The Element In Mass Attacks--It's Not The Guns!

Secret Service: Mental illness stalks many suspects in mass attacks

Kevin Johnson, USA TODAYPublished 8:00 a.m. ET March 29, 2018 | Updated 8:28 a.m. ET March 29, 2018

(Photo: Texas Department of Public Safety via AP)

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WASHINGTON — A striking number of suspects linked to violent attacks in schools and other public places last year were stalked by symptoms of mental illness and nearly half were motivated by real or perceived personal grievances, a new Secret Service report has found.

An examination of 28 attacks, which claimed nearly 150 lives and wounded hundreds of others — from Orlando to Las Vegas — also found that more than three-quarters of the assailants engaged in suspicious communications or conduct that raised concerns from others in advance of the assaults, according to the report due for release Thursday.

The analysis, prepared by the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center, had been underway months before the Feb. 14 massacre at a Parkland, Fla., high school, but its findings are likely to further fuel concerns about the untreated mentally ill and their access to high-powered firearms.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., greets Capitol Police special agent Crystal Griner as special agent David Bailey looks on during a Medal of Honor ceremony on Capitol Hill on Nov. 9, 2017. (Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)

In the Parkland case, which has reinvigorated a national debate on gun safety, social workers, mental health counselors, school administrators and law enforcement were all warned about Nikolas Cruz's deteriorating mental state and risk of violence before he allegedly launched the attack that left 17 dead.

The new Secret Service review builds on a lengthy, prior examination issued by the agency in 2015, which found that more than half of suspects involved in 43 attacks targeting government facilities or federal officials between 2001 and 2013 suffered symptoms of mental illness, including paranoia, delusions and suicidal thoughts.

In the new report, authorities found that 64% of suspects suffered from symptoms of mental illness. And in 25% of the cases, attackers had been "hospitalized or prescribed psychiatric medications" prior to the assaults.

Among the most glaring of those cases involved Devin Kelley, whose stunning November attack on a Texas church left 26 dead and 20 others wounded.

In the years leading up to the assault, Kelley battered his young stepson, menaced his former wife, was accused of sexual assault, had a history of stalking former girlfriends and in 2012 escaped from a mental health facility. 

According to a police report related to Kelley's escape, the gunman — then a member of the U.S. Air Force — was hospitalized after he was charged by military authorities with fracturing the skull of his 1-year-old stepson.

The Air Force later acknowledged that it failed to flag Kelley as banned from buying the weapons he used in the attack because of his record of domestic violence. Using the same weapons, Kelley killed himself following the November church shooting.

The Sutherland Springs’ First Baptist Church massacre was one of  two church shootings examined in the Secret Service report. Four school attacks also analyzed, along with 13 assaults involving places of business.

"These acts violated the safety of the places where we work, learn, shop, relax and otherwise conduct our day-to-day lives," the report stated. "The resulting loss of 147 lives and injury to nearly 700 others had a devastating impact on our nation as a whole."

One the incidents sent a shiver through the nation's capital last June when an Illinois man opened fire on Republican lawmakers with a modified assault rifle and handgun at northern Virginia baseball field.

Shortly after the attack, which left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise critically wounded and four others injured, the FBI described gunman James Hodgkinson as adrift and struggling to cope with an array of personal problems. 

Plagued by financial difficulties, 66-year-old man who ultimately died in a shootout with police, had anger management problems and abruptly left a strained marriage in Belleville, Ill., more than month before the shooting to take up residence in a van on the outskirts of the nation's capital — along with his weapons.

He was prone to rage against the politics of President Trump and was carrying the names of six lawmakers in his pocket at the time he was fatally wounded.

"He was struggling in all kinds of different ways,'' FBI Assistant Director Tim Slater said a week after the attack.

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Parkland students push lawmakers for gun control at Florida Capitol

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Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School walked to the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday, to lobby legislators on gun laws.  Andrew Salinero, USA TODAY NEWORK

When Mental Illness Is "Normalized" We Get Terrible Results.

The Anti-Science Mainstreaming of Mental Illness

BY:

 BEN SHAPIRO

JANUARY 4, 2017

4510415 Comments2590

On Tuesday, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported that 23-year-old Anna Teshu of
Staten Island, New York, has gone missing. Teshu's 15 minutes of fame began
 in 2015 when she was featured on the internet because her boyfriend was
 walking her around on a leash in public. Her boyfriend said: "The collar is like
 a ring for most couples. They use rings, we have a collar." Teshu reportedly
enjoyed spending time in a puppy cage, as well. She explained, "The first time
I put on a collar I thought, 'Now I need to find someone for the other end.'"

