Here we go again. A drifter and lone wolf is somehow off his meds. His anger boils over while he has access to guns. He then goes on a shooting spree killing innocents who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
How many times will the media avoid the most important questions in these recurring tragedies?
First, was John Russell Houser on or off his meds at the time of the shooting in the movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana? If he was on them, what exactly was he taking? Was he also drinking at the same time? Was he taking other prescriptions simultaneously?
If he was not taking his prescribed psychoactive medications, were there withdrawal effects he may have been experiencing from stopping them? It’s clear from the news report that the family had a difficult time keeping him on his meds.
Since bipolar disorder can be very difficult to manage when not on the appropriate medication, the role that the psychiatric condition played is also a major unknown in this tragic episode.
What’s the point?
Powerful psychotropic drugs can have some serious side effects. The pharmaceutical companies rarely admit to some of the most radical psychological repercussions because of the obvious liability they would sustain, both legal and financial.
The same Big Pharma corporations are also quite experienced at avoiding any and all responsibility for any detrimental physical outcomes or aberrant psychological behavior associated with their drug products.
The current case in LA is very similar to the many that have come before, as follows:
The picture that emerged Friday of the gunman who killed two women and wounded nine other people in a theater here was one filled with instability and rage, from a history of mental illness, to vandalizing and booby-trapping a house, to venting his fury at women’s rights, minorities and liberals. [1]
The obvious observation is that when powerful psych meds are thrown in this mix of mental illness, and their use is not closely monitored, anything can happen depending on the patient’s reaction to the drugs or unadvised termination of the medication.
A Disproportionate Number of Mass Murderers have Been on Psych Meds, or Abruptly Stopped Taking Them
Many unsupervised patients simply stop taking their medication because of how it affects them. In some cases, the physical side effects are too much to bear. In others, the psychological symptoms are intolerable. Hence, they feel there is no way out and simply stop taking the meds out of desperation. This was the case with Batman shooter James Holmes, among others.
There are also those instances where the disturbed individual associates their prescription meds with the “system.” The doctor with the white coat is the representative of the system whom they may no longer trust. Their growing paranoia, which is sometimes totally justified, can lead to an abrupt discontinuation of the needed medication.
Why Does The Mainstream Media (MSM) Never Report the Details Surrounding the Medication Issue?
What is particularly curious is how the MSM strictly avoids coverage of this critical link to violent behavior. It’s as though their many Big Pharma sponsors demand that the MSM stay away from making any correlations between gun-related deaths and their pharmaceutical medications. The threat of huge losses in advertising revenues is always a looming risk.
Consequently, each of these successive shooters has escaped the necessary scrutiny that might alert the “system” of the next rogue gunman. The MSM reflexively blames the problem on the availability of guns just as the government always does. In this way they function as a tag team attempting at every turn to repeal the Second Amendment.
Then there is the problem of what the MSM does focus on in their reports
“Mr. Houser believed that women should not work outside their homes, and ‘had a lot of hostility toward abortion clinics,’ Mr. Floyd said. ‘He was the sort of person who believed “that all the trouble started when they took Bibles out of school and stopped prayer.’” [1]
What the excerpt from the New York Times article reveals is their subtle agenda linking a raging murderer to pro-life groups that oppose abortion, as well as to devout Christians who disagree with the removal of the Holy Bible and prayer from schools. The same folks also tend to be much more conservative in their politics, as well as traditional in their values and principles.
Conclusion
The relentless secularization of American society has created intensifying tensions around religion and race, socio-economic class, and gender. It manifests in many different ways and now touches every U.S. citizen. The resulting polarity has cultivated an environment that breeds much anger and frustration. People everywhere are now on edge and tempers are quick to explode.
Unfortunately, there are those like Mr. Houser who reach a breaking point. The real question is: What exactly are all of those other forces and sometimes hidden influences that pushed him to snap in such an anti-social way.
Sources
