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Yup, another shooting-killing spree in the States. The toll is up to 16 on this latest one so far.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30030756/?GT1=43001The odds are very slim that one will die in such an incident in the States. The danger is relatively miniscule and in a population of over 300 million, almost anything happens eventually..even repeatedly.
Even so, I am reminded of the many forum postings about whatever violent crime there is in Costa Rica and I don’t recall ever reading about mass killings. Whatever the sickness is which overtakes people and causes them to begin slaughtering others at random, it is apparently not present in Tico culture. Either that, or they just don’t have access to so many guns and bullets. Machetes are just not suited for mass killings buy an individual.
What’s NEVER publicized are the legal and very powerful prescription drugs that nearly all of these mass shooters were taking or have just stopped taking prior to their “incident.”
No doubt there will be more ‘timely’ calls for disarming the population for ‘our protection.’
Scott Oliver- Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comSprite
i think if you compared apples to apples.. population size etc.. i would have to say crime is higher here than in the states.. but i guess it really boils down to where you live.. thats a big factor.. a friend that owns a hotel in san jose 2 men entered the place with guns and robbed him.. this happened yesterday.. at 4pm in the afternoon. i have lived here and have lived in new york and in my years here i have been exposed to alot more crime than in my entire life.
i carry a gun here.. im mean i actually carry a legal gun here.. i would have never thought i would be one day carrying a gun.. go figure…
harlon
Edited on Apr 03, 2009 16:49
I am not sure what can be done about the powerful prescription drugs. But those drugs are present in Costa Rica along with the people for whom they are prescribed. Why don’t we see similar slaughters in Costa Rica? The big difference between Costa Rica and the States when it comes to mass killings seems to still be the quantity and ridiculously easy access of guns and ammo in the States. Add to that insanity a stressed out and fearful population and BINGO; you get a whole lot of violence.
How easy is it it get a gun legally in Costa Rica? I wonder what portion o the Costa Rican population owns guns compared to the United States. Whatever that number might be, I am pretty sure Costa Ricans are a whole lot less stressed out and fearful than all those gringos armed to the teeth.
The U.S population is nominally 300 million; Costa Rica’s is about 4 million — a 75:1 ratio. So if a comparison of the Costa Rican community to the American one really was an “apples-to-apples” comparison, then for every seventy-five of these mass killings in the U.S. we could reasonably expect one in Costa Rica. Of course, it depends on just which events you count (do we include a nurse killing numerous patients, for instance?), but in my experience and memory, there have been no such events here and a very disturbing number in the U.S.
Harlon, your experience, like mine, is just that — one person’s experience. And you and I are free to make of our experiences what we will. But you cannot begin to compare a two-man armed robbery of a hotel in San Jose, however upsetting, to a fourteen-fatality killing rampage in New York. That is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. Think about it . . . Would you rather be robbed at gunpoint or killed along with thirteen others? Or wounded?
David
you have a valid point and in regards to these types of mass killings. your right.. i have not yet heard of these things going on here. Not yet and hopefully not anytime soon….
but they do happen here on a smaller scale.. there are stories of people killing thier loved ones or crimes of passion or whatever and they wind up killing themselves at the end.
just for research read the dario extra everyday for 3 months.
we shall see as this country progresses as more and more events begin to take shape here regarding crime and how ineffective law enforcement here is.
criminals for lack of a better word have to be seeing how good the odds are here for commiting crimes and getting away with it.
i love this country and it saddens me to see this going on.. it even saddens me worse to see whats going on back in the good ole U.S. of A.
oh well..
pura vida
I have to say that we are comparing apples and oranges, but that neither is OK, obviously.
I see the big difference as this:
The “mass killings” that take place in the US, end up killing random victims, usually.
That is to say the the college student, or person waiting in line at a post ofice or bank, who ends up being a random victim, would have no expectation of being a target.
On the other hand, violent crime,on non Tico’s in Costa Rica is not so random.
My partner was walking down the street, 9:00 pm in Manuel Antonio a few months back, and was held up at gun point and robbed.
He was specifically targeted, and now can reasonably expect that there are criminals who will be targeting he, or others who are like him, only because they are non-Tico, and carry the expectation of having something of worth to steal.
He did not, which made him fear for his life since that seemed to agitate his attackers.
Should we carry around “getting robbed money” , a gun, don’t go out????
Granted, “mass killings” are more disturbing, and that’s why they make the news, and get dealt with, but regardless as to weather or not my partner was alone or was a part of a “mass holdup” it was still terrifying, and very much altered his feeling of safety in a place that in the past had always seemed safe.
We can only hope that the efforts made in Manual Antonio will make things safer in our future.
Apples or oranges, does it really matter?I think we need to stop thinking about the tool involved – the gun – and we must educate ourselves more about the cause which is a specific type of legal, prescription drug.
1. I challenge you to take a good look at [ http://ssristories.com/index.php ] and tell me you don’t think there is a HUGE connection between these kinds of legal drugs and these mass killings and hundreds of suicides!
