Posted by Paul at September 14th, 2006

Regarding the crazed gunman at a Montreal college:

He posted several macabre quiz results on his blog that indicated that the had “a 84 per cent chance of going postal!” and that his “Probability of killing” was 86 per cent. - The Globe and Mail

Shouldn’t we monitor the online rantings of homicidally depressed young people? VampireLoners.net or TragicGothTeens.com — aren’t these just cries for help (ok, I made those names up, but you get the idea)? This kid was obsessed with weapons, hated everyone, and wrote about it on a website that openly catered to such types. Another obsession of his: a video game based on the Columbine massacre. That’s right, there’s a video game. A certain type of young person actually plays such a game when they’re not blogging about how they hope to die in a hail of gunfire. These school shooting incidents always have a well marked trail leading up to them that goes ignored. If a certain type of website draws a certain type of angry young loner then maybe we should keep an eye on it. He was practically begging anyone paying attention to notice how desperate and dangerous he was. Look at me! I’m gonna fuckin’ kill someone! But there was no one but other goth loners reading what he wrote, likely more inspired than panicked by his commitment to death.

By the way, I can understand a loner who withdraws from society or even one who takes his own life. But outwardly troubled young people like this guy think that everyone different than them should die violently. Their emotional growth was stunted at around age two — all Id and no superego. I find it hard to have any empathy for nutjobs who shoot at unarmed students. But we should take them at their word; potential mass murderers need to be treated as such.