let me start by being very clear. there s no link between mental illness and violence and there s certainly no link between an autistic spectrum disorder and violence. to be clear, we don t talk about autism anymore. we talk aboutous testic sp a spectrum disorders. people with autistic disorders may be very focused on interests, often they re focused on trains or subways. he could certainly be focused on guns. that may explain the interest. but there s no link between the mental illness and violence. there s a lot being made about the relationship the mother and the son had, not just their relationship but common interests and their bonding over guns. i actually want to read to you something that the ap they spoke to a psychologist, peter langman. he said in some cases parents
of the douglas county sheriff s department. the news from the sheriff is there have been ten fatalities, ten dead in today s shooting. the sheriff says the names of the victims won t be released for 24 to 48 hours. he had no further information about the 20-year-old male shooter himself. let s bring in peter langman. he s a psychologist who has studied school shooters. he s author of the book why kids kill: inside the minds of school shooters. so it was unclear there whether that count of ten included the shooter. but let s move on. what is it that drives these young men to do this? you know, there s usually a combination of factors. there s personality issues going on. but also a lot of stresses in their lives. usually a combination of academic failures, usually romantic or marital failures, occupational failures, just overwhelming stress. well, you know, high school is rough. and i think most people like me, most would say it s not the best years of your life. it can be the mos
knowing in that moment they ll be famous for doing that. is that it? that s right. in fact, erik harris at columbine had written on his website, i want to leave a lasting impression on the world. that s what he set out to do. what a tough business you re in, sir. peter langman thanks for that expertise. let s check back in with msnbc correspondent jacob soboroff who s at the scene in oregon. now we have the numbers. do we know if that ten includes the shooter, the ten deaths? reporter: you know, we don t know from our post here, chris. what i can tell you is i heard your conversation earlier about the law enforcement presence in this area, and there is a state trooper post. maybe a football field length away from where we re standing right here. we were also made aware of reporting by the associated press that said a former president of the umpqua community college had said there was only one campus security guard on campus, an unarmed person, and this is something that had bee