2. Take a look at: THE SHOOTING DRUGS – PROZAC and its Generation EXPOSED
http://www.truebooks.com/prozac.html or at http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Drugs-Generation-Exposed-Internet/dp/0967307635
“This book shows how Prozac and related SSRI antidepressant drugs have been a danger to people ever since 1987, when Prozac was first introduced. The author was prescribed Prozac the following year, and barely escaped with her own life, from the nightmarish ordeal of having your mind so badly warped that you lose all perspective of reality and intrinsic moral values.
This book is coldly factual, well documented, yet profoundly moving, motivating, and perceptive. In summarizing all the high-profile killings, murders and suicides in the past 16 years from Prozac and related SSRIs, it is a definitive witness as to how pharmaceutical companies kept crucial data about the dangerous side effects of SSRIs under cover all along. It clearly exposes their sinister coverup.
Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Serzone, Luvox, Celexa, Effexor, Wellbutrin, and even Ritalin (amphetamine for kids) have cropped up at the crime scenes of so many school shootings, suicides, workplace massacres and other callous killings, that NO ONE can deny the truth any longer:
SSRI drugs actually cause people to kill, without feeling remorse, often with a smile, saying: “Sorry, but you deserve it.” This horrible truth is HARD to accept, especially for the news media, and the few people who may benefit from them.”
3. Prescription drugs are connected to school shootings and other violence, yet more drugs are touted as the solution… “Earlier this year, we had another one with 16-year-old Jeff Weiss, who went into his school on an Indian reservation and blew away 10 friends. And guess what? He was taking the antidepressant Prozac. “
http://www.naturalnews.com/020394.html
4. Google – shootings prozac – and read some of the 765,000 pages listed…
5. “(CNN) — The revelation from Steven Kazmierczak’s girlfriend that he had stopped taking an antidepressant a few weeks before his rampage at Northern Illinois University has reopened debate about whether the drug can cause violent behavior.” [ http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/25/antidepressants.violence/index.html ]
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comThe two factors in this to be considered are the tools and the people who use them. Whether or not the drugs are a contributor, it can’t be deinied that the main problem is the tool. How many single assasins have commited mass killings in one scenario without a gun?
We have seen killing sprees before these drugs existed.Edited on Apr 07, 2009 06:32
That’s exactly what I am denying – the main problem is not the tool.
Just the same as a car becomes a lethal weapon in the hands of a drunk, the main problem here is that these people own lethal weapons while under the influence of extremely powerful mind altering drugs.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comYou make a good point, sprite. There were these mass killings before the drugs Scott mentions were widely used. The unanswered question is about the incidence of such events given the size of the “pre-drug” population. To make a valid assertion about the influence of these drugs, one must take into account the overall growth of the population base.
It would also be important to know just how many of these mass murderers were actually using or had actually been using the drugs in question as opposed to how many we just assume to have been using them. I’ve never grasped the logic of asserting that some mass killer was on some sort of mood-altering prescription drug before any facts in that regard are available.
Too, when examining the influence of these drugs, one must also consider the expertise of the prescriber, another influence. It is all too easy for a physician with no specific training to prescribe a drug s/he is not really familiar with and then to fail to monitor its effect on the patient. Writing a prescription for a tranquilizer, for example, is a fast and easy way for a doctor to get rid of a problematic patient.
And finally, of course, one must take into account the lives that have been changed for the better through the use of these drugs. I’m no fan of mass murder. Don’t get me wrong. And I’m no fan of unnecessary overuse of any medication. But I have said before that we must recognize, too, the profound improvements in the lives of many, many people through modern mood altering medications. Sadly, sometimes there are tradeoffs.
Yet more people die each DAY from smoking related issues than are murdered annually by these folks…. and you can still buy cigarettes on any corner…. go figure!
As for the medication issue… Scott is quite correct. Many of these folks that go out murdering several people are (or have been) on some type of psych/mood medication. But it’s your classic chicken or the egg argument. Which came first, the mental defect that caused the desire the kill and thus the medication, or did the medication cause the subject to manifest this deadly desire.
No doubt a GOOD precentage of the public is over medicated… and many of these psych medications have questionable side effects and clinical studies supporting them… but medical science, and more importantly the drug companies don’t make money curing people… they make money maintaining them.
Edited on Apr 07, 2009 07:04
i agree with Scott, prescription drugs play a large role in all this. what many people don’t think about is what happens when one STOPS taking the anti-depressants or benzodiazepines or opioids. all those things suddenly stop flooding the brain with artificial neurotransmitters and the effects are dramatically worse than the original condition. take into account the erratic use of these drugs from someone who may or may not be “ill,” add that to an over-medicated population (especially youth), and i think it is absolutely a factor that has to be taken into consideration when these awful things happen.
If it is a combination of prescription drugs and guns, then we are in deep doo doo. The manufacturers of both of those “commodities” have deep pockets and active lobbyists and have purchased all the government they need to continue profiting off of the misery and ignorance of citizens.
Those of you who wish to lay blame for these mass killings at the feet of the drug manufacturers may be correct to do so. I don’t know. I continue to be astounded, however, at your collective ability to attribute this blame in specific cases in the absence of anything stronger than your own predisposition and speculation. Maybe the guy in Binghampton was high as a kite. I really don’t know. But when the first assertion that he was appeared here, neither did anyone else.
Maybe we need a new thread titled “Wild Speculation” and Scott and the other moderators can concentrate all this in one spot.
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