Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Rampage Shooter Leaves Suicide Note

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/01/ali-syed-california-rampage-shooting-suicide-note_n_2792470.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

26 comments:

  1. I believe what stood out the most to me in this article was the statement, "Syed used a shotgun in his rampage that was given to him by his father as a gift a year earlier." I believe his father should have been more careful when gifting his son a gift of a gun. A gun is a huge responsibility, and if Syed had a mental disorder than his father should have never given him one. However, that is my personal opinion and I have a different belief system when it comes to the gun topic. I believe only well qualified individual should own a gun. For example, someone who has gone through training and has an understanding of how powerful a gun can be.

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  2. Another shooting! What’s going on? It is difficult for me to wrap my head around the idea of someone one just having the thought of wanting to kill themselves and they decide that they must take other individuals lives as well. My belief for someone to feel that they need to take their own life the things that are currently going on in their lives must be pretty bad. Since he lived at home with his parents my question is why his parents didn’t notice a change in his attitude. I don’t think that a person can just wake up one morning and decide that they are going to kill themselves, I think that there was a least a change in his character that his parents should have notice and that should have sparked something in their minds. I do not blame the parents for these guys’ actions but what I don’t understand is why his father gave him a gun. He was what is now classified as an unstable individual and you had this individual a gun. Although then gun was given by his father this was not his fault because anytime that a person chooses to pick up a weapon and take another person’s life and then their own that decision was clearly made by them and no one else. Overall we just need to be more watchful and prayerful because we don’t know what individuals are dealing with each day.

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  3. Due to all the shootings that have been going on, giving a college student a gun as a gift is quite strange. Better yet, did Ali Syed even have a license for a gun? It is sad to know that more lives are lost due to the fact that an individual decides he wants to go out and kill people. How can we fix thing like this? How can we screen who get a hold of guns? Can you test who will kill and will not, especially if people give guns out as gifts. There is really not a good answer in my eyes. After all, guns don't kill, people do. People also cannot fix everything, so how can we fix this without causing additional problems that could be fatal? Gun control is nice, but you can't really control a human. If all of these targets were random, why was Courtney Aoki in his room? Quite frankly, I don't see how his parents could not have stopped him after they heard the gun shots. Something definitely needs to change due to all of these shootings.

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  4. It is sad to hear that innocent people had to die. I can only imagine what the parents of that poor girl are feeling and how many questions they have about how their daughter ended up in Ali's house. I feel that parents sometimes notice things about their children but don't bring it to their attention because they might think it’s "normal" or "it’s just a phase". If Ali spent most of his time in his room playing video games maybe he didn’t have any friends? Socially awkward? I am not blaming parents but paying a little more attention can definitely make a difference.

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  5. This is in regard to the tragic shootings in Tustin, California last month, by a twenty-year-old college student, who fatally shot three people, injured three others, and then shot himself, after writing a suicide note on his computer less than an hour before killing his first victim. The question came to my mind as to what could have influenced this young man in his formative years that resulted in such a tragic ending? The article stated that the police said that the unemployed part-time community college student, spent hours in his room playing video games. I feel that due to the violent video games, that often portray characters shooting each other with little respect for human life, have infiltrated our society as a whole by influencing the youth of the nation, and the formative years of youth, have been lost in a tragic phase of exhibitions of carnage.
    Earlier this week, while I was in a movie, I noted there were many children in the audience viewing violence, shootings, and hearing foul language, which I feel will affect these children’s concept about how they might conduct themselves in the future. The shooter used a shotgun that his father had given him a year earlier as a gift, which brings up the issue of gun control, pertaining to the need for background checks and license issues to own a gun. I firmly believe our gun control should be more heavily enforced for the protection of the citizens of our country. I also strongly feel that movies of violence, shootings, and foul language should be censored, and video games of violence should not be allowed to be produced for sale. I feel that many tragedies have resulted from the influence of portrayed violence in our society today.

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  6. Hmmmm, another shooting and the agenda driven media took the time to note that he "spent hours in his room playing video games". That statement was an obvious attempt to focus the blame on video games. Not mentioned was if he had mental health issues, which we assume he did. He killed several people so there had to be something wrong. It seems to me that his original intent was to go by "suicide by cop". Many individuals seem to think that it's the best way to go and by randomly shooting at people on the freeway, I think that was his plan. When the plan didn't seem to be going his way, his last resort was to shoot himself. I hope that the focus isn't on how he got the gun. It was a gift. His father presumably didn't know he was going to shoot anything besides a deer or other animal. Does anyone know if he was on drugs at the time?
    I also find it strange that the killings were random but one of the victims was at his house. That doesn't appear to be random. This, along with the other stories about shootings, will continue to prove what the government wants which is to control the rights of citizens. I do think it is sad for the victims’ families as well as for the shooters. However, more of these stories are making the news due to the agenda of politicians. There aren't more shootings, just more making the news.

