Shooting Violence: A Reason Why?

November 06, 2009

Horrible news about Fort Hood yesterday. As an alumnus of VA Tech who followed that tragedy from afar, I found this latest shooting extremely painful to watch.  Our hearts go out to the victims and their families and friends.

As we learn more about the identity of the shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, we're wondering what drives someone like that to do something so horrible. And is that thing - whatever that thing is - something shared by all people who commit these crimes? And finally - what happens at the breaking point.

To find out, I asked Clinical Psychologist Jill Weber if she had any insight. (You'll need to have Flash enabled to hear them...)

First of all, are there common elements between Hasan and other people like the Columbine shooters?

Jill Weber Answer 1

But lots of people feel marginalized and isolated and they aren't becoming violent...

Jill Weber Answer 2

Reports say that Hasan was a mental health therapist himself, so shouldn't he have had the knowledge and tools to process those feelings?

Jill Weber Answer 3

I asked Weber if there was anything else to add. She said this...

Jill Weber Answer 4

Comments

[exangel42]

Where are the quotes????? right now they aren't showing up so it's just the questions and nothing from the source. Part of your article is missing.

[Eddie]

Alumni is plural.

[midtoad]

@exangel42, you need to enable Flash in your browser in order to listen to the audio quotes from Jill Weber.

[Beauxdean]

Gee...he has a funny, widdle name. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

[MAL]

Unfortunately, the thing Hasan most likely had in common with the shooters at Columbine is a growing danger and a time bomb ready to explode. He was probably on psychiatric medication as was at least Eric Harris if not Dylan Klebold. Eric Harris was told he couldn't be in the military because he was on Luvox. This apparently doesn't stop the military from making similar medications widely available for both fighting troops and returning soldiers.
Psychiatrist Peter Breggin on Savage Nation on June 2nd, 2009 stated "...a large percentage of our troops in war zones are being given psychiatric drugs. These include antidepressants like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and Celexa, as well as tranquilizers like Klonopin, Ativan, and Xanax. By themselves and especially in combination these drugs can cause severe anxiety, agitation, worsening of depression, and loss of self-control resulting in suicide and violence. Obviously, this is a very dangerous pharmaceutical cocktail for men and women fighting on the frontlines for our nation." He went on to talk about the returning soldiers with stress and upsets also being put on such medications. This is a disaster in the making. Suicides in the military are going up not down as this drugging increases. Hasan had the access and it is sad to see this danger playing out with such a tragedy.
Of course there are factors that people can point to that drive a man like Hasan in one direction or another but such factors were there in 1920 and 1950 as they are today. The new factor is the drugs which appear to be driving people over a line which was not crossed in earlier generations.

[James]

Well, it seems when the guy was heard yelling "Allah Akbar" (sp)something was wrong..
Sadly , as usual, many people ignored warning signs like him postings about suicide bombers.

[sjoyh]

um...what's a "widdle" name

[Tom Hallett]

Trying to draw a parallel to Colombine is a red herring. If the available news is accurate, the cause obvious and easily understood. He's a Muslim who didn't want to go serve with the American army in a Muslim country. He considered that his Muslim-ness more important than the lives of the people he killed. If there's any commonality among mass killers like the VA Tech. or Colombine, etc. it's simply that they are arrogant enough to think their own little pet-peeves are worth more than the lives of their victims.

[rocco b]

He us your psycho roommate, co-worker,or classmate. The one everyone in charge is afraid to discipline or fire.Because they don't want to jeopardize their lives and livelihood. It has nothing to do with religion, military, being picked on as a child. He is just screwed up. He was born that way, he will always be that way. Being muslim and hating Americans was just an excuse to make everyone else as miserable as he is.

[Lloyd]

Are you all afraid to call a spade a spade? Based upon the information provided to this point this man is a fundamentalist muslim following the teachings of the islamic prophet Mohammed. Killing of Infidels is encouraged based upon the teachings of their greatest leader. Come on guys grow a set.

[Sam]

What I know is this; The excuses that the media put forth, such as stress due to the inability to be discharged from the Army and mortification at the prospect of being deployed to a combat zone are red herrings. Intended to divert suspiscion from the probable motive untill attention is focused on other news. Officers in the military are able to resign their comission any time they like. If they are still working off their educational contract they mearly have to repay the moneys adjusted for the govt. investment and time served. I doubt that was the case since a Major would have served way beyond that point. It is possible he was paid substantial bonuses to remain in service. These may have had to be repaid. Another excuse was a claim of "harrasment" in regard to his religion. I am sceptical of this assertion. A grown man (and Major in the Army) submitting to bullying in relation to his religion? Rediculous!! These types of actions would not be tolerated for one second by the leadership. This was most likely the result of his status as a "devout Muslim". Most of these people see themselvs as victims of a war on Islam. They choose to ignore the fact that it was "devout Muslims" that attacked America resulting in the subsequent actions to punish the enemys of this country. I can only hope this person is executed in the most excruciating fashion allowed by military law.

