Most Americans have a wonderful sense of freedom and independence, but this can be a double-edged sword for individuals who are experiencing mental health problems. On the positive side many feel that if they work hard enough, study hard enough, and make sacrifices the sky is the limit as to what they can accomplish, and that win or lose they control their fate. On the negative side there are those who interpret this freedom as taking the law into their own hands.
Many if not most people have had the fleeting fantasy of "getting even" with those who we feel have wronged us, but most of us are able to control the impulse, weigh the cost and benefit of such an action, and get beyond it.
Indeed images of "vigilante justice" abound in our society, from movies like "Death Wish," "The Basketball Diaries," and most recently "Law Abiding Citizen," to video games where you literally hunt down characters that have hurt you or your family and "make them pay" which includes torturing and mutilation.
On August 5th of this year I was asked to give expert commentary on the Omar Thornton mass murder in Hartford Connecticut for a television news program. Mr. Thornton, 34, you might recall, worked at Hartford Distributors, a beer and wine distributing company in Hartford Connecticut. Mr. Thornton was allegedly caught on video stealing beer and was called into a disciplinary hearing concerning the incident.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Mr. Thornton excused himself to go to the men's room. When he returned, he shot and killed eight coworkers with two loaded handguns he had hidden-then turned the gun on himself. Immediately after killing his coworkers Mr. Thornton called 911 and spoke to a dispatch officer, giving his justification for committing the act of violence as experiencing racism by his coworkers. He stated to the dispatch officer:
"You probably want to know the reason why I shot this place up. Basically this is a racist place, they treat me bad over here. They treat all other black people bad over here, too, so I just took things into my own hands and handled the problem. I wish I could have gotten more of the people."
On Tuesday, December 14th, only a little over four months after the Omar Thornton shooting, we saw Clay Duke, 56, in Panama City Florida go on a shooting rampage before finally taking his own life. He stated that his reason for committing this act of violence was that his wife, a teacher, was fired, presumably by the Panama City school board whom he targeted. The whole incident was caught on video and you can see that Mr. Duke first drew a circle with a large V overlapping it, creating a symbol used in the movie "V For Vendetta." In fact according to several reports Mr. Duke also used the symbol on his Facebook page where he left some clues as to his recent state of mind and his reason for committing this act, including the following statement which he allegedly wrote about two weeks prior to the shooting;
"Some people (the government-sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V)... no... I was just born poor in a country where the wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 90% of the population. Rich Republicans, rich Democrats...same-same... rich... they take turns fleecing us... our few dollars...pyramiding the wealth for themselves...."
In almost every case of rampage violence, after all the dissection and discussion, three factors appear to emerge as most commonly present:
1, Feeling Marginalized/Victimized
It is important to understand that the operative word here is "feeling" marginalized/victimized. Whether or not other people, bystanders, witnesses, agree that this victimization was occurring is irrelevant. The individual is clearly experiencing this as real, and in their mind they are justified in extracting retribution. After Columbine several students and teachers stated that the two shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, were never bullied. However, when reading their journals it becomes obvious that they both "felt" marginalized and/or bullied at different times. In all the cases we see the shooters extracting what they perceived as vengeance in an act of vigilante justice.
The bottom line is that if these rampage shooters didn't see the people they were killing as monsters then that would make THEM the monster hurting and killing innocent people, and nobody wants to be seen as a monster by their family and friends who are left behind.
2, Suicidal Thoughts/Plans
There is a wonderful proverb that says "Beware the man with nothing to lose." It is likely that the biggest distinction between those who fantasize about extracting vengeance and those who actually carry out these acts of vigilante justice, is that those who carry out the acts have no intention of being around after the fact to face any consequences for their actions. We certainly see this in all of the cases above.
3, Access To Firearms
This is in no way a condemnation of our Second Amendment rights. It's simply a fact. When a suicidal individual begins to ruminate on his feelings of being victimized and sees individuals of a group as the source of his perceived suffering and pain, the addition of firearms to this mix can be deadly.
We live in a country that applauds individual freedom. Our politicians use catch phrases like "maverick" and "rebel" to rally voters for their campaigns, and we teach our children to think for themselves and not "follow the pack." While individualism is part of the fabric of our nation, we have to be aware of those individuals who have lost reason and who can no longer discern the difference between justice and vengeance.
