A "Baffling" tragedy?

Once again law enforcement officials are baffled about why a young man would randomly kill with “no apparent motive.”

This time the toll was two teenage girls killed and seven other people wounded. Three remain in the hospital. One was in critical condition Monday.

The shooter, 24-year-old Erik Ayala, died today from his self-inflicted gun wound.

Baffling?

Everything points to a depressed, out-of-work young man who, for hours on end, escaped to the fantasy world of shooter video games.

Here’s how Ayala’s roommate, Mike Delisle, described Ayala: “He wasn’t big on talking about what was bothering him.” He was “down lately,” and “stuck to playing video games,” said Delisle.

The Oregonian reported today that among the “numerous” video games was “Grand Theft Auto,” the infamous hyper-violent, shooter game.

CAUTION: I’m about to enter into speculation that invites your comment.

The one thing I am not is “baffled.”

Armed with a fully loaded Italian-made pistol and an unstable mind, Ayala took his practiced gamer fantasy out into the very real streets of Portland with very real tragic results.

The gun and its bullets were suddenly real. The dead and wounded weren’t some animator’s depictions.

One mortally wounded victim was Martha Paz De Noboa, cut down at age 17. “Tika,” as her friends called her, was a Peruvian exchange student. According to The Oregonian, she “loved to dance and had never frolicked in snow until last month’s big storm,”

The other murder victim was Ashley Wilks, murdered in her 16th year. She was described as “the consummate best friend.”

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I teach at a community college and so I know a lot of good kids and upstanding, bright young adults who play violent video games. Many play for hours on end, yes addictively. I know this because I have them keep media logs of how they spend their time. They very often are surprised by how much time they spend with "screens."

They would never kill a soul.

But they too are often isolated. They too lose touch with others. For many who are still social, their contacts frequently are circumscribed by a shared virtual world. Human interaction is dependent on a shared game.

They lose touch with reality. They lose touch even with themselves, with the value of their lives to themselves and to us.

Of course, the current economic economic vortex also devalues them in the work place.

It’s a textbook situation for depression.

Then add a 9 mm pistol, so easy to score in our gun-obsessed society, and you have the makings of what happened in Portland on Saturday night.

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For an insightful psychological analysis the pathology of the “ScreenWorld,” I recommend this article in the current issue of the “Psychotherapy Networker.”

A life-or-death “opportunity” on campus

Those who went to this the first day of classes for the spring term at Portland Community College’s Sylvania campus were greeted with dozens of signs reading “Active Shooter Alert Drills — April 2008.”

The posters are everywhere. Somebody desperately wants a few thousand students, faculty and staff to get with the drill.

This is serious business. A little like hiding from nuclear attack under your desk back in the ‘50s.

Except this time the enemy isn’t “over there” in the USSR, he’s right here on campus in the US of A. Maybe.

I say “he” because all the campus shooters so far have been “he’s.” They often have a history of mental health problems. They are often isolated, ostracized, angry and alienated. Their values are often distorted through immersion in a video game culture of “pretend” violence and mayhem.

The games are called, after all, “first-person shooter” games.

And so we get back to the signs: “Active Shooter Alert Drills — April 2008.”

Active shooter? As opposed to — what? — an INACTIVE shooter? And just who might the latter be? You either shoot or you don’t.

In fact, the wording of the announcements is surreal.

The poster’s text begins: “What: The Sylvania campus will hold an Active Shooter Drill Alert” (Campuses are places. They don’t hold anything. Campus security officials are the ones behind this.) (Could there be a homeland security acronym lurking here: ASDA anyone?)

The poster continues: “The drills offer an opportunity to practice a non-evacuation emergency and are DIFFERENT than the fire alarm drill.”

Note the bold, ital, underlined, pull-out-the-stops typography. Somebody is trying to make a point, without actually making it.

I lingered over the inviting words “offer an opportunity.” The authors are suggesting that the reader could take or leave the drill. Still, just in case one of your classmates turns out to be a homicidal, loaded-for-bear whacko, you might want to seize this “opportunity” for a little “non-evacuation emergency” “practice.”

But then the “opportunity” escalated into a requirement. “An alarm will be sounded; EVERYONE (bold, ital, underlined, pull-out-the-stops again) currently on campus will carry out the Active Shooter Alert Drill, and (bold, ital, underlined) ALL BUILDINGS AND ALL COMMON AREAS WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE DRILL

So much for take-it-or-leave-it.

The poster notes that on three dates in April, the alarm will sound. And will continue to sound until there is an all clear. For the purposes of the drill, the alarm will last three minutes.

And what are those on campus to do? “Wherever you are, seek the safest place possible and conceal and cover yourself.”

Hmmmm.

“Safest place possible”? Any hints on where that might be?

“Conceal”? Suggestions? Should I bring camouflage netting?

“Cover yourself”? Like with what? Psychology textbooks? Health insurance?

All of which raises a really pressing historical question: Whatever happened to pep rallies?