That same year, she was arrested for animal cruelty after allegedly leaving a
dog in a hot car. Her attorney said, "She's a disabled person." She was found
mentally unfit to stand trial and escaped conviction. Now she is missing.

All of this makes headlines because the media and the public decided to treat
a mentally ill person as a mentally healthy person making "alternative choices."
 Instead of Teshu receiving the help she so obviously needed, the media chose
 to treat her as a unique flower blooming, and the public nodded along in order
 to appear tolerant -- all the while laughing.

Teshu isn't alone.

In 2015, Sarah Boesveld of the National Post in Canada reported on a new
phenomenon: "transabled" people, who feel that they've been born disabled
people in healthy bodies. Some of these people cut off their own limbs.
According to Boesveld: "Most crave an amputation or paralysis, though
 (one researcher) has interviewed one person wants his penis removed.
Another wants to be blind. Many people ... arrange 'accidents' to help
achieve the goal." According to the researcher, "this disorder is starting to
 be thought of as a neurological problem with the body's mapping, rather
than a mental illness."

While Teshu and the transabled may seem fringe, transgenderism is quickly
becoming mainstream. Media advocates for transgenderism as mental
health say that men who believe they are women, for example, are actually
women and ought to be treated as such, insisting that members of society
 refer to them using female pronouns. In December, the 6th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals determined that an Ohio school district must let a young
 girl continue to use the restroom of her choice, stating that to prevent it
would "further confuse a young girl with special needs ... and subject her
 to further irreparable harm." The young girl in question is a boy who believes
 she is a girl.

None of this is an argument for governmental intervention. It is an argument
for society to stop treating mental illness as mental health -- for the good
of the mentally ill. Delusions should not be treated as reality. And treatments
 that do not work (transgender surgery has no impact on suicide rate,
for example) should not be treated as solutions, particularly when those
 treatments are applied to children.

That does not mean that good solutions have been found for many of
 these mental illnesses. But to stop searching for good solutions and
deem the problem solved by virtue of instilling the normalcy of the
 illness is counterproductive and dangerous.

My grandfather was hospitalized for paranoid schizophrenia in the
960s. He thought he heard the radio talking to him. Today's society would
presumably determine that a lifestyle choice and celebrate his diversity
 rather than getting him the lithium treatment he required, which saved his
 family. A society that thinks itself kind while treating mental illness as
 "letting your freak flag fly" and all the while silently snickering at the
 supposed freaks is a cruel society indeed.

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If You Solve The Mental Health Problem, You Will Solve The Mass Killing Issue.

63% of Americans Blame Mental Health—Not Guns—for Mass Shootings​

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2015

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In another hit to the prospects of gun controllers, this week the Washington Post published the findings of a recent survey conducted by the Post in conjunction with ABC News. The results show that Americans overwhelmingly understand high-profile shootings as pointing to a problem with the country’s mental health system, rather than a lack of gun control laws.

The survey, carried out October 15-18, asked respondents, “Do you think that mass shootings in this country are more a reflection of (problems identifying and treating people with mental health problems) or (inadequate gun control laws)?” 63 percent of those questioned understood that these events are a result of improperly addressing those with mental illness. A mere 23 percent believed that a lack of gun control is the cause, while 10 percent answered that both were to blame.

Unfortunately, the wisdom of the American people is lost on much of the political class, who reflexively turn to decades-old gun control proposals as the solution to this exceedingly complex issue. Which is why, while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton rail against guns and gun owners, each touting restrictive legislation repeatedly rejected by the American people and their representatives, NRA is working towards an actual solution.

In August, NRA announced its support for Senator John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) S.2002, or the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act of 2015, and applauded U.S. Representative Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) when she introduced the House version (H.R. 3722) this month. Both bills would encourage the states to forward prohibiting mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Further, in order to protect the rights of all Americans, including those who have experienced some form of mental health treatment, the bill includes safeguards on the types of records states may send to NICS; ensuring that prohibiting records comport with the due process protections guaranteed by the Constitution. Moreover, the bill would remedy the Veterans Administration’s long-standing practice of reporting non-dangerous beneficiaries, who are simply assigned a fiduciary to help manage their finances, to NICS as prohibited.

It is important to note that the mentally ill should not be stigmatized as violent, as mental health officials recognize that mental illness alone is not predictive of violence. However, it is encouraging that the American public understands that this is a complex issue and that the focus of any policy to address high-profile shootings should not be about addressing the inanimate tool used by the perpetrator, but instead about the individual that carried out the violent act.

Beauty Is ONLY Skin Deep. She Might Be Beautiful, But She Defines The Mentally Ill "B" Word!

