FSU shooter fit no profile. Successful lawyer, children's advocate.

[madfloridian]

Myron May: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know


May’s Facebook profile pic.
Myron May has been named as the shooter who wounded three students during an attack on the Strozier Library on the Tallahassee campus of FSU. At 12:30 a.m., the gunman walked into the library and opened fire, wounding two students. Not long after the initial shots were fire was the shooter shot dead by responding police.

1. He’s a Lawyer Who Graduated From FSU

May is a lawyer who graduated from Florida State, class of 2005, and attended law school at Texas Tech, according to his Facebook page. He also studied at Gulf Coast State College. His social media page says that he’s the “In-house Legal Counsel at Taunton Family Children’s Home.” He’s a native of Dayton, Ohio, and but last lived in Wewahitchka, Florida.

BREAKING: FSU shooter Myron May went to FSU, Texas Tech, Phi Beta Sigma member – per African Amer Colleg. Schol. Fund pic.twitter.com/rUS7K859is

2. He Had Been Staying at the Home of a Prominent Florida Charity Worker


Abigail Taunton and her husband David were questioned by police after the shooting. (Facebook)

Prior to the shooting he had been staying at the home of Abigail and David Taunton, Florida-based real estate developers and head of the Taunton Family Children’s Home.

I guess this is right.

‘There’s No Profile of a School Shooter’

Broward College in Florida published an article, “The School Shooter: A Quick Reference Guide.” In it, it reads:

There is not a “profile of a school shooter-instead the students who carried out the attacks differed from one another in numerous ways. Shootings are rarely impulsive acts. They are typically thought out and planned in advance.

[FSogol]

1. Didn't he fit the profile of being a gun owner?

[snooper2]

4. no, he fit the profile of being a fucking asshole

[FSogol]

7. He didn't own a gun?

[snooper2]

8. beats me, he could have taken it from the people he was living with, bought it on the street corner

He doesn't immediately seem to fit the DU stereotype of your typical "gunz nutz" right?


Where is Hoyt when we need him

[GGJohn]

20. Gun owners are murderers?

No, he doesn't fit the profile of a gun owner and that's a stupid thing to say.

[FSogol]

22. Gun owners who shoot people and gun Owners who don't shoot people are both subsets

of gun owners. Sometimes, it is the company you keep.

[GGJohn]

23. That's not what your comment implies,

your comment implies that that maniac fits the profile of all gun owners, not a subset.
Maybe you need to edit your post to clear up what you actually meant.

[FSogol]

24. Maybe I need to not worry about what gun owners think and warn my kids to stay safe on campus.

[GGJohn]

25. Fine, carry on.

[sarisataka]

35. Those cornerstone

Progressive principles of prejudice and group judgment at work again

[Kurska]

27. People who kill people in the united states and people who drive cars are both subsets of people

in the united states.

Better give up your car or move, otherwise you are associating with people who murder.

Oh I have another one.

Not every gun owner kills people, but everyone who kills people drinks liquids. Ergo, by drinking liquid you are better correlated with murderers than by owning a gun.

Don't you just love guilt by association or as you called it "the company you keep"?

[sarisataka]

21. That begs the question

What is the profile of a gun owner?

[unblock]

2. the fact that it happened at 12:30am seems atypical.

and not what one might expect if the shooter had plotted for maximum body count.

i suspect a substance issue (along with the obvious mental issues).

[RebelOne]

3. Yes, substance use was my first thought.

If anyone has a mental issue, excessive drugs can cause the person to snap.

[phil89]

9. More uninformed nonsense

connecting mental illness to violence.

[Aerows]

14. Connecting substance abuse to violence

is valid. Just because someone is mentally ill doesn't mean they are more prone to violence, but people on drugs with or without mental illness ARE more prone to violence and doing impulsive, dangerous things.

[Lochloosa]

5. There were 300-400 students in the library at the time of the shooting.

[Warpy]

29. I strongly suspect a relationship issue

especially if he was the type whose relationships exist only in his own mind.

