llama66 llama66:
it harkens to the need for a discussion about firearms in the states, not a 'lets take guns from everyone' discussion, but how can this be prevented. I believe education and better screening, and effecting a culture change.
That last part is going to be difficult because as we find out more about Vester the more he seems to be a creation of political correctness gone mad.
Yes, I believe he was mentally ill. I imagine a number of other people think so, too.
But what happened with this guy was that he was 1) gay 2) black 3) liberal Democrat 4) a reporter...and that combination made it all but impossible for anyone to do anything about him without being denounced, fined, prosecuted, fired, or sanctioned for being 1) homophobic 2) racist 3) redneck bigot 4) anti-media.
And Vester played all of those cards to the extreme.
He was highly litigious and has a string of lawsuits to his name. He's filed multiple complaints against various individuals, employers, and organizations for discrimination and retaliation. In his early years he had a lot of success with these claims and where he was mentally ill and clearly paranoid the success he had with these claims he saw his paranoia being
validated.
In his mind not only did he see other people persecuting him he had government agencies and courts
validating that perception.
So when his EEOC complaint against Alison was finally dismissed he had to take matters into his own hands because, after all, his perception was right and he'd been right up until this point. Edit: This point is illustrated in his Tweet:

If, as Vester asserted in his manifesto, that the Charleston church shooting set him off then it was only because the shooting validated his perception that white people were oppressing him and he saw the Charleston tragedy as validation of his personal paranoia.
Had the politically correct
nomenklatura not existed then this man would not have been shielded from being identified and diagnosed as an aggressive and violent paranoid schizophrenic - which is what he certainly appears to be. Had he been properly diagnosed then he'd have never been able to pass the background check to purchase a firearm.
But no one was brave enough to challenge the PC status quo to go after a gay, black, liberal, Democrat, reporter.
THAT is the culture that needs to change.
