The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
February 19, 2008 Tuesday - Home Final Edition
Another tragedy; Those closest to disturbed people are in the best position to heed warning signs
SECTION: EDITORIAL & COMMENT; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 501 words
Once again, the nation is horrified by multiple slayings in a college classroom by a deeply disturbed person.
On Thursday, Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, walked into a lecture hall about 10 minutes before the end of a geology class at Northern Illinois University, shot the professor and then fired his weapons at the 150 students in the audience. In the end, five students were dead and 16 others were wounded. Then he killed himself.
Throughout all the seemingly random public shootings over the past few years, from the Virginia Tech massacre in April to the killings in a Von Maur department store in Omaha, Neb., on Dec. 5, a few themes are evident.
States should redouble their efforts to add to the federal database that is used to check the mental-health backgrounds of gun buyers, so that that people who shouldn't have guns don't get them.
Illinois is one of 32 states that participate in the database. Perhaps Kazmierczak didn't qualify for the list somehow. If his past didn't set off any warning bells, the criteria should be re-evaluated.
In high school, Kazmierczak showed an interest in satanism and the white-power movement. His behavior alarmed his parents, who took him to specialists who gave him mood-stabilizing drugs. After graduation, he spent almost a year in a Chicago psychiatric treatment center. In 2001 he went into the Army but soon was discharged for an unspecified reason.
But beyond background checks and mental evaluations, there should be another line of defense: those who are closest to such disturbed people. People who are growing increasingly troubled often provide danger signals that should not be overlooked. Dramatic mood and behavior changes are warning signs that friends, coworkers and family must take seriously.
Kazmierczak was a good student when he attended NIU for his undergraduate degree in sociology, and people close to him say he seemed relatively untroubled. But his friends and live-in girlfriend say he had stopped taking an antidepressant medication for a few weeks and had been acting differently. Police described his behavior as "erratic."
Kazmierczak bought four guns between August and early February, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His girlfriend knew this.
Interpreting someone's mental state and the likelihood of danger is very difficult. At any given time in this country, thousands of alienated, severely depressed people aren't acting normally but never would do any harm. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not dangerous to themselves or anyone else.
This creates the classic tension between liberty and security. The country can't round up people on the chance that they might be in the grip of personal disturbances that are pushing them toward violence.
But when the warning signs include depression or alienation, behavior changes and acquisition of weapons, those who know about them should not hesitate to call in the authorities for guidance and, perhaps, life-saving intervention.