She Might Look Good, But What a Pro-Surfer Allegedly Did to an Elderly Woman Likely Proves She’s a Monster

May. 17, 2014 1:14am Oliver Darcy

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A Hawaii woman who bills herself as a professional surfer and model was arrested Wednesday night for attempted murder connected to a road rage incident.

Jill Hansen. (Image source: Facebook)

Honolulu police say Jill Anjuli Hansen, 30, tried to kill an elderly woman in Waikiki by running her over with a vehicle, KHON-TV reported. Charges are currently pending.

The elderly woman, identified as 73-year-old Elizabeth Conklin, was hospitalized with serious injuries, including one to her head, after the 30-year-old drove a car into her.

Jill Hansen. (Image source: Facebook)

Hansen was about to hit the woman a second time before a maintenance worker at the scene said he picked up a crowbar and smashed her windshield, causing the woman to abandon her car and flee the scene.

“It was pretty shocking.”

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“It was pretty shocking,” neighbor Don Persons, who knows Conklin, said of the news.

Jill Hansen. (Image source: Facebook)

Hours after the Wednesday morning incident, Hansen then turned to Facebook to post about how she had just been inducted as a professional surfer.

“I have worked SOOOO [sic] hard to get to today,” she wrote in the post.

Jill Hansen. (Image source: Facebook)

According to a local newspaper, this isn’t Hansen’s first run in with the law.

She was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation and is grappling with another assault case. Her father also has a restraining order against her, Hawaii News Now reported.

(H/T: Mail Online)

Anyone With Two Un-medicated Brain Cells Knows That Having Soldiers Unarmed While On Their Bases Is Beyond Stupid. We Agree With Ron Paul

Ron Paul Straight Talk: Fort Hood Was An Avoidable Tragedy

April 7, 2014 by Ron Paul 

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Last week we saw yet another tragedy at Ft. Hood, Texas, as a distraught Iraq war veteran killed three of his fellow soldiers before killing himself. It is nearly five years after the last Ft. Hood shooting, where 13 people were killed. These tragedies are heartbreaking and we certainly feel much sympathy for the families of the victims.

While there is much focus on the mental illness that appears to have driven many of these men to murder, what is left unsaid is the cause of the tragedy. Government officials and the media only talk about the symptoms that lead to these tragic events. They will tell us that there are people who get post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and kill themselves and others. They will all call for more government intervention into the lives of those in the military to root out and “treat” mental illness.

But they will never question the two causes of these tragedies: the disastrous decade-long U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have destroyed the minds of so many service members, and the government psychiatrists who prescribe extremely dangerous psychotropic drugs to treat these damaged soldiers.

On the drugs, it is true that in almost every story we read about these kinds of mass killings, whether on a military base or in a school, the kids or veterans have been treated with these dangerous drugs. When will the medical profession wake up and realize that these drugs are often worse than the illness they are designed to treat?

We need to understand that the problem of veterans returning home with serious mental illness is increasing at an alarming rate. We are not talking about a few thousand people returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are talking about a hundred thousand people. And according to government statistics, about 20 percent of returning vets will suffer from PTSD, and a further 20 percent will suffer from traumatic brain injuries.

The numbers are significant and they are frightening. While some will ignore these statistics and point out that these wars are producing far less deaths than previous ones, the fact is these brain injuries and disorders are a living death for the victims. And increasingly, those living in such horrific circumstances, full of deadly drugs that are supposed to treat the problem but only make matters worse, are striking out against those in their communities or committing suicide.

But what of the other main cause of these tragedies? What no media or government representative will admit is that U.S. military members are suffering horrible mental illnesses because they have been sent over and over again into senseless wars overseas. That is the real cause of this crisis. The real horror comes when these soldiers return to the U.S. to realize that the wars have not been won and all of the suffering and dying on both sides has been in vain. Just think of how many individuals over the last 15 years would not have suffered death or injury — or post-traumatic stress disorders or brain injuries — if we didn’t go to war unnecessarily!

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be winding down, but the war against our veterans continues. Why are the people who are really guilty, those who lied us into war, not being called to task?

Unfortunately, the truth is that these same people who lied us into war in Iraq are still getting us involved unnecessarily overseas, in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Ukraine. The problem, the interventionism that creates these deeply troubled service members, continues to thrive, unpunished. And even worse: these people continue to plan our future disasters even though they will not suffer the fate of those they send to be broken on foreign battlefields.

We must end the aggressive wars that break our military, and end the dangerous drugs that turn deeply-troubled victims into killers. Let’s have no more Ft. Hoods!