All of the shooters suffer from some kind of mental illness. All have been documented as not being mentally stable. Most have been diagnosed throughout their lives. Being that it would be politically incorrect to restrain or report these people, the obvious thing to do is overturn the 2nd amendment and take everyones weapon. Brilliant!
I think that's absolutely correct. In the several 'mass shooting' cases in the UK, each of our 4 perpetrators (I include a school incident where a guy went nuts with a knife but I don't think anyone died): There's Hamilton, 1996 in Dunblane (16 children and one adult dead), armed with 4 legally held guns and a member of a gun club. He had previous issues as a scout leader and he was flagged up as "something wrong somewhere" but no-one did any thing until....
There's Michael Ryan, 1987 Hungerford, 16 adults including mother and wounding of 15 others - guns legally held. He had a morbid fascination with guns, went around in military gear, couldn't hold a job down and was a loner. Post mortem, the best the experts can come up with is psychosis and schizophrenia but no-one is really sure.
The the latest, Bird in Cumbria 2010, 12 people dead and 11 injured, licensed 'sporting gun' holder. No-one knew the exact motives behind that one but he was a bit of a failure with women and work and most people he shot he knew very well (including his brother). Could be that one further bit of bad news tipped him over the edge. The problem with this one is that it was almost impossible to predict this outcome whereas the others had "issues" that were either ignored or fobbed off.
I think Bird was the 'scary' one as many people I know have 'issues' like he did and I wonder if we really know people at all.
In the main, the perpetrators certainly had mental issues which, in light of their gun ownership should have been investigated further.
Even more recently a man killed his girlfriend and 2 others at a party with a legally held shotgun, having narrowly escaped having it removed from him for threatening someone, and the damned Police let him keep it!
In most of these cases mentioned, there was reason to be concerned. After the first two, firearms were severely restricted: centre fire semi-automatic weapons after Hungerford (Ryan used an M1). Following Dunblane, all handguns were banned from private ownership in the United Kingdom, although I believe you can still 'own' one but it mustn't leave the club.
Bird's gun was a .22 'popgun' what you might call a 'squirrel' gun but he still managed to knock off 12 people. In 3 of these incidents, a close family member (2 mothers and 1 brother) were also victims. This seems like a common theme as well.
I do not think however, that you can really compare different nation's experiences, like comparing a non gun country with a gun country but the very common theme of mental disturbance seems to be a recurring problem.
I also believe there are too many guns just laying around in the US. I was at a party in Hunstville AL a few years back, and I was looking for a bottle opener. I opened every drawer and every cupboard in the the kitchen during this quest, and there was a gun in every one - probably about 20, and that was just the kitchen. And yes, they were all loaded.
