John Elder Robison wrote column on Asperger's & correlations to violence (none, by the way)

witzend

Well-Known Member
I've met many kids and adults with Asperger's, and I don't recall ever meeting anyone who wasn't a gentle soul.

There is so little verified information about this young man and his family. Making a connection with a possible Asperger's diagnosis just to sell ad space is very upsetting.

I just have a very difficult time discussing my feelings on this. It is a tragedy and an opportunity to converse about a vulnerability in our society. Or should I say "vulnerabilities"? I'm too used to getting pounced upon whenever I say anything, though.

I guess that the most that I can say and hope that everyone agrees is that the gun owner was irresponsible. I don't know how to fix that.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Obviously, there was a lot more going on than just Aspergers.

Having said that, because I believe Aspies are basically gentle, I still wouldn't teach my Aspie how to use guns. I would be more afraid he'd hurt himself than use it on others.
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
My gut is that AS are too self absorbed to think about others and certainly too self absorbed to hurt themselves.
I didn't allow difficult child to learn karate. I didn't think he needed to be armed in any way. Certainly no guns or any other violent tv.
Fortunately, difficult child is as gentle as they come. He makes a lot of noise when frustrated but is as kind as anyone I have ever met.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Ironically, John Elder had a shotgun when he was growing up. He got his brother out of the house by carrying it in and being forceful when their dad was having a rage. Of course, he never shot it. :)
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
I think John Elder's point, though, was that the link between violence and the person having Asperger's makes about as much sense as saying that people who drive white Camry cars rob banks - based on a few cases where this has been true. Co-incidental information does not indicate root cause or even a link. It may be pure chance.

Does being neurotypical cause people to be violent? There's at least as many NTs who are violent, as Aspies. But being Aspie doesn't guarantee being "gentle" either. It's... irrelevant.

Even with a MI such as Schizophrenia, there is a very VERY small percentage of the people with this illness who ever become violent. For a particular individual, the disease may be a factor in precipitating the violence, but the chances of a person with this MI becoming violent isn't much different from an NT. (We had a case in Canada a few years back where someone with this MI became violent).

It's so easy to try to blame things we don't understand, on conditions that we don't understand. In some ways, we haven't come very far in the last 8000 years or so.
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
I heard a forensic phycologist say yesterday that while asperger's is not a justification or reason for what happened, it could have been the cloak that preventing others from knowing what this disturbed young man was really feeling and thinking. His opinion was that, very often with asperger's, social and interpersonal relationships are difficult and this MIGHT have been something that just added to the mix.
 
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