Police not pursuing video game angle in Portland shooting

He is going to hell!

what are your sins?

No one here is cramming their religion of choice or atheistic views down your throat, so please don't do it to us.

"No one here is cramming their religion of choice or atheistic views down your throat"
STOP REPENTING OR YOU'LL GO TO NON-HELL!
PRAISE ATHE

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20070422.gif

Yeah, I think if they blamed games, it would probably go down hill. Also, from the letter, it's obvious he was depressed and had some sort of mental issues in the past.

@ aristokrat

You could supply yourself with and endless reserve of cocaine.

Well theres a saying that goes "You don't always get what you want, but you get what you need" which in most cases is true. If you really think about it we're actually in better off then most other people around the world. We get to have computers, really awesome high tech video games, a wide vareity of food, air conditioning, transportation, a building to live in and clothing. Everytime I think about how bad my day is going, I think about how much horrible another persons day is in Burma or Darfur. Those place are like a living hell and in a weird way it makes my "bad" day seems like a trip to a amusement park, which is REALLY sad to say.

Well even if we do have all those good things, they really don't matter if you don't have people to share them with like friends, family, love ones and random comment posters on the internet. People can make or break a person more ways then one, making everything you have and earned seem illrelevent.

Okay I'm getting a little too heavy here. I used a big word like "illrelevent".....I'm so out of character today. :/

@Deadpool

You spelled it wrong too. It's Irrelevant. Just FYI. So yes, it's been a long day for you apparently.

I feel the same way, Deadpool.

If you are clinically depressed, perspective will not help. You could be a billionaire's son and still think your life sucked beyond being worth living. When the chemicals in your brain are telling you that you are sad, there's not a lot you can do about it.

I think his farewell letter is incredibly sad. It sounds like a man who truly had no sense of hope left. It's also an odd nice gesture to precede his shooting with. I feel bad for the guy (though it's still terrible what he did).

@ kevin
woosh

Yeah keeping such a personal item would be painful, he uses it and he remembers his roommate, not how it's supposed to be.

He probably wanted to remind his friends and roommates of him. Sometimes those who suffer from depression are hurt most by whom they consider their friends. By leaving the PS3 and car, he's forcing his roommate and friends to go through a painful and awkward ordeal of selling or using the items. Though I could be completely wrong, but thats what I would've done if I decided to go on a rampage rather than finally seek out help.

Well, only the ones that really want help will actually announce openly what they're going to do. This kid just left a note and went off. He was determined and I imagine no amount of "help" would have stopped him.

"Does anyone know why he didn't seek out help for his depression before he went on that rampage?"

Most people who are depressed don't seek help on their own. In fact men are more likely than women to keep silent about their problems rather than talk about it to someone else.

Depression is so not an excuse for murder- especially a shooting spree such as this one. I don't empathize with this guy at all- he made the decision to go shoot at other people and killed two of them, and just because he was depressed doesn't mean he didn't know that was a wrong decision.

It's kind of funny actually. He phoned up the local police department of where the shooting took place and offered to help out, with his *extensive knowledge* of the case and incredible skills of logical analysis. Sure enough, the police guy on the desk said "no thanks", and now Wacko Jacko is trying to get him fired/removed from the investigation because, and this is a direct quote:

"Some detective in the Bureau with whom I spoke has been compromised by the video game industry, and he was anticipating my call.

I think your Bureau and you put public safety ahead of the pro-video game bias and gaming activities of this detective."

Jack Thompson has gone from misguided lawyer to batshit insane, and I think there's no turning back for him anymore.

Oh, he was batshit insane while he was still an attorney. I used to comment on GamePolitics and he was a worse troll there than most of the ones we have.

