And
so it begins…another shooting, another school, another student with a grudge
and a gun, another body count and another 72 hours of MSM 24/7 Redundant
Coverage featuring the same cast of media, political, social media and law
enforcement “experts” showcased on the Evening News with the tears of relatives
and near-victims, sotto –voice anchor interviews of “how do you feel…?” and
“what was it like…?”, surrounded by non-stop re-runs of every cell phone vid
available providing it shows at least a whif of the Horror From Within.
Once
the essential Who, What, Where and When facts are announced (49 seconds, tops),
more bloviating follows in the form of conjecture, idealistic rhetoric and
hypotheticals mixed with predictable mis- and disinformation intended to
fortify a political agenda. Out come the Same Old Same Old “solutions” that
either violate the Constitution or other (HIPPA) laws or cost incalculable
amounts of unavailable revenue and “political will”.
Eventually,
the tragedy tails out in a cloud of “Why’s” and “If Only’s” – until the next
time.
Rinse.
Repeat. The script writes itself.
The
Missing Link – Pragmatic Answers – remain hidden. The only tangible results are
in the heart-breaking frustration of the survivors and snarky political points
scored by the Usual Suspects who come out their holes to claim a few minutes of
Fame.
After
50 years toiling in “The Business”, covering the violence of civil rights
demonstrations, anti-war riots, suicides and a panalopy of murders and mayhem,
the only significant change in coverage has been method and tone. The speed of
new technology hasn’t added a wit (or half-wit) of fact-based curiosity to
Network News departments unless it’s Trump-Russian. Individual reporters who
have the elusive Investigative gene are rare and generally kept in strict
isolation until needed.
Against
this background, it was whiplash-startling today to witness a rare Live,
on-camera revelation of the Missing Link! But first, see if you can spot it
hiding in plain sight while studiously ignored by the integrity-challenged
management of the Fourth Estate.
Consider
the following history:
Eric
Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine
school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher and
wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have
never been made available to the public.
- Jeff
Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the
average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his
grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota.
He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.
- Cory
Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil
(which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high
school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.
- Chris
Fetters, age 13, while taking Prozac, killed his favorite aunt.
- Christopher
Pittman, age 12, murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft.
- Mathew
Miller, age 13, hung himself in his bedroom closet after taking Zoloft for
6 days.
- Kip
Kinkel, age 15, (on Prozac and Ritalin) shot his parents while they slept
then went to school and opened fire killing 2 classmates and injuring 22
shortly after beginning Prozac treatment.
- Luke
Woodham, age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two students,
wounding six others.
- Michael
Carneal (Ritalin), age 14, opened fire on students at a high school prayer
meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five
others were wounded.
- Andrew
Golden, age 11, (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14, (Ritalin) shot 15
people, killing four students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others.
- TJ
Solomon, age 15, (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers, Georgia opened
fire on and wounded six of his classmates.
- James
Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood, South
Carolina, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school killing
two young girls and wounding seven other children and two teachers.
- Elizabeth
Bush, age 13, (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting in
Pennsylvania
- Jason
Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) – school shooting in El Cajon, California
- Jarred
Viktor, age 15, (Paxil), after five days on Paxil he stabbed his
grandmother 61 times.
- Chris
Shanahan, age 15 (Paxil) in Rigby, ID who, for no apparent motive, killed
a woman.
- Jeff
Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin), Huntsville, AL, killed his parents as they
came home from work using a sledgehammer, hatchet, butcher knife and
mechanic’s file, then attacked his younger brothers and sister.
- Kevin
Rider, age 14, was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a gunshot
wound to his head. Initially, it was ruled a suicide, but two years later,
the investigation into his death was opened as a possible homicide. The
prime suspect, also age 14, had been taking Zoloft and other SSRI antidepressants.
- Alex
Kim, age 13, hung himself shortly after his Lexapro prescription had been
doubled.
- Diane
Routhier was prescribed Welbutrin for gallstone problems. Six days later,
after suffering many adverse effects of the drug, she shot herself.
- Billy
Willkomm, an accomplished wrestler and a University of Florida student,
was prescribed Prozac at the age of 17. His family found him dead of
suicide – hanging from a ladder at the family’s home in July 2002.
- Kara
Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter, age 12, was on Paxil when she hung herself from a
hook in her closet. Kara’s parents said “…. the damn doctor wouldn’t take
her off it and I asked him to when we went in on the second visit. I told
him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to Paxil…”)
- Gareth
Christian, Vancouver, age 18, was on Paxil when he committed suicide in
2002, (Gareth’s father could not accept his son’s death and killed
himself.)
