Hawkins (mall shooter)had been on antidepressants, staying with friends and bouncing from job to job

[fed-up]

When my son's father abruptly stop taking Prozac he tried to suffocate my then 3 month old son..He took his own life about 4 years ago.


I wonder when they will publish what brand of anti-depressant meds he was taking.

http://www.whiotv.com/news/14783006/detail.html
Teenager Identified In Omaha Mall Rampage

9, Including Shooter, Confirmed Dead

POSTED: 3:21 pm EST December 5, 2007

..snip

"A friend of Hawkins told KETV that Hawkins had been on antidepressants, staying with friends and bouncing from job to job."

..snip

[Bozita]

1. MSNBC: Shooter, 19, had just lost his job and had a pending court date

[enid602]

2. respite

Non-stop coverage on this incident should give George and Dick a little breathing room with regard to their bomb Iran project.

[Wcross]

3. It had nothing to do with antidepressants, it was the guns fault!!!

The pharmaceutical drugs that the Columbine shooters were on did not have anything to do with it either! Nor did the prescription drugs the Pearl High school shooter took have a thing to do with it! The guns did it dagnabit!

[alarimer]

4. If he didn't have access to guns, those people would not be dead.

He might have hurt himself (and good fucking riddance- why the hell do these assholes always have to take others out with them?) but the body count would be a hell of a lot smaller. Just saying.

[Wcross]

6. There are over 80 million gun owners in the United States.

So, rather than examine mental health laws we should just repeal the second amendment & confiscate every gun in the country?

[Mojorabbit]

7. If not a gun it probably

would have been a knife. He sounds like he was in a world of hurt mentally.

[Hoof Hearted]

12. Something tells me that skinny little kid would have had a bitch of a time killing 9 people

and wounding half a dozen more with a simple hand weapon. That's ridiculous and you know it.

[Mojorabbit]

15. It depends on what he was going to do.

He could have used a machete. He could have plowed into a crowd with a car. Instead he used a gun.He needed help and this country has no safety net for mental illness. .

[leeroysphitz]

5. and posting to free republic? nt

[razors edge]

8. Bingo.

[Mutineer]

9. Millions of people are greatly helped by anti-depressants

But there has been a lot of questions about the impact these drugs have on teens and young adults. But to say that anti-depressants should be outlined or banned because a small handful of people have gone on shooting sprees or killed themselves while on them is ridiculous. If you're on an anti-depressant, odds are, you're depressed. And if you're depressed, you're more likely to commit suicide. If you've never had a person you live in the throes of depression and seen the great good that these drugs can do for them, then you don't get why they are true miracle workers. Should there be tighter regulations on prescribing them to teens/young adults? Yes. Should there be better monitoring of those on them? Absolutely. But outlaw them or whatever the hell it is some of you seem to want to do is utterly ridiculous and is as senseless as this act of violence was.

[joshcryer]

11. There are plenty of studies about the over prescription of anti-depressants.

For all we know the kid got put on them because he was mopey about losing a girlfriend. Anti-depressants are for a *disease* not for everyday uppers.

[madrchsod]

13. one of my daughter`s friends have really bad panic attacks

that used to be controlled by meds but now she`s off her parents insurance so- no meds and means she can`t hold a job long enough to get insurance. that isif she could find one around here. i know an awful lot about this subject and it really pisses me off that people who need meds to function can not get them...like i said ,what a fucking country.

[razors edge]

14. I don't want to outlaw them,

I would legalize all drugs, I just think people should understand the likely results of their own actions, be it the gun dealers or the dope dealers.

The only thing the laws do is give the state the power to dictate what will happen after something like this happens. They are no more a deterrent than the death penalty. But legislators get paid to write laws, so they use your tax dollars to hire assistants to do that for them and give a short speech about how great that law is gonna be for everyone, then take a month off to collect cash from lobbyists. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[madrchsod]

10. he was off his meds?

gee i wonder why....no money,no job,no pills. there`s a ton of kids out there that need meds that can not afford them. my daughter is the only one in her circle of friends that have a full time job with insurance the rest of them get by on service jobs that have no benefits. what a fucking country is`t it.

[Disturbed]

16. Going to a Mall & shooting people has an explanation?

This is the 4th incident. Why can't Malls have a few armed guards?

[madrchsod]

17. some of them do

but those are in the bad section of town...whoops..4th incident? guess i will read the full story...