I'm sure what was really going on with him will surface over the next few days.

If he's bonkers, I hope he gets the help he needs. If he's not, then I hope they keep him in jail for a long time.

I'm tired of assholes who think they can fix their lives by shooting other people.

[Lurks Often]

31. The shooter was killed at the scene

by the campus police after he refused to drop the gun when ordered.

[bettyellen]

34. that or a job issue. One of the two usually comes out, sometimes both.

[tosh]

6. Oh, my. Wewahitchka....

aka: Weewah...

That community is seriously effed up. No jobs, abject poverty but for the few in the "owner" class. The meth problem there is astounding.

This is really sad.

[LeftinOH]

10. Lots religious postings on his FB page, and the people

he was staying with say he "had some issues". There hasn't been a spree-shooter yet who didn't exhibit some peculiar behaviour; it's just a matter of someone being close enough to him to recognize it. Maybe nobody really knew him that well.

Normally-functioning people don't 'snap' and do this sort of thing.

[dilby]

11. Oh great a black man shoots up a school just before the Ferguson decision.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck...... Bet Fox News is already having their Orgasm over this shit.

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. Sort of looks like you are, actually. nt

[dilby]

13. Sort of pisses me off that a shooting took place that will be exploited

at a fucking pinnacle time.

[H2O Man]

15. I'm sure that you'll agree

that it takes a very sick mind to connect the two events in any manner whatsoever.

[dilby]

16. Really because every cop connects a black man to a shooting.

Every fucking time a white person shoots up a school the first thing the Racist Gun Nuts say is there were X amount of shootings in Chicago last night. So now you have an instance that the fucking racists have been salivating for, I guarantee you will have someone connecting Ferguson to this before the day ends.

[madfloridian]

26. That was not even on my mind when posting this.

It is a tragic but fascinating event that merits a lot of closer attention.

[madfloridian]

17. Interesting website, video about Taunton children's home in Wewahitchka, FL

https://www.facebook.com/TauntonHome

This event has caught my interest.

[hfojvt]

18. I would argue that there IS a profile

If a very loose one.

1. Usually they don't have a significant other.

Obviously that is a loose profile, because millions of people are single, and some even like it that way - being single. But I would argue that being single creates more anomie. It is much easier to feel - "nobody loves me, my life sucks, I hate the world".

2. about the 2nd point (my life sucks) - they are not happy, not settled in a satisfying career.

Again, a loose profile because there are millions of unemployed. May seemed to be "successful". He had a law degree, but he didn't have a job, didn't have a home, and was about to file for bankruptcy. Again, anomie. Did not have a place in the world. Did not have the satisfaction of feeling useful and appreciated at work. If they also have seemingly "great ability" they feel even more like a "loser" when they fail in the work world. They went out to take on the world and the world smacked them around and knocked them on their a$$.

3. they don't have a pet.

When you have a dog, there is somebody who loves you and somebody who needs you, somebody who is by your side in the lonely trek through the valley of despair. Plus, if you are walking the dog, you are getting regular exercise, which is good for your mental health. And dogs are joyful creatures, getting excited about walks, car rides, treats. That joy rubs off on their owners.

4. this sh*t spreads through the TV.

People get ideas, do what they see other people doing. How many times have I read in the news about some dumb kid planning "the next Columbine" or saying "I am gonna be famous, like Jesse James or Bonnie and Clyde". See it on the TV, see how much attention the perp gets, and other people think "yeah, I am gonna do that too. All those self-absorbed happy people who don't give a sh*t about me, are gonna PAY. The cold cruel world is GONNA KNOW MY NAME!!!"

[Wella]

19. Was he on a psychotropic? (or had just come off one)?

Many of these cases seemed to be connected to mental illness and psychotropic meds that are used to treat them. Erich Harris, Seung Cho and many others were on (or just coming off) psychotropic medication for mental illness. A list is here:

http://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/

Whether the cause is the psychotropic or the mental illness itself is not clear.

