Prozac.

Was he taking it? Had it had time to take effect? Again, does not
prove Prozac was the cause of his behavior.


Michael Carneal, 14, opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting
in Heath High in West Paducah, Ky. Three died and one was paralyzed. Carneal
reportedly was on Ritalin.

"Reportedly." Unsubstantiated.



In 1998, 11-year-old Andrew Golden and 14-year-old Mitchell Johnson
apparently faked a fire alarm at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark.,
and shot at students as they left the building. Four students and a teacher
were killed. The boys were believed to be on Ritalin.

"believed to be." Again, unsubstantiated.


In 1999, Shawn Cooper, 15, of Notus, Idaho, took a shotgun to school and
injured one student. He had been taking Ritalin.

"Had been taking." Again, suggests he was off medication.


April 20, 1999, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, shot and killed 12
classmates and a teacher and wounded 24 others. Harris had been taking
Luvox.

"had been taking."


Todd Smith walked into as high school in Taber, Alberta, Canada in 1999 with
a shotgun and killed one and injured a second student. He has been given a
drug after a five-minute phone consultation with a psychiatrist.

What drug? Was he taking it?


Steven Abrams drove his car into a preschool playground in 1999 in Costa
Mesa., Calif., killing two. He was on probation with a requirement to take
Lithium.

Doesn't mean he was taking it. People are known to go off their meds
all the time, especially ones with side-effects as unpleasant as
Lithium's.


In 2000, T.J. Solomon, 15, opened fire at Heritage High School in Conyers,
Ga., while on a mix of antidepressants. Six were wounded.

Doesn't prove the antidepressants were the cause.


The same year Seth Trickey of Gibson, Okla., 13, was on a variety of
prescriptions when he opened fire on his middle-school class, injuring five.

"on a variety of prescriptions" could mean anything. Doesn't say they
were psych drugs.


Elizabeth Bush, 14, was on Prozac. She shot and wounded another student at
Bishop Neumann High in Williamsport, Pa.

Doesn't prove Prozac was the cause.


Jason Hoffman, 18, in 2001 was on Effexor and Celexa, both antidepressants,
when he wounded two teachers at California's Granite Hills High School.

Doesn't prove Effexor and Celexa were the cause.


In Wahluke, Wash., Cory Baadsgaard, 16, took a rifle to his high schooland
held 23 classmates hostage in 2001. He has been taking Paxil and Effexor.

Doesn't prove Paxil and Effexor were the cause.

In Tokyo in 2001, Mamoru Takuma, 37, went into a second-grade classroom and
started stabbing students. He killed eight. He had taken 10 times his normal
dosage of an antidepressant.

Abuse of drug.


Duane Morrison, 53, shot and killed a girl at Platte Canyon High School in
Colorado in 2006. Antidepressants later were found in his vehicle.

Doesn't prove he was taking them, or that they were the cause of the
violence.


In 2005, 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise on the Red Lake Indian
Reservation in Minnesota was under the influence of the antidepressant
Prozac when he shot and killed nine people and wounding five before
committing suicide.

"Under the influence" demonstrates extreme bias against psych meds
without supporting evidence that Prozac "influences" anyone to do
anything.

Another case involving a school-age youth ? although not at a school ?
happened in 1986, when 14-year-old Rod Mathews of Canton, Mass., beat a
classmate to death with a baseball bat while on Ritalin.

Doesn't prove Ritalin was the cause of the violence.


And just a few among the dozens of incidents cited, but not apparently
related to schools:

William Cruse in 1987 was charged with killing six people in Palm Bay, Fla.,
after taking psychiatric drugs for "several years."

Doesn't suggest he was still taking them.


The same year, Bartley James Dobben killed his two young sons by throwing
them into a 1,300-degree foundry ladle. He been on a "regimen" of
psychiatric drugs.

"Had been on..."


Joseph T. WesBecker, 47, just a month after he began taking Prozac, shot 20
workers at Standard Gravure Corp. in Louisville, Ky., killing nine. Eli
Lilly, which makes Prozac, later settled a lawsuit brought by survivors.

It's often cheaper to settle than to fight. Doesn't mean an admission
of guilt so much as an acknowledgment that the media has created a
serious anti-med bias in the general population.
Doesn't prove Prozac was the cause of the violence.


In 1991, 61-year-old Barbara Mortenson, on Prozac for two weeks,
"cannibalized her 87-year-old mother ?"

Two weeks is not long enough for the med to take effect--generally
takes 4-6 weeks. Suggests she was under-treated, not over-treated.


In 1992, Lynnwood Drake III, shot and killed six in San Luis Obispo and
Morro Bay. Prozac and Valium were found in his system.

Doesn't prove Prozac and Valium was the cause of the violence.


Sixteen-year-old Victor Brancaccio attacked and killed an 81-year-old woman,
covered her corpse with red spray-paint. He was two months into a Zoloft
regimen.

Doesn't prove Zoloft was the cause of the violence.


While on four medications including Prozac, Dr. Debora Green in 1995 set her
Prairie Village, Mo., home on fire, killing her children, ages 6 and 13.

Doesn't prove Prozac was the cause of the violence.


Kurt Danysh, 18, shot and killed his father in 1996, 17 days after his first
dose of Prozac. "I didn't realize I did it until after it was done. ? This
might sound weird, but it felt like I had no control of what I was doing,
like I was left there just holding a gun."

