Hec,

apparently the shooter's girlfriend and another friend are missing.

Was buzzed in with the rifle?

How does one describe someone capable of this?

I think until we know more, "evil" will pretty much cover it. No need to speculate on his mental state beyond that.

apparently the shooter's girlfriend and another friend are missing.

Jesus.

My armchair psychology suggests a narcissistic personality disorder. Somebody who feels entitled to take his wounding out on the world.

Was buzzed in with the rifle?

Could've been under a long coat?

This is the kind of gun he used.

He bought it legally.

But gun control is a bad thing. Ungoddamnbelievable.

How does one describe someone capable of this?

I think until we know more, "evil" will pretty much cover it. No need to speculate on his mental state beyond that.

Yup. You don't have to be clinically, diagnosably mentally ill to be evil. You just have to be evil.

Was buzzed in with the rifle?

Now I'm seeing that the rifle was found in his car. So he took two pistols into the school.

Interesting summary of the criminal psychology research that's been done on rampage violence.

“The pseudocommando is a type of mass murderer who kills in public during the daytime, plans his offense well in advance, and comes prepared with a powerful arsenal of weapons. He has no escape planned and expects to be killed during the incident. Research suggests that the pseudocommando is driven by strong feelings of anger and resentment, flowing from beliefs about being persecuted or grossly mistreated. He views himself as carrying out a highly personal agenda of payback. It is argued that revenge fantasies become the last refuge for the pseudocommando’s mortally wounded self-esteem and ultimately enable him to commit mass murder-suicide.” (Journal of American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, March 2010)

but what REALLY needs to be done is that Americans need to be taught that you do not have tantrums and resort to violence when you do not like the way things are going. I truly believe it is this one thing that results in so much more gun violence here even though other countries have similar gun ownership numbers. It's a weird cultural thing.

I recall some years ago reading an interesting discussion of the kind of dynamic involved. In that case it was in the context of contrasting this type of mass shooting with the "urban gun violence" attributed mostly to black inner city youth. The argument came down to entitlement - that you see this kind of shooting from someone raised with an expectation that the world owes them something and so when they are not the rich happy successful whatever they lash out at the world.

The context of that argument was why you never see this specific kind of thing being perpetrated by poor black kids - because they never have that expectation and entitlement in the first place. It's almost always white suburban kids.

That was a long time ago and I've forgotten the details, but it makes a certain intuitive sense to me.

The study I just cited, brenda, supports that reading.