[Scott]

Stop falling victim to the disease of political correctness. Violence is violence, be it knife, gun, fist or automobile. Secondly THIS IS NOT the act of a man gone berserk like people are trying to claim. This is an out and out act of terrorism. Political correctness places blame everywhere but where it belongs... ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE ACTOR. Unless there is such a drastic mental defect that the actor des not know the difference between right and wrong, they bare the full blame. NO excuses. The press has used this PC BS to sell papers and air time for so long, that the populous has bought into it. It's time to set the record straight... Parents not involved in their kids lives lead to them not realizing what was going on in Columbine... Here a fundamentalist Muslim used his position to kill Infidels...

As for the people buying into the administrations attempts to deny our combat vets their Second Ammendment Rights, which is all that it really is... MAL, you need to do a bit of simple research... Our combat vets suffer a lower percentage of the various forms of "mental illness" than the general population... As far as all the meds? Thank the AMA for that... "Take a Pill" has become the motto of the liberal organization that we call mainstream medicine, and finally, you will find more and more MDs standing up to the AMA and the pharmaceutical corporations that OWN it.

Lloyd called it straight, It's time to grow a pair and call a spade a spade... This "man" should never have been in the military to begin with, and is no different than the hijackers of 9/11... just out to kill anyone who wasn't like him.

[Bob]

The man deserves no sympathy and the only "understanding" we need is how to find folks like this and contain them before they do similar harm.
I'm sure that we will endlessly analyze this in the days to come. Usually, evil such as this is well outside our belief and experience even though it seems to happen regularly elsewhere in the world. Perhaps that influenced Hasan. The signs of a problem personality were there and were not addressed.

Hasan apparently was a very bright guy. He probably had a good part of his undergrad costs paid by the government and had all the costs of medical school and post degree-work paid by the government with him earning a pretty good salary. Heck of a way to pay it back.

I don't buy this "fear of deployment" BS. He had certainly been in the military long enough to know that they do ask you to deploy. Although all deployments are dangerous, his MOS and duties put him a long way from the pointy end of the stick. He knew this.

The only thing we need to know from Hasan is whether this was done by him alone or if he had help and/or encouragement. After that we can debate the appropriateness of the death penalty or life in a small cell with no outside contact.

[Dr. Mark]

And enough of this seeking out "expert" opinions to understand what drove the perpetrator to commit the atrocity. I recently had to testify in capital case, and the "experts'" efforts to excuse the murderer's actions and attribute them to mental defects were embarrassingly laughable. Speaking as one who deals daily with criminals and the mentally ill, far too much is being squandered trying to solve all deplorable behavior with "therapy" and "medications". Sadly, a small cell with no outside contact is a fantasy ... won't happen in any US prison. The death penalty is not cruel or unusual. It is a Godless society that shuns the death penalty, because they do not believe in the eternal nature of the soul or in God's justice. Is it a greater mistake to execute and innocent man/woman than to preserve the life of a violent man/woman so that he/she can murder again?

[yoggii]

Sometimes, for no logical reason, some people have a compulsion to do something strange. It's often "spur of the moment."
As well, many psychologists and psychiatrists study this area to try and figure themselves out. That means their ill even before they begin. Maybe he was one.

[CK18]

All devout muslims would like to do what Hasan did because that is what Islam teaches: kill infedels (non-muslims). This is the simplest and real answer. Not all muslims have the courage to kill. This one had the courage. Islam encourages killing non-muslims.

[MDenison]

Islam is the religion of peace? All they do is kill innocent Americans! I would like to know how he was allowed to walk around the base with a loaded firearm. Usually on military bases people aren't walking around with loaded firearms.

[JessB]

A muslim killing American solders. Other than this happening here on American soil, this isn't even news.