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  7. Random acts of violence are not so random. When I first heard about this shooting, the news media depicted the shooting as a random act of violence. However the finding of a suicide note shows that Alie Syed had a motive and the act of violence was not so random. The suicide note shows that Syed’s behavior was erratic and suicidal, in which warnings signs must have been present but missed by his parents or any individual that knew him. I do believe that this act of violence could have been prevented if Syed would have gotten help for his erratic behavior and suicidal thoughts. also the mention of Syed spending numerous hours playing video games caught my attention. The reason why I found the mention of video games interesting is because of the way the crime was committed, it seems that Syed could have been living a video game out in real life. The only video game that comes into mind that resembled the actions committed by Syed is “Grand Theft Auto”. In this video game you can drive around town shooting and carjacking individuals. I am a believer that video games do desensitize the mind to violence and make the individual believe that it is a norm. But until the investigation is completed, all we could do is wait to see what actually set this individual off and why he committed these acts of violence.

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  8. I cannot believe another shooting has occurred. Ali Syed, a 20 year old, Southern California college student has just added another shooting to the list of all the other recent horrible shootings. He killed three people and injured 5. He basically went around shooting random innocent people. If that is not bad enough he also hijacked a few cars including his parents for what seems to be no reason right now. He was a depressed kid who wanted to take his life. I just cannot believe he had to take others down with him. They had nothing to do with his misery so far because the police cannot find any connections between Syed and his victims. I wonder why he felt so bad he had to kill others. I think it is really funny how the media had to mention that Syed played video games in his room for hours. I think they are trying to make a connection but a very subtle one. They kind of through it out there to say that maybe video games could lead someone to such violence. A lot of people play violent games all daylong. Most can handle it, but I guess some cannot. I also thought it was weird how the media pretty much blamed his dad for all of this just because he gave his son a gun like most fathers do. How was his dad supposed to look in the future and know that his kid was going to kill three people and injure 5 people?

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  9. These shootings are begginning to become some sort of fad. These young adults think, "Can I get my face on the news like he did?" They just want to get their two seconds of fame and they believe that their life will be made. I think that these murders start off with someone who secludes themselves or is to themselves more than an average person. This starts off with thoughts that normal people do not have because they are out in society for people to let others know that those thoughts are out of the ordinary and that the there is no possibility of getting away from the situation. That the attention the news gives shooters is negative attention and no one should strive to be on the news for murdering people.If the media did a better job in keeping the identity of the shooters under the rug, I believe we would have a a drop in shooting fiascos.

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  10. This story is a tragic one but once again, its big news because the actual fact is that these things are rare and not everyday occurences. Yet, extreme acts such as this one gets so much media attention that it put the general public into a complete state of fear. I agree after something like this that we need gum control. However, he actually used a legally registered weapon that his father purchased for him. Hes not a convict with an illegal firearm, he's a 20 year old kid with a lagitimate weapon. The problem is not the guns, its what the person chooses to do with the gun. We need to look at ourselves and quit blaming the pieces of metal (or plastic). Triggers dont pull themselves. His father was irresponsible and practiced bad judgement in giving someone a firearm that wasnt responsible enough to know what to do with it. 20 years is to young to own a gun unless your military personnel and military trained. This guy had issues, obviously,and i feel as though his parents share in the responsiblity of the loss of the three lives for being so careless.Shame on them!!!

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  12. I think that this is a very sad situation. I’m surprised at this article usually within a few hours after incident like this has happened there multiple stories has to what happened and why. I would think that after eleven days they know more about the victim that was killed at his home. I feel that, because this was just a random shooting and not a school shooting there is not much effort being put in this investigation. I feel that all incidents should have the same amount of effort and time into finding out what happened for the public to know, but more importantly for the victim of the families to know and have closure as to why they never be able to talk with their loved one again

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  13. I’m no professional but, isn’t he considered a sociopath? I don’t believe it was just the hours of video games alone in his room that drove him crazy. The lack of contact from humans is one thing; he probably met this girl through online gaming. Maybe she didn’t help him correctly during their game play. College can’t be ones only source social interaction. He needed a job or an extracurricular activity. Jobs aren’t only put here for money; they also connect us to people. I know when I stop being useful; I feel horrible. Idle hands are the devils playground.
    A person I know; had to go to rehab because of his addiction to W.O.W. He had no contact with anybody for basically a year and in turn became very depressed. I’ll buy into that this was a totally random killing spree. The only people that could’ve seen this coming were his parents. I blame them completely. Luckily, when I became a bum during my younger years my father told me to get out and get a job. He kicked me out and told me not to come back until I was employed. In that same day, I went out, and joined the Marines. That is what these parents should’ve done; just completely cut him off. I say, if he didn’t have access to all of his stuff, there would be a huge probability, this spree wouldn’t have happened. He would’ve gone out, lived a little and grown more appreciative of people’s well being. If he did decide to go bananas maybe the closest weapon he would’ve had is a stick, which is far less damaging than a gun. Hell, this angry young man might have ended up where he belonged faster; in prison or the military.

