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‘He was really paranoid…’

Every country has mentally ill people. Only America arms them, as Adam Gopnik writes.

The father of the UVa killer knew his son was ‘really paranoid’; he almost certainly also knew he had guns. (How many guns does the father own?) How many other people knew the killer was going nuts? UVa knew he told people he had guns on campus; the school knew as well that he’d been arrested for gun violations. No one did shit as an armed paranoid stalked the campus, and now a significant portion of the school’s football team is dead, in critical condition, or in recovery.

Here’s a close parallel: The sister of Phillip Adams knew he was, in her words, “aggressively” mentally ill – paranoid. He also had shitloads of guns.

Pretty much everyone knew Adams was right round the bend, but no one did shit.

“Going berserk with guns has become an American way of life,” writes Nathan Heller.

Like the UVa killer, Adams had been a college football player — at South Carolina State, which even after his mass murder of an entire family, including toddlers, maintains his hero page. Good ol’ Phil! He did it his way.

Another country might look at CTE ravaged paranoids with guns and restrict their access to weapons. Another country might find a way to commit them to long-term hospital care. America looks at them and says BRING ON MORE GUNS.

Margaret Soltan, November 15, 2022 9:51AM
Posted in: guns

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One Response to “‘He was really paranoid…’”

  1. University Diaries » God, Guns, and the Godswerve Says:

    […] Update: So many other examples. […]

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Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
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