Not on Prozac long enough to have a therapeutic effect.


snip

What you fail to note is that all of these people were apparently
mentally ill. Some mentally ill people, whether treated or not, will
become violent, and some who become violent will commit horrible
crimes. More often, the cause is active psychosis, not a reaction to
the treating medication. Break-through psychosis (meaning they become
sick while on the medication and need an increase or change in their
drugs to become stable again) is fairly common in both schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder. There are at least as many--and likely far more--
examples that could be cited of people committing violent crimes while
NOT on psychiatric medications.

Further, even if psych meds contributed to violent acts in a few of
the cases cited, the percentage of people committing crimes due to
being medicated is miniscule compared to the percentage of people who
are helped by psych meds. There is no way to tell what percentage of a
completely untreated population would become violent if psych meds
were outlawed, but I suspect it would be far higher than it is now.

On Feb 21, 11:49 pm, Mark Probert wrote:
On Feb 21, 12:59 pm, marcia wrote:

On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:

"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence. Remember the
University of Texas bell tower shooting? There were no medications
involved prior to that incident--just one deranged, mentally ill
student. I think someone is drawing the wrong conclusions.

Well said. This is a fact that the anti-medders ignore.

Thanks, Mark. There is little logic in their reasoning.

On Feb 22, 9:26*am, marcia wrote:
On Feb 21, 11:49 pm, Mark Probert wrote:





On Feb 21, 12:59 pm, marcia wrote:

On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:

"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence. Remember the
University of Texas bell tower shooting? There were no medications
involved prior to that incident--just one deranged, mentally ill
student. I think someone is drawing the wrong conclusions.

Well said. This is a fact that the anti-medders ignore.

Thanks, Mark. There is little logic in their reasoning.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What fascinates me in this debate is that most of the
people doing such horrendous crimes had some prior
'history' of unstable mental disorder; which had gotten
the attention of concerned (loved ones, friends, family ???)
that prompted putting them on medication in the first place.

Blame the medication?

On Feb 22, 11:59*am, Coleah wrote:
On Feb 22, 9:26*am, marcia wrote:





On Feb 21, 11:49 pm, Mark Probert wrote:

On Feb 21, 12:59 pm, marcia wrote:

On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:

"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence. Remember the
University of Texas bell tower shooting? There were no medications
involved prior to that incident--just one deranged, mentally ill
student. I think someone is drawing the wrong conclusions.

Well said. This is a fact that the anti-medders ignore.

Thanks, Mark. There is little logic in their reasoning.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What fascinates me in this debate is that most of the
people doing such horrendous crimes had some prior
'history' of unstable mental disorder; which had gotten
the attention of concerned (loved ones, friends, family ???)
that prompted putting them on medication in the first place.

Blame the medication?-

Examine the laws of the states where these shootings happened. They
are the ones where buying a gun is easy, and their is a "gun
culture".

In message , Mark Probert wrote:

Examine the laws of the states where these shootings happened. They
are the ones where buying a gun is easy, and their is a "gun
culture".

Illinois?

--
| The most important exclamation in science isn't "Eureka!" |
| The most important exclamation is "What the BLEEP?" |
+---------- D. C. Sessions ----------+

In message , Coleah wrote:

What fascinates me in this debate is that most of the
people doing such horrendous crimes had some prior
'history' of unstable mental disorder; which had gotten
the attention of concerned (loved ones, friends, family ???)
that prompted putting them on medication in the first place.

Blame the medication?

It's even worse than people think! The eeeevil effects
go backwards in time to corrupt their minds even before
they're exposed to the horrible stuff!

--
| The most important exclamation in science isn't "Eureka!" |
| The most important exclamation is "What the BLEEP?" |
+---------- D. C. Sessions ----------+

On Feb 22, 2:05*pm, Mark Probert wrote:
On Feb 22, 11:59*am, Coleah wrote:





On Feb 22, 9:26*am, marcia wrote:

On Feb 21, 11:49 pm, Mark Probert wrote:

On Feb 21, 12:59 pm, marcia wrote:

On Feb 21, 3:28 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:

"marcia" wrote:
ROFL!

Sad that.

Sad, the media's interpretation and reporting of the use of psych meds
relative to the incident. For one thing, the shooter had gone OFF his
meds, which suggests that perhaps had he kept taking them the shooting
might never have occurred. And for another thing, there is no evidence
to suggest psych meds are the cause of violence. Remember the
University of Texas bell tower shooting? There were no medications
involved prior to that incident--just one deranged, mentally ill
student. I think someone is drawing the wrong conclusions.

Well said. This is a fact that the anti-medders ignore.

Thanks, Mark. There is little logic in their reasoning.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What fascinates me in this debate is that most of the
people doing such horrendous crimes had some prior
'history' of unstable mental disorder; which had gotten
the attention of concerned (loved ones, friends, family ???)
that prompted putting them on medication in the first place.

Blame the medication?-

Examine the laws of the states where these shootings happened. They
are the ones where buying a gun is easy, and their is a "gun
culture".- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I doubt that making it harder to buy a gun would deter those kinds of
shootings, unless there was a tight method of screening the character
of gun buyers for mental stability, adherence to taking their
medications and their likelihood of doing evil to others. That would
mess with privacy issues.