Are Mass Shootings and Autism Connected
Are Mass Shootings and Autism Connected?
Another mass shooting.
This time, in my own backyard. I can be in Santa Barbara in under two hours.
I have a writers retreat there in June. Itʼs gorgeous, idyllic, peaceful. A college town.
With mass shootings on our minds yet again, families with people on the autism spectrum are again having to ask the general population to not label our kids.
What’s the label?
Autistic individuals are more likely to be the shooters.
Hereʼs an example (post-the latest shooting):
A headline angered me. “Study: ‘Significantʼ Statistical link between mass murder and autism, brain injury.”
The article was in the Washington Post. It examined “links“ between autism and brain injuries and do those issues relate to people who commit mass murders.
I posted the article on Facebook and questioned the headline. Some of the content was suspect, but I was really bothered by the headline.
Talk about it
A friend said to me, “After reading the article…I think the headline fits.”
I responded, “Not if you have a child with autism.” (This person does not.)
My suggestion was an alternate title, “IS there a link between mass murder and autism, brain injury?”
Mine ended with a question mark.
The question mark
To me, question marks suggest. Periods do not suggest quite like a question mark.
A question says, “The study is done, the results are in, we have some data, but weʼre still not sure.”
Whatʼs the difference?
This is my opinion, of course, but I believe people love headlines. Often, they only look at a headline, or, at minimum the first paragraph or two of a story.
Who has time to read an entire newspaper story?
Headlines get imprinted easily into the mind.
They can also be forgotten quickly. But, to me, a headline like the above allows the reader to walk away with the thought, “Autism is the cause of all of those mass murders. Now, I get it.”
Too many of them like this
Too many of these headlines are appearing lately, and they directly affect our kids.
That headline puts my child into autism equals violence.
In reality, I believe the opposite is true.
Our children tend to shy away from social settings. They donʼt move toward them and (generally) do not plot violence in their heads.
They may wave their arms in “weird“ ways and not look at you when they speak to you, but generally autistic people are non-violent.
Autistic kids get bullied at school, but they donʼt typically respond to it.
They crawl inside themselves and typically donʼt act out in violent ways.
Rules
Older kids and adults, for example, love rules. If the speed limit says, “55,“ they think, “Thatʼs a rule and I have to follow it.” They follow rules to the letter.
In general, they are scheduled, routine, time-conscious people. Not killers.
Which is what a headline like that one can imply.
And, it is troublesome.
Accepting autism
Itʼs hard enough for people with autistics to get society to accept that our kids sometimes laugh at inappropriate times or donʼt respond when your typical child asks our kid a question.
We donʼt need the added task of trying to remove a label that is completely unfair.
The article had some reasonable content, but some it was wrong.
In conclusion, I felt it was the headline, taken out of context, that can do the most damage.
Just as I have to be responsible for my content, I would hope that a journalist working for the Washington Post would understand the effects that his headline may have on people with autism.
To read more on this topic, check this out:
To Find Kimberly Kaplan:
Go to Amazon or www.smashwords.com to purchase, “Two Years of Autism Blogs Featured on ModernMom.com” or “A Parents’ Guide to Early Autism Intervention”
Twitter: @tipsautismmom