[Kurska]

28. Or ya know, maybe crazy violent people tend to be put on medication. (Nice Scientology source btw)

Instead of the implication you're making which is medication causes shootings.

As a side note, you're using entirely the wrong word, psychotropic is just a drug that crosses the blood brain barrier and acts on the central nervous system. Caffeine is a psychotropic drug. You're either thinking of anti-psychotics or SSRI's (neither of which have been shown to increase violent behavior, especially in adults like this guy.). If you're going to insult an entire field of medicine by saying it is causing mass shootings, try to have idea on earth what you are talking about.

It also might be nice if you didn't use a source that thinks we ought to replace all the psychiatric medication with thetan removal therapy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights

[Wella]

30. That's an overreaction to post on the internet

But I'll bite.

1. No matter whatever you think of the website, their facts are documented. I don't dismiss certain websites out of hand.

2. The reports of major school shooters on various psychiatric drugs has shown up in the mainstream media.

Kip Kinkle: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/kip/cron.html

Michael McDermott: http://www.boston.com/news/daily/18/office_shootings.htm

Ivan Lopez: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=LJwpCKgLlN4

Seung Hui Cho: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/documents/vatechreport.pdf

Eric Harris: http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9904/29/luvox.explainer/

And there are more.

Add to that the fact that many anti-depressants and drugs for bi-polar disorder--which have not been tested on teens but are being increasingly prescribed for them--cause homicidal or suicidal behavior.

You can defend the meds all you want. You can get on my case for using an incorrect term. But that does not stop what has been happening.

And yes, I believe there is a connection. I have watched what certain anti-depressants can do to nice people. Personal experience has shown me that a lovely person with depression can have completely uncharacteristic homicidal urges when given an anti-depressant. Yes, I have watched it happen.

The meds are crude instruments at best. When used, untested, on teenage boys, they can lead to homicide. There is a reason that so many of these shooters come from affluent homes: those are the ones that can afford the psychiatric care.

[Kurska]

33. At least you are using the right word now.

You're presenting the assertion that because some school shooters were on meds the meds could have caused them to do the school shooting.

So if there is a causal link, why is it functioning for only a tiny sliver of the population? These drugs are given to millions of people, if they are strong enough to make people kill why aren't we swamped with millions of murders? Gee, you think it might actually be that the kind of people who get put on psychiatric drugs tend to have the kind of problems in their lives or personality issues that might make them represent a statistically higher percentage of school shooters than the general population? Maybe correlation isn't causation, like they teach you in any basic statistics course.

"Add to that the fact that many anti-depressants and drugs for bi-polar disorder--which have not been tested on teens but are being increasingly prescribed for them--cause homicidal or suicidal behavior. "

Okay, even if I accepted your premise, which is that SSRI's (which are what you are actually talking about don't know if you know that) cause homicidal or suicidal behavior, how would you know that it does that in teens if they haven't been tested on teens (they have actually, of course they have they wouldn't be prescribing them is they hadn't).

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cap.2006.0138

Metanalysis of many different studies that found no link (in fact a reduction) in aggression for teens when on prozac vs. placebo.

Meanwhile, Lithium (the drug used for bi-polar disorder) is a mood stabilizer that reduces both aggression and suicidal thoughts. That is the point of the damn thing, it makes bipolar people better.

These drugs aren't untested, they are generally safe (just like how any medication can cause a bad reaction) and have clinically significant helpful effects. I don't care about your anecdotes when the newest and best evidence is showing that the hysterical reactions of people to early studies are being disproved by newer and more comprehensive research across several studies.

This is just like the vaccines cause autism business. A few early studies raise the alarm, science investigates it finds there isn't a problem and yahoos like the church of Scientology pimp old data,, cherry picked correlations and anecdotes to attack modern medicine.

