I don't even think "mental illness" fits into aspergers...aspergers and autism have close ties and don't hear anyone saying autism is a mental illness....but I'm no Dr.

I should have read your post before I wrote mine. :)

I read some of that. I am reserving judgement on the "prepper" business. Hmmm, who might have wanted THAT to be part of the picture? Being prepared in case of economic collapse when there are clear signs it could occur is not paranoia. I don't know enough about AS to say much, but I will say it is not unreasonable for someone with AS to know how to shoot a gun.

Being a prepper has nothing to do with paranoia..it has to do with being prepared. How do we know the guns weren't under lock and key and he got them out? We don't know if he's ever shown any signs of violence before (violence with an aspergers is not typical behavior, they lack empathy and do not understand others emotions or queue into facial expressions of others and are usually very smart in certain areas, and lack social skills), so perhaps there was no way for his mother to see this coming. I refuse to blame her. Everybody wants to place blame somewhere...guns, the Mom, the mental health professionals...how about we just blame the shooter? There will be more shooters, lets focus on how to stop shooters once their shooting...none of the rest who might "be to blame" won't matter in that moment anyway.... THAT'S the issue we need to address the most, and first.

As the facts come out this sounds more and more like a disaster waiting to happen. The shooter suffered from aspergergers syndrome. People with AS often do not have the emotion of guilt. The Mom was a doomsday prepper. She was hoarding supplies. The son was trained to shoot. Add paranoia, guns, and mental illness. What could go wrong/

Solutions or at least better options are always available, but ideologues do not have open minds and facts are unpersuasive to someone too emotionally driven to accept reason…

it's the first time I read about the mental health issues. Have you read that viral piece on I am (not writing the shooter's name anywhere to keep the infamy going) mother? Interestingly, it did not refer to guns-but anything that could be lethal. It was emotionally charged and hooked me at the beginning-but when I was done sloughing off the emotional part, you could sum it up as someone saying they needed help, the system needs to provide more, it's no one's fault, it's everyone's fault, and a desperate plea for Obamacare to ramp up mental health benefits. I'm being a little cynical here, but I saw lots of solutions in the drama described and not one of them involved public schools or government. :)

The tenor of the article brings to mind the quote from former Whitehouse chief of staff Rahm Emanuel—“Never let a crisis go to waste”. I do however believe that the mother, knowing she had a child in the house with mental issues, should have taken better precautions in securing the weapons against unauthorized use.