Sociopath Case: Thousand Oaks Shooting
On Wednesday the 7th of November, a US Marines veteran, Ian David Long, arrived at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California. He first shot an unarmed security guard outside the bar and then continued inside shooting multiple other people including other security workers, employees and patrons. In the end, he killed 12 people, and later killed himself.
According to an elementary school classmate, Long was "a coward" and "spoiled" and was "such a little prick to his mom". He also added that "he was the type of kid who would throw rocks at you then run away." During this deadly rampage, Long was actually posting on social media. Shortly before the authorities arrived, he posted on instagram saying "it's too bad I won't get to see all the illogical and pathetic reasons people will put in my mouth as to why I did it... fact is I had no reason to do it, and I just thought, life is boring so why not?" This clearly shows no remorse or guilt over what he had just done, a clear sign sociopathy as he acted out of pure boredom in the moment, whereas if he was a psychopath there would be clear and detailed planning involved before he committed these murders. Three minutes after this post, he posted again saying "I hope people call me insane (two smiley face emojis)." Unfortunately, this is one of the common results of an anti-social personality disorder; senseless violence perpetrated against random victims for self-gratification.
It is so heartbreaking to know that this is just one of the many, many mass shootings that occur in this country. Psychopaths and sociopaths should not have access to guns as this is clearly the most dangerous person to be in possession of a weapon.
Sources:
https://abc7news.com/worst-mass-shootings-in-recent-us-history/1382168/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/10/thousand-oaks-shooting-gunman-posted-instagram-during-bar-massacre/1958013002/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/us/thousands-oaks-california-bar-shooting/index.html
According to an elementary school classmate, Long was "a coward" and "spoiled" and was "such a little prick to his mom". He also added that "he was the type of kid who would throw rocks at you then run away." During this deadly rampage, Long was actually posting on social media. Shortly before the authorities arrived, he posted on instagram saying "it's too bad I won't get to see all the illogical and pathetic reasons people will put in my mouth as to why I did it... fact is I had no reason to do it, and I just thought, life is boring so why not?" This clearly shows no remorse or guilt over what he had just done, a clear sign sociopathy as he acted out of pure boredom in the moment, whereas if he was a psychopath there would be clear and detailed planning involved before he committed these murders. Three minutes after this post, he posted again saying "I hope people call me insane (two smiley face emojis)." Unfortunately, this is one of the common results of an anti-social personality disorder; senseless violence perpetrated against random victims for self-gratification.
It is so heartbreaking to know that this is just one of the many, many mass shootings that occur in this country. Psychopaths and sociopaths should not have access to guns as this is clearly the most dangerous person to be in possession of a weapon.
Sources:
https://abc7news.com/worst-mass-shootings-in-recent-us-history/1382168/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/10/thousand-oaks-shooting-gunman-posted-instagram-during-bar-massacre/1958013002/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/us/thousands-oaks-california-bar-shooting/index.html
Unfortunately yet another mass shooting in the United States. It is such a hard thing to figure out and wrap our heads around. How do we prevent this growing culture? It seems that the amount of shootings in the US alone are growing exponentially. What as a country has stimulated this trend in mass shootings in the first place. In 2017 alone there were 348 mass shootings reported. The report that presented this data defined a mass shooting as a shooting incident where 4 or more people were injured and or killed. Although 4 may seem like too small of a number to call it a mass shooting that is still 4 people that have lost their lives 348 times. And a lot of those 348 ended with more than 4 people dead. I Like how you began with an explanation of the shooting and then talked about the killers mental health and how heartbreaking it is to see it happen again.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.abc15.com/news/data/mass-shootings-in-the-us-when-where-they-have-occurred-in-2018
it's really sad that our country has had over 300 shootings just this past year in 2018 and it doesn't matter if 1 or 13 people were killed its the fact that this problem keeps happening yet nothings has happened to change gun control laws. How many more mass shootings need to happen in order for there to be a change? It's really heartbreaking that there hasn't been a change and that they keep happening frequently where as in other countries it almost never happens because they actually do something about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is truly terrifying. I hate to make the blog post even sadder, but my dad was reading the news with morning and said that a few people who were at the Thousand Oaks Shooting were also at the Las Vegas Shooting. The country festival and the country music bar seem to attract the same crowd.
ReplyDeleteIt's fairly evident that his sociopathic tendencies were seen in his younger years, I just wish someone would have stood up and given the shooter the support he needed. There are multiple problems that lead up to the huge problem of mass shootings. I think that the misdiagnosis and mistreatment of mentally ill citizens is just as detrimental as the broad access to guns that these people have.
Its way to often that we read/see things like this. I of course read about this online, but I didn't know that he was posting on social media. It is scary that people can do awful things like this for no reason other than them being bored. I think that anyone who commits a mass shooting is definitely a sociopath. I agree that this is heartbreaking. It means that there is no where that we can go that is safe from shootings- concerts, bars, schools, restaurants, and so many other places. In the back of our minds at these events is the idea that something like this could happen, and it really shouldn't be like that. I have no idea what solution we can have on this issue.
ReplyDelete