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  14. Here we go again with the issue of gun control. If Syed was mental ill then his father should have never given him a gun. If Syed never showed any signs of being mental ill then there would be no reason he could not receive a gun as a gift from his father. In Texas, there is not a requirement to have a license to purchase or own a gun of any type. If you want to carry a gun you are required to get a concealed handgun license, but that is only for a handgun. Shotguns and rifles do not require a license to be carried. There are requirements in order to purchase guns and it varies with the type of gun you want to purchase.
    Everybody wants to take guns away and this is not going to be the answer. If someone wants to get a gun they will get it. Gangs are living proof of this. Do you think anyone in a gang has a license to carry a handgun? Are they even old enough to purchase a gun? We can scream all day about guns and gun control but is that the answer? What does the Constitution of our great Nation say under the Bill of Rights? It does give us the right to bear arms, does it not? If we start taking away “Rights” given to us under the Constitution what will happen next?
    We can’t go around blaming the video games he played, the movies or television shows he watched. I’m sure there are several of us that have access to guns that watched the same shows he, played the same video games he did and we haven’t gone out and killed anyone, have we? I grew up in a home where my father had shotguns and rifles in the house all the time. We knew not to touch one of those guns for any reason. So, I think we need to open our eyes and look at bigger picture!

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  15. This is another story of a privileged young man who wanted to make a name for himself. The area where he lived is a primarily white neighborhood. There should be more focus on law enforcement in these middle class neighborhoods as well as in the hood. The parents of the person should also be to blame. They interacted with him every day they should have recognized if something was wrong with him and gotten him help. But on the other hand he was a grown ass adult he should have known better. I bet when all is said and done this person was probable depressed and he had something mentally wrong with him. His parents bought him a gun and put the weapon into his hands. The blame is solely on his parents shoulders. This person is of middle eastern descent so as a male child he was probable treated with kid gloves growing up. and he probable got away with everything and was not disciplined as a child.

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  16. This is a terrible situation and what stands out to me the most in this investigation was that this young man was known as a person that showed signs of mental illness and was someone who other people that knew him as a person to stay away from and was awkward or dangerous. Although he showed these signs, nobody especially his parents did anything about it and instead his parents gave him a firearm as a gift which ended up being his weapon for the killings. I feel that when a person shows signs of being capable of hurting other people or being depressed to the point where he could take lives as well as his own people closes to him should seek help to try and prevent these incidents. Most people who commit these types of crimes have easy access to guns and in this case his parents voluntarily provided him the weapon. I feel that the parents are to blame for the fact that they did not take actions to help their son's depressed and suicidal feelings and also because they provided him with a firearm as a gift. If we can identify these premeditated clues then these violent acts could be prevented before they go too far.

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  17. wow, school shooting just keep happening, and everytime i see a report of one, the common denominator is the shooter being isolated and having no friends or any good social relationship. of course when you are doing nothing but playing videogames, will somehow affect your mind. there is always someone to blame, and i wonder if the parents of this individual are the ones to blame. maybe they are, because this guy was a college student, which means he was at least 17, if not older, which is old enough to go out there and get a job. parents have a big roll to play here, if they let their kids do what ever they want, i dont think there is going to be a good pay off out of that child.
    i hope that some way all these events help the people on america to understand that something is wrong with our generation, and for those future parents no to make the same mistakes that the generation previous to ours made.

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  18. Shootouts are starting to become commonly done by college students. It is a shame that so many innocent lives were lost due to a careless family that did not keep tabs on there unstable child. It is insane that Ali Syed was able to go on a rampage with only a shotgun. I shouldn't be blaming the parents, but still they needed to be more watchful . Again guns aren't the problem, it is the community. Most likely a event like this is going to bring more desire of the community for gun control. I don't understand what is going on in our society or what factors might influence young adults to go murder others with guns. This shootouts are done without a purpose and normally end with the shooter committing suicide. Maybe the rise of the video game industry might be a factor that is influencing students to go on a shooting rampage. I don't think younger adults in the previous century had many shootings as our generation has experienced now. Still, I wonder why authorities didn't bother providing more details on the content of the suicide note. Then again that might best to kept hidden from the public for various reasons.

