Elliot Rodger: Crazy People do Crazy Things

Security footage from the local deli during the shooting

After the most recent school shooting in Isla Vista, California, I think it is finally time to re-evaluate our current gun control laws. Not only that, but in order to stop this kind of massacre in the future, we need mentally ill people not to have access to guns. If you are a bad person, who wishes to do bad things, and hurt innocent people, chances are
being a law abiding citizen is not high on your priority list.

Prohibition of anything has always led to an increased black market trade of that item. The major gangsters in the 20's and 30's capitalized on alcohol being banned by distilling and distributing it themselves. The failed War on Drugs was an opportunity to keep the underground drug market strong, therefore giving the DEA ridiculous amounts of funding. Now, with the prohibition of guns, we are seeing a rise in youth gun violence.

Elliot Rodgers, the UCSB college student who murdered six people last week, felt like he was not getting the sexual pleasure he so desperately desired. He then posted videos to YouTube, which subsequently were removed, about how he was going to kill everyone who made him feel left out or lonely. (i.e. the popular kids). So, Rodger's was posting to social media websites weeks before he did anything, why was nothing done? Why did no one in the school's administration listen to this kid's cry for help? This is not the NRA's fault, but instead, the fault lie's directly on the way in which we treat the mentally unstable. We, as a country, have to realize that some people are just crazy, and at any point could be an endangerment to our society. Crazy people will do crazy things. I know that is bold statement, but it is what I believe.

Check out my other blog about the Sandy Hook shooting, and please let me know what you think.

Depression: Can Ketamine Be The Cure?

As I conducted further research on my junior theme topic, depression, I came across this interesting article about a new, fast acting, potential anti-depressant. However, it is not what you may expect. In a recent Newsweek article, Victoria Bekiempis, explains that "A new, fast-acting antidepressant that works like the infamous club drug ketamine could elevate mood in just 24 hours" (Bekiempis). Ketamine? Special K? It couldn't be...

Oh but it is. Anti-depressants are effective, but only to patients who are majorly depressed, and those results take up to a month to actually formulate. So, if a suicidal individual needs immediate medical care, how could they wait any longer before a possible, positive outcome with the usual anti-depressants? It appears, even though the research has only been tested on animals due to FDA regulations, that ketamine may actually be an overnight cure. Along with psychotherapy, ketamine may be the cure to depression...

Now I hate saying the word cure, especially for an illness as complex as depression. But the research looks optimistic, and there are not many people opposed. If someone can receive as much, if not more, progress in his or her depression within a matter of days, rather than weeks, I would consider that a plus. But, like most things related to mental illness, only time will tell. And only when the big pharmaceutical companies find a financial gain in supplying ketamine, rather than Prozac or Zoloft, will they begin to actually invest in it.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below!