Webloggin » Update: Fox News - Killer on Meds - NIU Gunman Identified: 27 Year Old Steven Kazmierczak, Follows Rash of Campus Shootings Across the Nation

Killer being reported as “being off his meds” by Fox News.

DEKALB, Ill — The university gunman who shot and killed five students in a Northern Illinois University lecture hall and then killed himself had been acting erratic in the last few weeks since he stopped taking medicine for an undisclosed condition, police said.

That is the extent of the details but once again we are faced with the possibility of another killing where someone knew that the eventual killer may have been emotionally unstable to point of needing meds. I note however that Fox did not specify what kind of medicine so it could be something entirely different.

Authorities are releasing the identity of the NIU gunman that killed 6 people and wounded 12 others before taking his own life in a NIU auditorium. His name is Steven Kazmierczak, a 27 year old graduate student from Northern Illinois who supposedly had transferred to UofI recently.

According to the Chicago Tribune he was the vice-president of the NIU Academic Criminal Justice Association in 2005 and had written a paper on self injury in prisons and suicidal behaviors. This was apparently something of an obsession as he lived out his own suicidal fantasy.

I hope the media doesn’t glorify this piece of crap by giving his writings some sort of extended platform as they did in the Virginia Tech Shootings.

Fox News TV noted that this most recent campus shooting follows a rash of shootings on campuses across the country.

On Feb 8, 2008 a deranged woman killed two students and then herself in a classroom.
On Feb 11, 2008 a 19 year old student at a Memphis Tennessee High School shot and critically injured a fellow student during gym class.
In December of 2007 a 14 year old student at a junior high school shot and killed a fellow student after a personal dispute.

Many people are jumping on the ban guns bandwagon which is fine from a rhetorical point of view but I see things differently. The Webloggin Editor was telling me how they used to have gun and archery clubs when he was in school. Shootings on campuses were much less common place in the past.

I see this as a societal problem. Ironically most of the people on an agenda to ban guns are the same people on the left that turn a blind eye to violence in movies, videos and video games. It is a simple fact that the entertainment industry glorifies drug use and violence. Rap videos in particular have glorified the gang banger persona. There is no disputing that this has a detrimental effect on society in my mind.

School shotting are far from isolated although they tend to be on a smaller scale. I found a list of recent high school killings here.

Gibsonton, Florida. December 17, 2007. Three East Bay High School students shot
two other students as they were walking home from their bus stop. The two groups of
students had clashed previously.

Las Vegas, Nevada. December 11, 2007. Two assailants using 9-millimeter and .45-caliber guns shot six people as they exited a Mojave High School bus. The attack followed a fight at school earlier in the day.

Oakland, California. December 11, 2007. Three teens were shot after a basketball game at McClymonds High School in a drive-by shooting.

Lagrangeville, New York. November 29, 2007. Three Hudson Valley High School students were arrested for planning a Columbine-type attack and making threats online.

Holland Patent, New York. November 26, 2007. Two Holland Patent High School students shot a gun on a school bus after having possession of it for the entire day of school. Nobody was injured but the shooting was intentional.

Beaufort, SC. November 20, 2007. An 18-year-old shot a 17-year-old student in the Battery Creek High School parking lot after a basketball scrimmage.

Saginaw, Michigan. October 25, 2007. Two Arthur Hill High School students and two adults were shot by another student as they left a middle school football game.

Portland, Oregon. October 12, 2007. Two teens from Jefferson High School were shot when a gunman fired into a crowd of students that had gathered after the end of their Homecoming Dance.

Cleveland, Ohio. October 10, 2007. A 14- year-old student shot two teachers and two students at SuccessTech Academy before killing himself. He had been suspended for fighting earlier in the week and had threatened to harm other students and blow up the school previously.

Our elected officials will get on the television and decry violence, some will even decry guns while others will advocate for concealed carry. Neither of these approaches address the real problem. I personally believe it is rooted in the deterioration of those being brought up with a good foundation based on faith. There was a time when children were brought up with a fear of doing something wrong and immoral. Nowadays many children are coddled. Rather than being punished parents make excuses and go out of the way to look for reasons that motivated bad behavior while foregoing the disciplinary aspect. Children are not stupid, excused actions usually resort in repeat behavior.

This is a problem that goes well beyond gun control.

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