OK, I'll bite here and play some devil's advocate.
What prescriptions are they on? Zoloft, 50mg. Diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
What’s their home life like? Stable.
What were the warning signs? Loved "the army." Always drew army tanks and drawings. Liked to dress in camouflage and military surplus clothing.
Tell us about their family afterward?
What video games and types of media were they involved in? Loved playing the Grand Theft Auto, SOCOM, and Metal Gear Solid series video games. Thoroughly enjoyed computer real-time strategy games.
The above answers trip 3 of 5 of your warning signs - that's 60%. Someone might say that person was "highly likely" to commit an act such as a school shooting. How can we ignore such strong warning signs?!
I'll even throw in one more question you didn't pose: "Were firearms accessible in the house?" with an answer of "yes." Now the likelihood goes to 4 of 6 and 66%.
That person I described above...is me. Yet I have never shot up a school or done anything violent. My point is simply that we have warning signs all over the place but how do you assess their validity? And the unfortunate answer is, I do not know. I think about this a lot, and I just don't know.
Someone mentioned the "nuclear family" and I think that has a lot to do with it. Parents assume responsibility for their children and are actively interested in their lives and development. I was fortunate to be raised by loving and responsible parents. Were they perfect, no, but they were loving and taught me a lot. Parenting is not a hands-off profession.
I could go on for hours but instead, I'll say this situation breaks my heart and I do find myself questioning some of my values because of it. I believe it's a "poor mechanic that blames his tools" yet it's hard to sit back and see schools get shot up using these "tools" that are held so near and dear to many people's hearts.
