Aspergers and high-fuctioning autism aren't necessarily "mental disorders"....they are principally behavioural and sensory in nature.

That's not to dismiss the notion that a person with Aspergers may also have an accompanying mental disorder.

In the same way that a person diagnosed mid-way or lower on the spectrum may have an accompanying diagnosis of some type of retardation or learning disability.

The diagnosis for Aspergers and autism is calculated on social behaviours and sensory behaviours, communication behaviours and on repetitive behaviours.

It's a hugely broad spectrum - for instance, in the repetitive category, it might range from repetitive switching on and off of light switches of the profoundly autistic individual, to the special interest/obsession for the mathematical Aspergers genius who otherwise copes appropriately with the world. Both are repetitive behaviours or obsessive behaviours, but they're displayed at totally opposite ends of the spectrum.

Fascinating - actually

It is fascinating indeed Poirot! You have to feel bad for all the people with Asperger's though... the papers are virtually saying that this was the 'cause' of the latest mass murderers crimes!

The 2 people I know with Asperger's won't even allow themselves to step on an ant, let alone kill a human being. The main problem they have is the poor ability to socialize with others, and a terrible hatred of loud noises.

We must confront a truth.
Men and womens brains are hard wired very differently.
Themes such as this prove it.
Australia does not have a lawfully held gun - problem.
We do not all live in city,s.
My country village, no more than 35 klm away by road from a coast that brings thousands of Holiday makers has a King Brown snake problem.
A snake that, without real reason will chase you, ask a victim here.
I want those who want to inflict unneeded gun reform on AUSTRALIA, to remember this.
On a thread I started , about Sydney gun crime.
I was branded if not racist , selective, for pointing to who was behind the terror on Sydney,s streets.
Now close to country wide, there is our gun problem, ILLEGAL GUNS.
Australia need not pay for Americas wrongs.

http://www.news.com.au/news/obama-has-nothing-to-lose/story-fnepjsb4-1226537773223
Sadly the link tells of man vs woman in this matter.
But has much to say about why.
One thing is not different, both sex,s cry in relation to this tragic event.
And the next and the one after that.
Until humanity is willing to put profits second, stop making fear drive lawmakers.
And focus on the victims not the perpetrators, in handing down sentences.

Suse,
Facts can't be racist,
The gun homicide problem in America is clearly concentrated in minority communities, White spree killers are an aberration, but you'll just see what you want to see as always.
That's the problem with Leftists, they see the world through a drinking straw,how many people have died at the hands of White spree killers this year in the U.S, it's about 45 as far as I can tell.
In Chicago alone,on an average weekend this past summer the death toll was running at about 10 with 40 wounded by shootings, 75% of whom were Black, let's not even talk about Philadelphia or D.C.
So demonising or even disarming White people isn't going to do much to lower the gun homicide rate in the U.S, is it? I mean from those figures you couldn't possibly come to the conclusion that gun crime is primarily a White problem, the reason the authorities, from about 2005 started classing Latinos as "White" was to reassure people that minority crime wasn't as out of control as it seemed. If Latinos murder at three times the rate of Whites then doesn't that mean that Whites, at 65% of the population must commit only about 20-25% of the homicides attributed to that grouping? If you put all the adjusted figures together 25% of 50% of the crime attributed to "Whites" is 12.5% right? So 65% of the population commits 12.5% of the murders, 86% of which are intra-racial and you say that they are the problem? Do you see why I have to bring this up all the time, you promote a set of beliefs about White people, but reality and beliefs are two different things.

Suseonline, Poirot and other hoplophobes are naturally reluctant to define what they mean by 'gun culture' and describe what sets alleged US 'gun culture' apart from (say) Switzerland, or closer to home, New Zealand.

Suseonline ducks discussion of mass killings of school children in China by saying that it is better to be confronted by a knife than a gun. But those deaths are a fact, and what if other more indiscriminate and more catastrophic methods are used such as arson? Remember the Whiskey Au Go Go mass homicide in Brisbane? It left fifteen dead. What about the Victorian bush fires?

Australia's mentally OK but marginal IQ Martin Bryant used petrol as well. But what if he had chosen petrol and the AFL grand final? Or a school, knowing it would be in 'lock down', with vastly increased opportunity for greater chaos and death?

As for Howard's gun laws, the only effects were to burden police with monitoring law-abiding citizens, paying random visits to their homes to inspect and maintaining a white elephant gun registry. Besides, Martin Bryant was able to circumvent the laws affecting him and obtain a gun that had been surrendered to police previously. Bryant was also well known to authorities and medical professionals.

Why hoplophobes and political opportunists would want to disregard rigorous study of such criminals or even the broader subject of violence is obvious. It doesn't suit their pitch or agenda.

But what if we are making very basic mistakes as a society in promoting social changes that develop or foster violence? What if we are squandering millions and wasting police resources on populist 'solutions' that are irrelevant to the causes of the violence?