Oddly, he started posting quite a lot more after he got fired :D

Now that's not entirely fair. I realize this guy screwed up and made a horrible decision. It's not like he was happy-go-lucky and just decided to go off. He was suffering, got overwhelmed, and made bad choices. Life DOES suck, and at times like this where everyone is feeling the strain, it's a wonder there aren't more of this. America is so apathetic right now because everybody is so concerned with themselves (as you just proved by pointing out how you don't like the shifty looking people, even though they haven't done harm yet). Nobody is actually trying to help one another or even attempting to understand people in need of help.

I agree with others in the thread, he needed help and he didn't get any. Not saying it's the responsibility of others around him to fix his problems, but if he had a shoulder to lean on I'm sure things wouldn't have turned out this way. I doubt there is anyone here over 20 that can admit that they were on the verge of making stupid choices at one point in their life and someone intervened. Whether they just hung out with the person a lot or brought in professional help doesn't matter. Thing is I bet in your bad times you had someone that cared enough to step in. A mother, brother, father, friend, or classmate that kept you from driving home drunk, binge drinking after your girlfriend or wife left you after you caught her cheating on you, failing out of college, losing your job. Shit like that will break you mentally.

I think this was a strong case of that. A shitty life and nobody that gave a damn because either he made it difficult to get in so people gave up, or they had their own problems and couldn't spare a couple hours listening to someone else in need of support. I have sympathy for all parties involved in this case.

"(as you just proved by pointing out how you don't like the shifty looking people, even though they haven't done harm yet)"

Two weeks ago a colleague of mine was stabbed in shoulder at the club; a week before that the same person was bottled; around September last year someone was caught assaulting a lady with a converted firearm; and every major holiday the police come round telling all staff members that there could be a major 'incident'. You know what that's code for if you're from London or Madrid. Sometimes cynicism can be justified.

In all honesty, I'm jealous of your idealism. If only we all reached out and empathised with everyone, then maybe everything would have been okay; he wouldn't have taken the conscious decision to grab a gun, load it up, and blast away at strangers who've never harmed him so. Yes, that makes complete sense.

@Jeepers Creepers 712

I like to think that Life Doesn't Have to suck.

Optimistic pessimism... that's the way to go.

Always anticipate everything going wrong, not in a bad, over-obsessed way, but maybe just simply acknowledging it.

Then when most stuff in life does go right, you're surprised and even more grateful that it worked out. Practically in a perpetually good mood. ;)

And when the bad does happen, you anticipated that it would and are therefore slightly more prepared.

Granted some of the “bad” is worse than bad. Like losing a loved one, there is no preparing for it. but if we could let the other not-so-bad “bad” go. Maybe we could appreciate everything a lot more.

Sorry about that… I’ve been feeling extremely hopeful about life lately even after the “bad” week that I’ve had ;)

I agree, life doesn't have to suck. I usually live my way the way you suggest. Not expecting good things to come. Expecting things to go wrong, expecting people not to care or be burdened with trying to accommodate me. I'm completely cool with my life and hold no ill-will towards existence.

...but I realize everyone is different and expecting everyone to be as strong or easy-going as others just isn't practical. Not everyone can bear the burden of being rejected by everyone they're attracted to. Some people can lose their entire family in a car accident and go about living their life a year later completely normal. Expecting that strength (or whatever good qualities you'd label that) to be in everyone or holding others to that for comparison just isn't a fair thing to do though.

and @Bowser - I see your point in the benefit of being cautious. I'm usually the one to error on the side of caution as well. I just think that profiling everyone that doesn't "look right" into potential threats is a sad state of things. 29 out of 30 times those people aren't trouble. Those few times they are makes it worth it to be cautious though, I get that. Just really sucks to know that because I wear all black, baggy clothes and not a social butterfly that I'd be considered a threat. I just like to do my own thing without being bothered about it is all.

You're the problem.

Pathetic. Disgusting.

You're the ugly one.

I'm the ugly one? Even if that were so, I'm man enough to not blow away a bunch of innocent people because of it. jackass!

Don't forget to include the sperm donors and test tubes. I would have said parents, but that is a title earned, not given.