Students' rights weighed as colleges try to assess threats

[RPB]

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Students' rights weighed as colleges try to assess threats
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

Not directly about campus carry, so put in off topic.
"didn't connect the dots"
Most still haven't.

[Excaliber]

This is a good article that does a pretty good job of outlining the challenges surrounding early detection and intervention in cases of potentially violent individuals.

When used by rational professionals with hands on experience in dealing with violence, they're a very useful tool for preventing incidents.

When used by the untrained or individuals with agendas beyond protection of people on campus, it's like giving the keys to a bulldozer to a 9 year old.

[The Annoyed Man]

I've got an even better idea. Loughner had a fight with his dad on the way out of the house. His dad knew he was crazy. Why didn't his dad call the police, knowing that his son was spinning into psychopathy? I'm not saying that his dad is responsible for the shooting, but surely he was aware of his son's mental status. Loughner fled from his father onto a dry lake bed, carrying a "go-bag" full of magazines for his Glock, and shouting that he was going to do something drastic. His bag, or one resembling it and full of pistol magazines, was later found out on that lake bed. He was stopped by police and issued a traffic citation just an hour before the shooting. If there had been an all-points bulletin issued, perhaps that traffic stop would have intercepted him before he could carry out his mission.

There are lots of what-ifs, but the bottom line is that disturbed students have families who ought to be in toch with whatever is happening in their children's lives.



I think there is a desensitizing effect that comes from living with varying degrees of abnormal behavior over a long period of time. What would appear to an outsider as an obvious crisis often looks a lot like things that have happened many times before with no following drastic events.

In this case it would appear that the family let an important opportunity to prevent a tragedy slip through their fingers, especially in light of the fact that the shooter was later stopped by an LEO but let go because he had no reason to do otherwise. I'd figure they're second guessing their actions at least as much as we are.