[Jessica Hall]

We are all just sitting here, speculating. We will not know as long as he is intubated. So he's Muslim. So what? "All they do is kill innocent Americans"? Really?? I know many who would NEVER do such a thing! In fact, I don't know ANY who would. And Christians don't have a spotless record, either, don't let's forget that. Forget the Crusades, the Inquisition, the forced conversions of the Dark Ages, and move to more modern times. I'm a member of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Letter-Day Saints--supposedly "not Christian", despite the title and doctrine--and so the "Christians" saw the need to kill hundreds of innocent people without compunction. Stole our land. Drove us out of the cities we built. Drove us out of the country. Murdered our leaders. In America. In the 19th century. They even made it legal. But we don't go massacring people. And as for the mentally ill and such: I have a mental illness. I have PTSD. I'm on medication. I am well-versed in psychology. I am good with firearms. But I am not about to go kill people. We can not look on the outside and expect to understand the inside. Perhaps sometimes senseless things happen because people let themselves get lost in a distorted world; there are diverse ways that people do that. Unfortunately, there are not always warning signs, or they are too subtle for most people to notice. I pray for the family of the shooter, that they may get the love and strength they need to get through the prejudice and hatred they will no doubt receive from the inconsiderate, judgemental, Christian--and non-Christian--bigots and hypocrites they will undoubtedly meet. I, however, intend to be Christian. I admire the Amish--remember them? For the families of the victims, I pray that they may have the strength and love to get through their trials and sorrow. For the soldiers, that they may recover both body and soul. For the shooter, that he may heal, that perhaps he may repent so God may have mercy on his soul. But I also pray that justice will be served, as must happen in all righteous societies. And that we may remain a righteous society.

[Morgan]

He was a Muslim, yes - and he was both being degraded and harassed by HIS OWN TEAM for it. Not only was he not acknowledged by them, he was surrounded by his assailants every day. Unfortunately, the same level of intellect that people are using on this board was the one that drove someone like this to the edge. What's more, he was imminently being forced to fight against his other people. In that situation - being bullied by the people you thought would protect you but didn't - it would have been easy to romanticize the other aspects of your identity, your Muslim-ness, as being the one where you might one day find a home for belonging; a place where you would be recognized and safe. WE didn't provide that. What he did was very human, and unfortunately, it's just as human to come on here and distance ourselves from him - point to his name or accuse him of being a terrorist hidden within our ranks. All these ignorant comments and his explosion are both connected through our common nature that way.

[Lloyd]

Well, well, well, I can see that you are a non-christian CLS as you obviously have never actually read the teachings of Christ. If one follows the teaching of Christ to the letter they would never commit an act of violence of any sort. Unfortunately we as sinners don't tend to follow Christ's teachings and quite honestly don't because we are attached to this body here on earth and can't fathom spirituality at that level. As far as him being pushed over the edge due to taunting etc. As posted above a commissioned officer can resign their commission at any time, if he wanted to leave he could have. If I may make a suggestion, if you have never been in the military and in a combat MOS do not attempt to speak of that which you do not know. Everyone in the military has to be willing to put their life on the line for the man next to you. He is your brother and should always be treated as such. Another thing for those who believe that if we are nice to everyone they will be nice to us..........WAKE UP!!!! In the world away from acedemia it doesn't work that way, there are evil people in the world and they want to harm others due to their differences. It is how it is like it or not. If possible could one of you enlightened people please provide me with an example where an armed force has ever let their known enemy within their ranks and had good results associated with it. I know what your thinking, I dislike all muslims. Well I guess thats possible but I also don't pet snakes seeing that I am not sure which ones might be posionous and could kill me. Do you pick up strange snakes?

[wrong at large]

he was a terrorislamist himself,,, and justifies the slaughter of unarmed non-muslims with his terrorislamic doctrine,,, death or slavery to all non-muslims as stated in their unholy book,,,

terrorislamists are the biggest cowards on the planet,,,

it is good he was brought down by the heroic woman Kimberly Munley,,

a prime example why terrorislamist are doomed to fail like all totalitarian regimes before them,,,

[wrong at large]

Posted by: Jessica Hall | November 07, 2009 at 05:32 PM

tryiny to justify terrorislam i see,,,

let us not forget the terrorislamic crusades at the beginning of terrorislam,,, as well as the terrorislamic leader's genocide of jews and christians on the arabian peninsula,,,

riddle me this,,,
how many of gods commandments did muhammad break during his life???

[Me]

I'm not sure what islam teaches for sure, because I'm not Muslim, but I do know that this guy attacked and killed unarmed and inocent people, so I have no pitty for him what so ever.

[bailey]

He is Muslim. He was open about it and never tryed to hide it. He used our country and our system for a free ride. When he hade to pay the piper he was not having it. This Muslim coward (like all of them) told his comand that he didn't want to go to fight HIS BROTHERS. the military does not care. He is just a nother number, a position to fill. So he did what any good Muslim coward would do... You know it is not racial profiling if we are supposedly at war with taliban. I've been there taliban or not Muslims do not like us. WAKE UP or more of my brothers will die.