Don't blame guns, blame exams.
James Holmes bought assault rifle the same day he failed exam
The accused Aurora 'Dark Knight Rises' theater gunman bought a weapon on the same day he failed a key oral exam in his neuroscience doctoral program at the University of Colorado - Denver.
The same day he imagined he was the joker. I think the causality between failing the exam and buying a gun may be spurious and coming from the fact that he became insane. But we will see that later.
BUT no matter why he cracked up: only in a crazy country can the insane get an arsenal of assault weapons just by ordering them on the internet.
I think he became insane because of the high pressure due to the exam.
^ at uc denver?
^^ probably. who cares? people face all sort of stressful situations and some cannot take the pressure. A certain % of the population is bound to became insane everywhere. Don't you think that some Japanese students break under the intense pressure of the entrance exams? They do. they jump of buildings etc. No weapons= less gun assaults. Because there are no weapons readily available for the insane.
Who cares? Most people who own guns don't do what he did. So stop blaming the guns.
The person above you wasn't blaming guns, but rather the fact that guns are readily available to the insane.
it is true : guns do not kill people.
but guns+humans= gun accidents, gun assaults, gun crime, gun deaths.
In a society without humans there would be no gun deaths.
In a society without guns there would be no gun deaths.
All I suggest that we should at least try to separate the two crowds - send all guns to Mars let them have their peaceful community there.
Who cares? Most people who own guns don't do what he did. So stop blaming the guns.
Most people who do meth don't die, so why blame meth and try to restrict it?
Most of the time when someone drives drunk, no one is hurt, so why should it be illegal?
So we can't outlaw or restrict possession of something until everyone who owns that thing does something awful with it? Or would you settle for a majority? At what percentage does it become acceptable for public policy to be considered?
The article said that he was already buying ammo prior to the exam. Also, his mother's lack of surprise at him going crazy suggests there were early signs of this. And there is at least some reason to believe that James Holmes was a pretty good scientist, based on his academic record and success at obtaining grants, etc... It seems more plausible that whatever sent him off the deep end (many mental disorders manifest in the 20s) resulted in him failing the exam rather than the other way around.
Sadly, for James' parents, this can be the gamble you play when you adopt a child. Indeed, perhaps James Holmes biological mother gave him up for adoption precisely because her own bout of craziness had begun to kick in. At least with my own genes, I know what I'm dealing with: cancer cancer cancer.
many mental disorders manifest in the 20s
--This is so true. I've had a problem with OCD my whole life but it was never worse than when I was in my twenties. Interesting.
The sad truth is that people are better off adopting from abroad than from the U.S. People who give up their babies for adoption in developed countries are often of inferior genetic composition and/or druggies.
He wasn't that smart according to people who knew him. See below:
Neuroscientists debunk idea Colorado suspect was supersmart
He was one of six students admitted to the University of Colorado's graduate program in neuroscience last year. He received a $26,000 federal stipend.
Jacobson told the newspaper Holmes "should not have gotten into the summer program. His grades were mediocre. I've heard him described as brilliant. This is extremely inaccurate."
He said Holmes' high school transcripts showed Bs and no advanced-placement classes. He was accepted to the camp because he had done computer programming, Jacobson said. He was never Holmes' mentor, he said, but Holmes worked in his lab to write a computer code for an experiment Jacobson was working on. He told the newspaper Holmes never finished it.
"What he gave me was a complete mess," Jacobson says.
Holmes' résumé suggests he was trained in dissection of birds and mice, performing chemistry tests and attaching small gene tags to cells to target them for treatment.
"Recipe-book stuff, literally, that every biology student should learn," Eagleman says. As for the grant, Eagleman says, "Holmes is being depicted as some sort of brilliant researcher who won a rare grant, but there are thousands of research students in this country with such grants. Everyone has one. There is nothing elite about it."
Holmes had difficulty with a June 7 preliminary exam, given orally by three university faculty members. It is designed to evaluate students' knowledge at the end of the first year. Three days later, Holmes dropped out.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-24/john-holmes-smart-academics/56467518/1?csp=hf
The sad truth is that people are better off adopting from abroad than from the U.S. People who give up their babies for adoption in developed countries are often of inferior genetic composition and/or druggies.
--love this.
^ this is true as hell. Mike Judge's "Idiocracy" is about the most spot-on movie ever made.
seriously if guns would be banned what could have happened?
1. he gets the stuff illegally - the police do not notice that someone is ordering ammunition etc -> we are at the same place
2. he gets the stuff illegally -the police notice that someone is ordering ammunition etc -> he gets arrested for having guns
3. he cannot get the stuff illegally- > attacks with a knife-> the army people in the theater jump at him
4. he jumps off a building. -> the family mourns.
if people had guns in the theater what could have happened?
1. absolutely nothing he has protective gear
2. accidentally kill each other or kids.
The biggest joke that the families will sue the theater. Right. As they were responsible for the country basically throwing assault weapons (and we are not even talking about hunter or sports weapons here) to anybody including the insane. Well done.
There is nothing elite about it says the guy. Sounds like he was a douche as well.
Is what world is UC B considered elite?
I really have to question the motives of this Jacobson fellow. What's his point? Did he know one of the victims. I really don't think anyone was coming away with a picture of Holmes as some kind of mad genius. To me, he's just another fu.ck-up with medium to high intelligence...the kind of hipster we see too often in academia today.
Holmes used federal funding to buy his weaponry. One point to the Repubes.
I wonder if they'll have the temerity to make it a talking point. Probably, but that's not an indictment of the Republicans, just the state of the party system today.
^ Wouldn't surprise me at all.
Reading the news reports on this stuff, it seems it could have been a lot worse (I know, it was horrible as is). E.g. guy could have had a SlideFire for his AR15. Sort of surprised he didn't, given how much other sinister prep he did for this thing.
^ Shows he was of limited intelligence. Thanks God!