The Saga of Randy Stair

[Wildcat66]

Recently, I just found out something really disturbing that happened not that long ago.

Randy Stair, 24 years old was found shooting three co-workers before turning the gun on himself in Weis Market around Thursday.

Before his death, he ran an animation channel based on the hit Nickelodeon series Danny Phantom entitled 'Ember's Ghost Squad'. The last animated video he ended up making was titled 'The Westborough High Massacre', which; if you can probably guess was an animated school shooting...no, i'm not making this up.

Proof: Watch the whole thing for context

But wait, it gets better. And by better, I mean more disturbing.

It turned out Randy Stair had been having some mental issues over the years and it had been growing on him.

It's also been said that he had been planning this for a little while now delivering cryptic posts on his Twitter, idolized the Columbine killers from back in '99, created a suicide tape depicting all of his frustrations and perhaps most interesting of all, he considered himself a female and hated all men, seeing the character Ember McLain as a refuge for his sorrow and ultimately causing his demise.

In short: Randy Stair had a rather troubled life growing up. Any thoughts on this?

 

[enviousdominous]

Something to keep in mind if you encounter someone, in real life or on social media, who expresses a great deal of rage toward the world; politely intervene.

For what I can research, a friend of his posted on Facebook:

"Lots of young people go through a sort of grim, or withdrawn, or even a countercultural Goth-Style Period, But it doesn’t necessarily, Or even usually, indicate that they’re on the path towards a psychotic killing spree or suicide."


That's a fair point, in that Randy wasn't just going through decade long obsession with being rebellious. Apparently he loved posting pictures and videos of his collection of guns, that's a pretty good indicator that he needs help finding a hobby that doesn't involve shooting anything or seeking validation on social media.

Randy apparently got himself so deep into a state of antisocial personality disorder that he decided to act on his desire to murder some people because he wasn't able to finish his school shooting cartoon quickly enough. People who had awareness of the extreme nature of his social media presence and his obsession with the Columbine shooters apparently never asked him if he wanted to kill someone. I didn't see any part of his rants that exclaimed "People keep trying to figure out why I behave this way!" or "I'm sick and tired of people always trying to help me!"

As a quiet guy myself, I admit that it's annoying when people automatically assume that something's wrong with me and that it's their place to psychoanalyze me. However; I'd have to suck it up if I was posting the kind of psychotic nonsense that Randy was posting.

It's fun to laugh at and ridicule the internet's many weirdos, and it's not fun to be laughed at or ridiculed for anyone. Every once in a while, try this; ask someone if they're okay.

 

[Wildcat66]

Something to keep in mind if you encounter someone, in real life or on social media, who expresses a great deal of rage toward the world; politely intervene.

For what I can research, a friend of his posted on Facebook:

"Lots of young people go through a sort of grim, or withdrawn, or even a countercultural Goth-Style Period, But it doesn’t necessarily, Or even usually, indicate that they’re on the path towards a psychotic killing spree or suicide."


That's a fair point, in that Randy wasn't just going through decade long obsession with being rebellious. Apparently he loved posting pictures and videos of his collection of guns, that's a pretty good indicator that he needs help finding a hobby that doesn't involve shooting anything or seeking validation on social media.

Randy apparently got himself so deep into a state of antisocial personality disorder that he decided to act on his desire to murder some people because he wasn't able to finish his school shooting cartoon quickly enough. People who had awareness of the extreme nature of his social media presence and his obsession with the Columbine shooters apparently never asked him if he wanted to kill someone. I didn't see any part of his rants that exclaimed "People keep trying to figure out why I behave this way!" or "I'm sick and tired of people always trying to help me!"

As a quiet guy myself, I admit that it's annoying when people automatically assume that something's wrong with me and that it's their place to psychoanalyze me. However; I'd have to suck it up if I was posting the kind of psychotic nonsense that Randy was posting.

It's fun to laugh at and ridicule the internet's many weirdos, and it's not fun to be laughed at or ridiculed for anyone. Every once in a while, try this; ask someone if they're okay.

Trust me, Randy is not the first person to fall into this unfortunate hole. I still remember when Elliot Rodger was a thing. But personally, I think what happened to Randy is a tiny bit worse than what happened to Elliot.

With Elliot, it seemed that he was just a decent ordinary guy, nothing more, nothing less. But for some reason, he just started to slip.

Randy on the other hand seemed to almost always be on edge. And it seemed to follow with him his whole life. And it's a shame that it had to go the way it did for him. If I was there, I would have definitely intervened and asked him politely if everything was alright.

I really do feel bad for his family and it's unfortunate that it played out this way.

 

[SSJPhenom]

When tragedies like these occur, we get the same ole same ole. Gun control, video games, movies, television, and etc. I, however, think something else should be done. That is, to educate young children on proper internet/social media etiquette. Unfortunately, children today are going to spend more and more time on the internet speaking to strangers. I think they should learn that if you wouldn't say something in public or to a person's face then you shouldn't say it on the internet to a stranger. They should learn that if they feel someone they see or speak with over social media appears to have an issue that they should tell someone. Especially if it's a friend or someone they know. If a person posts a picture of themselves with guns and they say, "thinking about ending it" (I've seen this happen before) nobody should respond with, "Then do it!!!" "I bet you're too scared!!!" It's time to ask that person if they're ok and what's the matter. It's time to tell someone.

When tragedies like these occur, we'll never ever know if they were preventable, but to not even try to prevent them is awful in and of itself. So when the analysts and scholars and DC are trying to find something to blame, I think we should look at the internet. At Twitter, at Facebook, at Reddit, at places like these forums and figure out a way to just get people to treat each other as just that, people.