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  19. It seems that more school shootings are taking place here in the U.S. In this particular case of Syed, aside from him being probably crazy, there does seem to be some clues which why he committed this heinous act. Some of the clues which are he was unemployed and still going to school, which can be very stressful to a student not having a job and not going to school. The other one is he would lock himself in his bedroom and just play videogames, which completely separates from what really is going one in the world not to think it also brings some clues to what kind of videogames he was playing, and to communicate with people, in which if you don’t have social contact it can really damage the way one thinks. Another one is he father giving him a shotgun for his birthday. Why would some going to school really need a weapon? Should he be more worried on his school work or even trying to get a job. As for the victims of this act they were probably just targeted just because they probably were the first people he saw and murdered them.

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  20. School shooting became more common, any school either collage or elementary schools. The kid obviously had problems, all day playing video games. There are a lot of video games that are violent for example in GTA you get points for killing prostitutes and cops. I don’t think that this was the factor in this case because as myself i played bunch of violent video games and didn't kill any people. He's depression and lock of work probably made him very angry at the society. And of course who would give a kid a weapon for a birthday. I think that his father is going to receive a lot of lawsuits in a near future.

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  21. Here we go again another rampage shooter leaves suicide note, everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. Why don’t rampage shooters just try out for a reality television show for a little attention? Syed just another coward, with a low IQ who if he just wanted commits suicide just kills himself but he wanted a party. This shooter per the article just killed people who did not make his life miserable or be little him. He could have at lease gone out with guns blazing and allowed the police to have some target practiced. To all shooters who want to commit suicide don’t be like Syed. He was scared to go alone, man up and grow some balls just kill yourself.

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  22. The scary thing is that there really were no signs before of mental issues besides the fact that maybe he sat in his room all day and played video games, sounds familiar...but I don't think that would make someone have some sort of a mental disorder. Maybe it could detach him a little bit from society and he didn't know how to interact with people as much anymore but we can't automatically assume someone who spends their time playing a LOT of video games has something mentally wrong. I still find it odd that they haven't figured out how that girl got over there and how they knew each other. Then he went out to kill more people, I'm assuming because he was scared and just started freaking out.

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  23. Another story of a young man, angry at the world goes on a shooting spree and kills innocent people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Does this story sound familiar? These instances are nothing new, what is the real reason behind these scenarios? There are many factors that play into this. This young man was unemployed and enjoyed playing video games constantly states the article. He comes off as unmotivated, so why give him a gun as a gift? If I were his parent I would try to motivate him, although easier said then done, parents need to be aware of their children regardless of the age. At the end of the day he made his decision to kill, and then kill himself. There must be some type of trend that stands out for these shooters, to help understand the reasons behind their actions.

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  24. I don’t understand the reason for all of these murder suicide shootings. The sad thing about it is that there are no motives. So many young people today are taking the lives of innocent people and themselves for no apparent reason. There are so many alternatives to turn to instead of killing yourself and others. Another thing that puzzles me is why are they getting these guns from their parents? I think that a lot of things start from the home and by providing your child with a gun can only lead to a world of trouble and destruction. The story is not broad enough for me to make any determinations as to why he would do this, but I honestly feel like teens are starting to think that this is the norm now. I think that families should start investing more time and interest into their children. I know that everyone has problems and this will not be beneficial to everyone, but it will help problems before they start. I think we as a society have forgotten the true meaning of family and love. We also have lost the most important thing, God. I hope that one day this world will begin self healing instead of self destructing.

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  25. How will they research this shooting? What methods will they use for this shooting? In the report they put that "he spent several hours a night playing video games." I never even heard of this shooting until I read this blog, but I can definately see this turning into a gun-control/gun-violence Obama ordeal. Especially since they noted that "his father gave him the gun as a gift a year prior." It would have been interesting to read the suicide note istead of them just headlining it and not showing it. Maybe in the weeks following we could find the note and use it as a tool for research.

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  26. It surprising that in the news article they don’t mention any evidence of having problems at home, being bullied at school or any other area of his social life. They include certain details of the shooting and also don’t miss to mention that he played video games and that he was given a shotgun as a gift. It makes sense that somebody who has thought of committing suicide would be more capable if there is a gun nearby that he/she could use. The fact that they mention video games when the individual never even mentions it in his note seems strange because why mention something that didn’t have any relevance? They don’t even mention what kind of video games he might’ve been playing, just video game. The reporters fail to mention anything really worth reporting, but I also believe it’s part of the polices fault because they don’t offer any other details. I understand that they may want to keep an ongoing investigation confidential for whatever the reason, but what if there is are some details that another individual may have. In order for there to be effective reporting that informs the reader and the community there needs to be cooperation between reporter and authorities.

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