[Sancho]

32. Unfortunately, this is going to be a big week for my generic post...see #2.

People Control, Not Gun Control

This is my generic response to gun threads where people are shot and killed by the dumb or criminal possession of guns. For the record, I grew up in the South and on military bases. I was taught about firearms as a child, and I grew up hunting, was a member of the NRA, and I still own guns. In the 70’s, I dropped out of the NRA because they become more radical and less interested in safety and training. Some personal experiences where people I know were involved in shootings caused me to realize that anyone could obtain and posses a gun no matter how illogical it was for them to have a gun. Also, easy access to more powerful guns, guns in the hands of children, and guns that weren’t secured are out of control in our society. As such, here’s what I now think ought to be the requirements to possess a gun. I’m not debating the legal language, I just think it’s the reasonable way to stop the shootings. Notice, none of this restricts the type of guns sold. This is aimed at the people who shoot others, because it’s clear that they should never have had a gun.

1.) Anyone in possession of a gun (whether they own it or not) should have a regularly renewed license. If you want to call it a permit, certificate, or something else that's fine.
2.) To get a license, you should have a background check, and be examined by a professional for emotional and mental stability appropriate for gun possession. It might be appropriate to require that examination to be accompanied by references from family, friends, employers, etc. This check is not to subject you to a mental health diagnosis, just check on your superficial and apparent gun-worthyness.
3.) To get the license, you should be required to take a safety course and pass a test appropriate to the type of gun you want to use.
4.) To get a license, you should be over 21. Under 21, you could only use a gun under direct supervision of a licensed person and after obtaining a learner’s license. Your license might be restricted if you have children or criminals or other unsafe people living in your home. (If you want to argue 18 or 25 or some other age, fine. 21 makes sense to me.)
5.) If you possess a gun, you would have to carry a liability insurance policy specifically for gun ownership - and likely you would have to provide proof of appropriate storage, security, and whatever statistical reasons that emerge that would drive the costs and ability to get insurance.
6.) You could not purchase a gun or ammunition without a license, and purchases would have a waiting period.
7.) If you possess a gun without a license, you go to jail, the gun is impounded, and a judge will have to let you go (just like a DUI).
8.) No one should carry an unsecured gun (except in a locked case, unloaded) when outside of home. Guns should be secure when transporting to a shooting event without demonstrating a special need. Their license should indicate training and special circumstances beyond recreational shooting (security guard, etc.).
9.) If you buy, sell, give away, or inherit a gun, your license information should be recorded.
10.) If you accidentally discharge your gun, commit a crime, get referred by a mental health professional, are served a restraining order, etc., you should lose your license and guns until reinstated by a serious relicensing process.

Most of you know that a license is no big deal. Besides a driver’s license you need a license to fish, rent scuba equipment, operate a boat, or many other activities. I realize these differ by state, but that is not a reason to let anyone without a bit of sense pack a semiautomatic weapon in public, on the roads, and in schools. I think we need to make it much harder for some people to have guns.

[GGJohn]

36. Let me address that.

1. Fine, let's make it a national license, good for 6 years, no renewal fees, good for all states.

2. Background check is fine, but no on the mental health check, no on the references from family, friends or employers.

3. Safety test is ok by me, but not for every gun you own.

4. Why is it ok to carry a firearm in the military at age 18 but not in civilian live? No on that one too.

5. I don't mind liability insurance, it would be dirt cheap anyway.

6. On the fence about that one, but waiting periods? No, we already have instant check, that's good enough.

7. On the fence on that one, but I could live with it if instituted.

8. NO. I'm wholly in favor of citizens being able to carry concealed if they so choose and are eligible by law.

9. I can live that.

10. Most of that is already law, but no serious relicensing process, if cleared, they should be returned forthwith with no strings attached.

Most of you know that a license is no big deal. Besides a driver’s license you need a license to fish, rent scuba equipment, operate a boat, or many other activities. I realize these differ by state, but that is not a reason to let anyone without a bit of sense pack a semiautomatic weapon in public, on the roads, and in schools. I think we need to make it much harder for some people to have guns.

Here's where you make your mistake by trying to compare a firearm license to a driver's license etc., owning a firearm is a right, not a privilege.

[aggiesal]

37. What about those cystal bath salts ...

that stuff makes you do some really crazy things.