I’m Shocked, SHOCKED I Say!
Well, now that the dust has settled over yesterday’s shooting of Arkansas Democratic State chairman Bill Gwatney, I thought I’d comment. The AP reports (no link, on purpose):
The man who fatally shot the chairman of the state Democratic Party had a Post-It note at home with the victim’s last name and phone number along with 14 guns, antidepressants and a last will and testament, according to court documents.
I’m shocked to discover that the killer was taking antidepressants. The 14 guns? Not so much. We’re talking about Arkansas here.
The one thing that lefty blogger Markadelphia and I agreed on (aside from the individual right to arms issue) was that it appeared that mind-altering chemicals seemed to be the one thing that the overwhelming majority of “rampage shootings” had in common. The shooters were on Selective Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc. As I’ve said before, if these medications affect 1/100 of 1% (.001%, literally one in 100,000) in such a way as to reduce or remove the inhibition to suicidal violence, it would be too small a population to statistically determine. But there are literally millions of people on these drugs.
So every time I hear about a “rampage shooter,” the first question I want an answer to is “Were they on antidepressants?”
And this one was.