John 11:35 Jesus wept.
I don’t want to but I have to weigh in on the Sandy Hook tragedy. I doubt we will ever truly know everything that led that young man to do what he did, but I feel the need to reiterate what the Autism Society of America has already said: that mass murder is not a symptom or a behavior of autism. His brother mentioning autism in a description of the gunman doesn’t mean there is a causal relationship between what happened and the alleged diagnosis of autism, it only means – maybe – that he was a person who may have needed more support than he was getting. In today’s America, that could describe a whole lot of people, the vast majority of whom have not opened fire on anyone.
But I am appalled that the ability to do just that – open fire – on anyone, anywhere, is seen as a founding-fathers-given right to Americans. We have lost our understanding of what gun safety is and the value of a good background check – which in this case would have done little good, but that is not true of some other events in this year of seven (yes, seven) mass shootings. But limiting the number and type of weapons available to a single individual might have made a difference in the scope and horror of this event.
Don’t let the media – or anyone else – turn the tables on the real issue and blame a disability instead of political cowardice on the fronts of health insurance and gun safety. I join the chorus of voices calling for increased gun safety and a stronger mental health safety net for all Americans.
I Wouldn't Have Missed It 
It is Autism and it was not a normal person who did that horrific crime. The firearms were overpowered by an autistic individual from his caretaker and killed in cold blood. I am such individua who will not put a security blanket over a person who can do something without remorse! We need stronger laws to safeguard autistics from ever having access to ANY form of harmful weapons or device!
We will never know for sure but killers with no remorse – as in Arizona – tend not to take their own lives. There is no correlation between autism and planned violence or gun violence, as the article in today’s Times shows (see link below). Access to guns, however, is statistically correlated to violence of all kinds by all kinds of people, the vast majority of whom have no diagnosis at all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/health/fearing-a-stigma-for-people-with-autism.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y
Let’s be clear, violent behavior IS NOT a symptom of Autism. This person had Autism but obviously that doesn’t preclude him from having other issues as well.
[…] with the details, perspectives, and aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and I have said my piece here. One day just before Christmas, as I blogged and read the news and generally wallowed in the […]
As someone who has overcome Asperger’s, I believe that the general public doesn’t really understand people like me. They are much more familiar with guns. Because of the all-too-human tendency to fear the unknown/misunderstood, I also believe that most people prefer blaming the unknown over demanding accountability from the familiar.