School Shooters Under the Influence

[lostinblue 1,989]

School Shooters Under the Influence of Psychiatric Drugs

At least 14 school shooters were under the influence of psychiatric drugs documented to cause mania, psychosis, hostility, aggression and homicidal ideation.

Fact: Despite 22 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, and dozens of high profile school shootings/killings tied to psychiatric drug use, there has yet to be a federal investigation on the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.

Fact: Between 2004 and 2011, there have been over 11,000 reports to the U.S. FDA’s MedWatch system of psychiatric drug side effects related to violence. These include 300 cases of homicide, nearly 3,000 cases of mania and over 7,000 cases of aggression. Note: By the FDA’s own admission, only 1-10% of side effects are ever reported to the FDA, so the actual number of side effects occurring are most certainly higher.

Fact: At least fourteen recent school shootings were committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs resulting in 109 wounded and 58 killed (in other school shootings, information about their drug use was never made public—neither confirming or refuting if they were under the influence of prescribed drugs.) The most important fact about this list, is that these are only the shooters where the information about their psychiatric drug use was made public. To give an example, although it is known that James Holmes, suspected perpetrator of a mass shooting that occurred July 20, 2012, at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, was seeing psychiatrist Lynne Fenton, no mention has been made of what psychiatric drugs he may have been taking. Also note that all these mass shootings didn’t just occur in the United States.

1.Huntsville, Alabama – February 5, 2010: 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown. Memon had a history for being treated for ADHD and depression. He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft and “other drugs for the conditions.” He had been seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.

2.Kauhajoki, Finland – September 23, 2008: 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. He was also seeing a psychologist.

3.Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system. He had been seeing a psychiatrist.

4.Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.

5.Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa ####### stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show ####### had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.

6.Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.

7.Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking “medication for depression”. He had previously seen a psychiatrist.

8.Wahluke, Washington – April 10, 2001: Sixteen-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. He had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.

9.El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School. He had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.

10.Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2001: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.

11.Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with the stimulant Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.

12.Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox. Klebold’s medical records remain sealed. Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling. Harris had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.

13.Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.

14.Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending “anger control classes” and was under the care of a psychologist.

For more information read Another School Shooting, Another Psychiatric Drug? Federal Investigation Long Overdue

From the comments section.....

Jennifer LeighI was diagnosed with anxiety years ago (although I was just diagnosed with a rare autonomic disorder) I was on over 25 different medicines at different times. The side effects on these medications are dangerous. There was one in particular called effexor that was being weened off of. The psychiatrist failed to mention that one of the side effects was suicide. Thank God that my husband was around because I cannot say that I would be alive today. I needed round the clock supervision. I found out after doing some research that a lot of patients had the same exact effects coming off this drug. I literally had to break open the capsule and take one itty bitty capsule and take it out. It took me almost a year to get off that drug. Combined with hard economic times, it is a recipe for disaster. My heart is broken for everyone affected by this tragedy.

Reply · 18 · Like· December 14 at 2:29pm

Doorway to Freedom

I went through the same thing withdrawing from Paxil, even though I went slow discontinuing. I felt 100 times more depressed than before I was put on it. I wanted to die. It took me 8 months to taper off of it. I met people in support groups that felt the same thing, and some that felt homicidal as well.

http://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Blame everything but the guns! Not the guns!

[bigdog 376]

You can't stop crazy. In each case someone knew they had problems and did nothing, those who knew should be prosecuted. If their are no guns they will find another way, knife, bomb, fire, stick etc.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Blame everything but the guns! Not the guns!

How many times do we need to go through this? Guns don't kill people, people kill people.......................................................................................................................................................with guns!!

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Nah, the only way this kid got INTO the school was guns. He wasn't being buzzed in, and he shot his way in. If he'd come armed with a knife or a baseball bat, he'd likely have been taken into custody before doing any harm to anyone.

So yes, unless he'd made a bomb of some kind, guns were his main option.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

School Shooters Under the Influence of Psychiatric Drugs

At least 14 school shooters were under the influence of psychiatric drugs documented to cause mania, psychosis, hostility, aggression and homicidal ideation.

Fact: Despite 22 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, and dozens of high profile school shootings/killings tied to psychiatric drug use, there has yet to be a federal investigation on the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.

Fact: Between 2004 and 2011, there have been over 11,000 reports to the U.S. FDA’s MedWatch system of psychiatric drug side effects related to violence. These include 300 cases of homicide, nearly 3,000 cases of mania and over 7,000 cases of aggression. Note: By the FDA’s own admission, only 1-10% of side effects are ever reported to the FDA, so the actual number of side effects occurring are most certainly higher.

Fact: At least fourteen recent school shootings were committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs resulting in 109 wounded and 58 killed (in other school shootings, information about their drug use was never made public—neither confirming or refuting if they were under the influence of prescribed drugs.) The most important fact about this list, is that these are only the shooters where the information about their psychiatric drug use was made public. To give an example, although it is known that James Holmes, suspected perpetrator of a mass shooting that occurred July 20, 2012, at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, was seeing psychiatrist Lynne Fenton, no mention has been made of what psychiatric drugs he may have been taking. Also note that all these mass shootings didn’t just occur in the United States.

1.Huntsville, Alabama – February 5, 2010: 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown. Memon had a history for being treated for ADHD and depression. He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft and “other drugs for the conditions.” He had been seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.

