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Big story out of University of Central Florida.

The most macabre headline is this one, in USA Today:

EXPLOSIVE DEVICES, CORPSE, FOUND ON UCF CAMPUS

A dorm was evacuated, and the campus closed, after – in response to a 911 call – police found a dead person in a dorm room and, near him, an assault weapon and improvised explosive devices.

This is a big story because it’s part of an emerging new normal for certain disturbed Americans. UD guesses that this suicide had in mind going out with a bang, as in Aurora and Sandy Hook. For whatever reason, though, he decided to skip the part where he murders forty people, and instead went straight to killing himself.

Margaret Soltan, March 18, 2013 7:42AM
Posted in: headline of the day

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6 Responses to “Big story out of University of Central Florida.”

  1. Alan Allport Says:

    I think I remember reading somewhere that suicide narratives are gendered: women tend towards intimate, inwardly directed deaths (pills, usually) whereas men quite often seek out the most public and exhibitionistic way to kill themselves because their violent tendencies are centrifugal (if they are to die then other people must pay too). Which means that the access angry and disturbed young American men have to weapons of mass destruction – and let’s face it, that’s what a semi-automatic rifle with a high-volume magazine is – is especially dangerous.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Alan: Sadly, part of some women’s suicides can also involve killing, or trying to kill, their children, as in the recent much-discussed case in New York City.

  3. Alan Allport Says:

    Sure, and we’re talking about tendencies, not certainties. But even then, I’d argue that a mother’s decision to knowingly kill her own child is a way of turning the most intense pain imaginable on herself. Women are not so much into killing strangers; that’s a man thing.

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Agreed.

  5. dmf Says:

    not so new events for those of us in public mental health but the news (especially national) coverage is a new dimension, welcome to the back wards…

  6. dmf Says:

    not sure if I should feed this beast but:
    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/18/17359872-student-found-dead-in-florida-dorm-room-planned-campus-attack-police-say?lite

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