Obama Gun Control Proposals Unveiled, Marking Biggest Legislative Effort In A Generation

[Matilda]

72. I'm very interested in your comments.

I feel a great deal of sadness for the young man, because I feel he was also let down by the system, and probably by his mother.

I have read - and this doesn't make it true - that he was a high-performing autistic boy, in the top class throughout his school years, but once an official diagnosis of autism was made, he was demoted from the top class, simply because of his autism, not because he wasn't capable of the work. An arbitrary decision, made without any personal considerations of where and how the boy might function to the best of his ability.

It appears his mother didn't quite know what to do - she tried home schooling, but that didn't work. (It takes particular skills to undertake that, and not everyone is able to. With the best will in the world, I doubt I could.) She was then considering sending him away to another school, which upset him because he thought she was trying to get rid of him. And with all this going on around her, the silly woman had a house full of guns.

And what about the father? Was he not interested in his son, or was he shut out? He apparently paid maintenance, but was he otherwise disengaged, willingly or otherwise?

I feel for all the children who died and their parents, and for all those who will bear the scars for the rest of their lives. But I also feel great sadness for this poor boy and can't help feeling that with a bit more care and thought from those who were supposed to be responsible for his welfare, this might never have happened. It is also an excellent argument for the greater control of guns in private hands – nobody with any sort of psychological problem should ever have access.