Texas shooting: Is this another example of mental illness?

[GoodThinkingMax]

On the Today programme earlier, a police officer from Texas mentioned that the young man "wore eyeshade" (I think he meant eye shadow) and sometimes wore a dress, and had trouble being accepted locally.

Is this another example - not of someone who thinks their trans, but of cross-sex identification being a symptom of deeper mental ill-health?

Not quite sure what I'm trying to think about here, just that what we're seeing at the moment is cross-sex dressing/presentation as some sort of indicator of a much deeper illness.

It's really sad, because I wish we could be moving back to the fluidity of the 1970s "hippies" and the acceptance of wearing whatever you feel like.

I know what a mass-murderer wears is probably trivial in the larger scheme of things, but this comment caught my ear.

I haven't followed this story very closely but I think the comments about the shooter being trans of some type, being brought up by his grandmother because his mother was a drug addict, having had a couple of previous run-ins with police, etc etc, are all efforts to prove that it is not the gun laws in the US that are at fault, it is mental health issues that lead to mass murders.

I have also heard that it is the fault of the dead childrens' parents because if they had sent them to a private school, the security is much better, and the gunman wouldn't have got in.

But, you know, having guns makes everyone safer, apparently.

It's an example of living on a country where humans have easy access to guns.

Lots of humans world wide have mental illness and do not murder.

The US attitude to gun ownership is an example of people with influence holding a belief that is almost religious in both its fervour and lack of evidential basis. This belief is so important that evidence that contradicts it will not be considered. Even if the collateral damage from protecting this belief is dead children.

...but yes, the move from the 70s/80s when there was far more scope to dress and look how you wanted without being forced into a regressive stereotyped box, is so depressing.

I think people who wish to dissociate from their birth sex and/or identity are often very troubled (although possibly not always). Wanting a new name, physical appearance and for everyone to regard you as being somehow 'born again' might be a sign of internalised self-hatred.

I think there are several mental illnesses which could result in behaviours which would look the same to a casual observer. I think that's what the original medical assessment of people wanting a GRC was about.

So some people who wear unusual clothes and behave in unusual ways have a mental illness or an underlying condition. Others are not.

It's back to the old question of whether we should be able to assess/recognise a man's motivation for being in women's spaces.

California law institute did a comprehensive study of school/mass/spree shooters of all ages & found that the common link between them ALL is a vehement hatred of women (80% had a history of domestic violence). Most killed a female relative/gf/wife immediately prior to the event www.californialawreview.org/print/a-profoundly-masculine-act-mass-shootings-violence-against-women-and-the-amendment-that-could-forge-a-path-forward/

Also reported here: www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/us/mass-shootings-misogyny-dayton.html

This most recent atrocity was commited by someone who killed their grandmother immediately before going on to shoot 19 children and 2 teachers.

There's no link to gender nonconformity / transgender people.(apart from, in this case, a transgender woman who was falsely identified and as a consequence attacked)

The met has a worryingly high number of officers being investigated for sex offences /murders/ violence. Ditto 80 (from memory) serving MPs. There is a proven link between domestic violence and mass killings. Not sure what good always focussing on trans people does for anyone (except the obvious bigots of course).

Yes @Foilball your figures support what I'd read somewhere along the line.

I've also read (was it Joan Smith's work?) that the perpetration of DV was a pretty common denominator with terrorists as well.

It's pretty shocking - this hatred of women. Something that's difficult to acknowledge and at the same time go about one's daily life in the presence of men we know, like, and love.

common link between them ALL is a vehement hatred of women (80% had a history of domestic violence).

I was just about to mention Joan Smith's work and see a PP did.

I've also read (was it Joan Smith's work?) that the perpetration of DV was a pretty common denominator with terrorists as well.

Joan Smith was discussed in re: the recent Plymouth shooting. This gives an overview.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/15/extreme-misogyny-ideaology-plymouth-killer-terrorist

I don’t think that men wearing dresses and makeup is a sign of mental illness, or in anyway links to a school shooting OP, no. I think this is quite a distasteful thread, children have died and you’re worried about men wearing dresses.

Male violence, and having easier access to guns than mental health care is the problem.

Thanks for this @Foilball

It’s being reported everywhere that this suggestion (that the murderer was trans) is fake news. www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna30511

This thread makes me uneasy. At this early stage with so much speculation out there, it seems crass to speculate on reasons for these terrible murders of so many children.