- Julie
Woodward, age 17, was on Zoloft when she hung herself in her family’s
garage.
- Matthew
Miller was 13 when he saw a psychiatrist because he was having difficulty
at school. The psychiatrist gave him samples of Zoloft. Seven days later
his mother found him dead, hanging by a belt in his closet.
- Kurt
Danysh, age 18, and on Prozac, killed his father with a shotgun. He is now
behind bars, and writes letters, trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs
can kill.
- Woody
__, age 37, committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking Zoloft.
Shortly before his death, his physician suggested doubling the dose of the
drug. He had seen his physician only for insomnia. He had never been
depressed, nor did he have any history of
- Hammad
Memon, age 15, shot and killed a fellow middle school student. He had been
diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft and “other drugs
for the conditions.”
- Matti
Saari, a 22-year-old culinary student, shot and killed 9 students and a
teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was
taking an SSRI and a benzodiazepine.
- Steven
Kazmierczak, age 27, 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 amounts of
Xanax in his system.
- Finnish
gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, age 18, had been taking antidepressants before
he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School –
then he committed suicide.
- Asa
Coon, Cleveland, age 14, shot and wounded four before taking his own life.
Court records show Coon was on Trazodone.
- Jon
Romano, age 16, on medication for depression, fired a shotgun at a teacher
in his New York high school.
Missing
from list… 3 of 4 known to have taken these same meds:
- Jared
Lee Loughner on, age 21…… killed 6 people and injuring 14 others in
Tuscon, Az?
- James
Eagan Holmes on, age 24….. killed 12 people and injuring 59 others in
Aurora Colorado?
- Jacob
Tyler Roberts on, age 22, killed 2 injured 1, Clackamas Or?
- Adam
Peter Lanza on, age 20, Killed 26 and wounded 2 in Newtown Ct?
Only readers lacking that
keen sense for the obvious will miss the culprit here. Kudos to Herb London,
President of the London Center for Policy Research. Appearing
on Fox Business News with Stuart Varney, who plainly stated he had no answers,
asked London for his take and received this response:
“ Three-fourths of the population
of the United State is taking psychotropic drugs. But all we focus on are guns.
Violence is built into the very nature of popular culture. Entertainment?
Violent. Rap music? Violent. It’s all around us. We in the US tend to ignore
these matters and look at one issue: guns. But it’s not just guns, it is an
environment where violence is promoted.”
Two
reasons News Outlets are terminally reluctant to connect the dots between
school mass murders and kids on prescribed drugs like those listed above:
1.
The old Newsroom cliché cum axiom:” If It Bleeds, It Leads.”
Nothing seizes the Viewers’ attention than an Anchor’s piously intoned trope:
“We must warn our viewers, some scenes may be difficult to watch…”. (Ratings =
Advertising Revenue)
2.
Advertising Revenue
When
you ingest your next full helping of ABCCBSNBCCNNFOX News, observe the number
of commercials for Viagra, SeeAlice, Lipizzaner, FaithandBegorium and a
medicine chest full of other strangely named pills and liquids with Warning
Disclaimers speed-read by the off-stage announcer. Do you think Pfizer (Prozac,
Zoloft, Xanax), Paxil, Wellbutrin (GlaxoSmithKline), Ritalin (Novartis),
Lexapro (Forest), Luvox (Abbott Labs) , Ambien (Sanofi) would appreciate having
their advertising dollars spent on reporting they may be the manufactures of
certain medications occasionally having serious anti-social side-effects on
young patients? Similarly, would health care providers and their doctors want
similar exposure?
While
there is an understandably strong public resistance to having personal medical
records revealed to an over-reaching government in order to exercise the basic
human right to bear arms, there may be a more acceptable way for the
prospective firearms purchaser and his/her doctor to acknowledge any prescribed
psychotropic medications. Ignoring the information will go a long way in
failing to find a workable solution that everyone wants: protection of freedom
and the innocent without sacrificing either. Right now, none of the old
worn-out “solutions” are workable or acceptable in what is purported to be a
“Free Society”.
Let
the discussion begin. This time let’s include the previously Missing Link.
Brian
Wilson [send
him mail], nationally ignored talk show host and occasional LRC
un-indicted co-contributor, is currently taking a break from his daily
annoyance of miniscule audiences and concentrating his efforts on the Libertas
Media Project, a multi-media Internet news distribution and
discussion center from his technically challenged studios on the shores of
Smith Mountan Lake, Virginia.
Previous
article by Brian Wilson: Consistent Inconsistency
