The Austin bomber blew himself up. Good riddance.
It would have been nicer if he had done this before killing and injuring others.
it would be even nicer if someone could reach these depressed, sad, angry kids and get them help before they hurt others and then wind up dead at 20 years old.
conandrob...totally agree! Heard a report from an old friend of his who spoke of the bomber's social awkwardness, and most likely loneliness. People don't understand how devastating isolation/loneliness can be.
gerryl said:
conandrob...totally agree! Heard a report from an old friend of his who spoke of the bomber's social awkwardness, and most likely loneliness. People don't understand how devastating isolation/loneliness can be.
I don't know that awkwardness was exactly his issue. This story has an old friend describing him as assertive and intimidating.
while I believe, in small doses there is evil in the world, I’m not convinced that all these teen/young adult bombers/shooters are evil incarnate. They are more likely mentally ill, depressed, enraged, suicidal and in need of help.
Seems like it used to be that someone would commit a murder, and his neighbors would be on the 11 pm news saying what a nice guy he was, what a shock it was. Now it almost always seems to be, yeah, something was really off with that guy. Agree we have to better connect the dots, though of course the gun people look at that as the sole issue.
Getting close to home. In Princeton a few days ago someone walked into a Panera, right across from the university gates, carrying a shotgun. Fortunately it wasn't an assault weapon and he didn't use it. Somehow most if not all customers and workers escaped through a back door. After a 5-hour standoff with police, and much of the town being put on lockdown, he was shot dead by police. Not clear yet what his history was.
He was tracked using video surveillance at the Fedex store.