I Hate Violence

but who knows what the threat was. maybe they were going to beat him up. maybe they already had before.

Okay so 2 plausible scenarios off the top of my head.

1. He brought the knife for self-defense. They attacked him and he fought back. Afterwards, he was so distraught that he killed himself.
2. It was premeditated. He went to school with the intention that he would possibly seriously maim/kill someone.

#2 is just murder and honestly not justifiable. #1 is possible but I struggle with it for several reasons:
-If you bring a weapon into a scenario, high chance is that someone is going to get hurt. Maybe you. Even young children know this because they are not allowed near sharp objects or hot objects. Even if he was mentally unstable, he still understands what pain feels like and how to cause it.
-People who go to the length of bringing a weapon to school just for self-defense are typically "survivors". They are highly motivated by self-preservation. It is [i]highly[/i] unlikely that they would kill themselves when they would do anything to keep themselves safe. It would take a serious mood swing, especially to kill themselves in the same place, at around the same time.

It's just really unlikely that the incident wasn't even partly premeditated.
And yeah, going to school thinking that you're probably going to stab some people is kind of messed up.

I would like to clarify that "survivors" might have a guilt trip later and do something. But it would be [b]later[/b], not around the same time

@AwakeAndDreaming: although most of us would not know how we would react if we brought a knife to school to defend ourselves and then actually hurting someone.

@bunny61: I think if you have a basic understanding of psychology, it's not difficult to come up with a logical analysis of the most likely conclusions.

People tend to act in patterns rather than irregularities.

@AwakeAndDreaming: omg...that is so funny. when i was your age, i thought i knew about psychology too and that i knew how basically people react to things. the truth is...you are probably outside the bubble looking in, right? most people seem crazy and do the most bizarre things and seem cruel and you insist to yourself that there are rational sane non-jealous normal nice people out there. well, guess what? there are about five of us in this country. the rest are in Britain and Canada.

i have seen quiet shy people shoot someone for being told by a gay person that he loves him. i have seen gang rape. i have seen people just jump out at strangers and beat the holy crap outta them for fun. you just don't know how anyone will react to anything especially when the bombardment of tv and movies and the internet giving you ideas.

@bunny61: ...I am... Canadian
so...............
?

and I wouldn't say I know much about psychology, just a very basic understanding.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of factors that might influence a particular action, but I do think that most things don't just spontaneously occur without reason.

@AwakeAndDreaming: now that is funny. see, Canadians are taught the golden rule and apparently follow it. in America, they laugh at it and make fun of it and shoot people who do follow it. i figure i was born to Canadian people and since i haven't seen them since i was 4, i still have the basics instilled in me but i was left to live here in Hell. you actually believe that people will follow some pattern. but there are too many variables to consider. and that is what i have learned over the past 56 years. stay Canadian.

@bunny61: Actually, when I was a kid, I would bring my parents all sorts of terrible stories and articles, that happened in the US.

I would say, "Look, look at all these awful things that humans do to each other."

And my father, who was friends and did business with many Americans, who always told me not to generalize. My father would tell me that, "People in the US are crazies, Americans don't count."

@AwakeAndDreaming: now THAT is funny...keep sane and Canadian