2.Kauhajoki, Finland – September 23, 2008: 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. He was also seeing a psychologist.

3.Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system. He had been seeing a psychiatrist.

4.Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.

5.Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa ####### stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show ####### had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.

6.Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.

7.Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking “medication for depression”. He had previously seen a psychiatrist.

8.Wahluke, Washington – April 10, 2001: Sixteen-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. He had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.

9.El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School. He had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.

10.Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2001: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.

11.Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with the stimulant Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.

12.Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox. Klebold’s medical records remain sealed. Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling. Harris had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.

13.Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.

14.Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending “anger control classes” and was under the care of a psychologist.

For more information read Another School Shooting, Another Psychiatric Drug? Federal Investigation Long Overdue

From the comments section.....

Jennifer LeighI was diagnosed with anxiety years ago (although I was just diagnosed with a rare autonomic disorder) I was on over 25 different medicines at different times. The side effects on these medications are dangerous. There was one in particular called effexor that was being weened off of. The psychiatrist failed to mention that one of the side effects was suicide. Thank God that my husband was around because I cannot say that I would be alive today. I needed round the clock supervision. I found out after doing some research that a lot of patients had the same exact effects coming off this drug. I literally had to break open the capsule and take one itty bitty capsule and take it out. It took me almost a year to get off that drug. Combined with hard economic times, it is a recipe for disaster. My heart is broken for everyone affected by this tragedy.

Reply · 18 · Like· December 14 at 2:29pm

Doorway to Freedom

I went through the same thing withdrawing from Paxil, even though I went slow discontinuing. I felt 100 times more depressed than before I was put on it. I wanted to die. It took me 8 months to taper off of it. I met people in support groups that felt the same thing, and some that felt homicidal as well.

http://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/

I know this is a dead argument, but why can't it be both? These mascacres are a combination of mental illness AND access to guns. And if you would remove assault rifles and limit how much ammo and firearms you could buy legally, most mentally unbalanced people wouldn't go to great lengths to kill large amounts of people unless your name is Jack Napier.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Nah, the only way this kid got INTO the school was guns. He wasn't being buzzed in, and he shot his way in. If he'd come armed with a knife or a baseball bat, he'd likely have been taken into custody before doing any harm to anyone.

So yes, unless he'd made a bomb of some kind, guns were his main option.

But, but, but, he could've used a car or a truck. Cause they're deadly weapons too. Do you have any idea how many people are intentionally killed by vehicles each year. The numbers are astounding! Google it!

[Teddy B 17,252]

I know this is a dead argument, but why can't it be both? These mascacres are a combination of mental illness AND access to guns. And if you would remove assault rifles and limit how much ammo and firearms you could buy legally, most mentally unbalanced people wouldn't go to great lengths to kill large amounts of people unless your name is Jack Napier.

Spot on Marvin! The only problem with this is that the gun nuts don't think rationally. All they care about is how much firepower they have. Cause the boogey man is comin yanno.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

I know this is a dead argument, but why can't it be both? These mascacres are a combination of mental illness AND access to guns. And if you would remove assault rifles and limit how much ammo and firearms you could buy legally, most mentally unbalanced people wouldn't go to great lengths to kill large amounts of people unless your name is Jack Napier.

Exactly.

[Harsh_77 718]

Blame everything but the guns! Not the guns!

So you would not wanna look at the root cause of the issue and just blame everything on the gun.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

So you would not wanna look at the root cause of the issue and just blame everything on the gun.

Where did I say that? I think guns and mental health care are the main problems that contribute to our violent society. Yet gun nuts only want to talk about one of those things. And it's not their guns.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Evylin

[Harsh_77 718]

Spot on Marvin! The only problem with this is that the gun nuts don't think rationally. All they care about is how much firepower they have. Cause the boogey man is comin yanno.

Same could be said about the anti gun nuts who just think restricting is the only solution.

When infact if you look at all these incident you find that there is problem with attackers mental health, no sane person would do something like this.

[Harsh_77 718]

Where did I say that? I think guns and mental health care are the main problems that contribute to our violent society. Yet gun nuts only want to take about one of those things. And it's not their guns.

Evylin read your first post, you are not willing to agree with the OP that yes the bigger problem we have is ppl have mental issue, maybe there is not enough resource available to them or do not want to get them addressed as it being the social taboo.

For this last incident should the guns be blamed or someone who knew this kid a problem and yet introduced him to gun.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Harsh_77

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Evylin – read your first post, you are not willing to agree with the OP that yes the bigger problem we have is ppl have mental issue, maybe there is not enough resource available to them or do not want to get them addressed as it being the social taboo.

For this last incident should the guns be blamed or someone who knew this kid a problem and yet introduced him to gun.

Read my posts again. I see two problems. The pro-gun crowd, like the OP, only wants to discuss ONE of those problems. They're willing to throw any solution out there as long as it doesn't mention the guns they love so much.

He chose guns for the same reason that most people choose guns when they want to do something like this - they're easy to get and provide the most casualties possible in a very short period of time.

They don't choose knives, or baseball bats, or cars. They choose guns. Because there are so many out there just ready to be used. The guns shouldn't have been in the home to begin with, but they were. Why? Because it's easy for people to acquire them. And lots of them.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Evylin

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Blame everything but the guns! Not the guns!

That's the NRA talking point.