This Thursday we all heard the news of the shooting on Ft Hood in Texas. The toll reported was 12 killed and 31 wounded to include the scumbag shooter himself. It is times like this that each of us have different reactions to the incident. For folks like me it's a mix of anger at the audacity of bushwhacking such brave men and women at home where they should feel more secure than any other place during their career. At the same time the other emotion that runs through me is a deep remorse for the ones lost and the somber knowledge that they are now gone, that someone has lost a husband, brother, son, father, mother, sister, and friend and that that person can never be brought back again. At the end I just find myself searching for a reason why this has happened, what events lead to this and how may we prevent future incidents from occurring.
As of today we know the shooter was born in Arlington, Va to Palestinian immigrants and raised here in the USA. He decided to join the Army against his families wishes, was commissioned an officer and served as a psychiatrist. He is described by some as quiet, reserved, friendly, and someone noted as being religious. By others it is recalled that he stated many startling things about the global war on terrorism to the point of near praise for shooting incidents against soldiers like the one last year in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was said to have had many incidents with co workers and with fellow soldiers who did not take kindly to his opinions of the war and of the enemies which many of them had just gotten home from fighting.
He never deployed during his career and was to be deployed for the first time shortly to Iraq. He was seeking to avoid this deployment through some sort of appeals process but instead set about a planning process where he at some point picked his target on Ft Hood, prepared his method of attack by buying a gun at a local store and picking a date when there was a mass of individuals at the target. He than arrived at his chosen date of attack and like all cowards, he walked to an area packed with unarmed soldiers and shot indiscriminately into them in an effort to kill as many as possible. The police at Ft. Hood reacted quickly and their shooting down of this man probably saved many more lives from being taken. And here we have the shock, the horror of the incident, but we still do not have the why or how did this occur.
For many who watched this unfold the first thing that they may ask is the why and the how when former co workers recall such disturbing statements made in the past by the shooter. For many mass shooting incidents there are similar recalls by many people who know the perpetrators and I suspect as with this case the general consensus is that people are just unwilling to believe that those they are close with could be capable of such horrific acts. It is only after it is too late do these same people go back and relive each conversation and recall the statements and actions of the individual.
The other thing to consider maybe what trigger this in this man who had served for around 9-10 years in the Army to suddenly snap. The most obvious reason appears to be his upcoming deployment to a war he was staunchly against. Morons like the writers at newsweek actually stated recently that they believe this may be a sign of a military "on the brink" as PTSD affects more and more. Maybe a good read if only for the simple fact that the shooter never deployed and therefore did not have PTSD. The shooter, while bright enough to earn a psychological degree, appears to have been a loner and unable to see his own faults as they began to mount. When people spend a protracted amount of time to themselves it takes away the concept of third perception, or reality as we know it. The shooter will take on his beliefs, in this case the belief that GWOT was a war on islam, and he will role with it and compound that belief as it remains unchallenged by the outside world. In instances where it was challenged it appears that he did nothing to defend himself and instead shut down, refusing to confront those that disagreed with his views. This refusal would do nothing to dissuade him of his belief's and the actions of those against him likely just helped build a small amount of resentment. I won't be surprised to learn as more comes out that he became even more of a shut in as the months built to this final act. Shooters will typically take a fatalistic approach to their actions and will reduce all contact with the outside world as more contact only causes them to realise they may have something to live for or otherwise distracts them from the decision they've already made.
In short we will see most of these signs in the man as his life becomes reconstructed. The sad thing is that this signs were there and that we only see them when they are too late. If you are reading this I hope you take away not the belief that you have to be suspicious of your neighbor, but that you should take time if you think something is wrong to talk to the individual. Try to draw them out to a social gathering, engage them in a discussion about their life and goals, get them thinking about life. It is likely that just these actions will either get a person back towards the right track, or will give you insite into how bad their situation may have become where you may recommend professional counseling.
-Zach
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