Another mass murderer with a history of Mental Illness leaves a country in shock after the massacre at washingtons navy yard. In the past few years there have been mass murders. Also as america weighs intervention in syria, is there a separate civil war now raging, this one within the ranks of assads opponents. How are alqaeda and other extremists affecting the fight against syrias governments. Plus ecigarettes have become a billion dollar business, and is this just another way to target kids . Welcome to consider this. We begin with the navy yard shooter. As authorities check in the background of aaron alexis. Reports on the details of troubled history that are starting to emerge. Flags flew at behalf mass, and another familiar scene in america. Those gunned down by a lone man on a bloody rampage. More questions are left than answers. Could stronger gun control laws or better Mental Illness help against the carnage. As such with no other suspects at large the investigation has moved into a phase of evidentiary recovery and information gathering. Alexis did suffer recently from extreme paranoia and delusions and was treated for Mental Health issues. He also had a haste of trouble with the police. A Police Report from seattle in 2004 details alexis self described angerfueled blackout that caused him to shoot the rear tires of a vehicle with a. 45caliber vehicle. He was arrested in 2008 after an altercation in a nightclub for disorderly conduct. In 2010 fort worth, texas, he was arrested for firing a gun into an apartment. It others had raised red flags before their killing sprees. Dr. Janice orlowsk i, from the hospital where some of the gun victims were treated made this plea. There is something won wronge when we have multiple shootings, there is something wrong. We have to Work Together to get rid of it. Reporter al jazeera, new york. Joining me from washington, d. C. Dr. Allen li litman director of the study of violence and with me dr. Michael stone clinical psycho analytic training and research. Dr. Litman, lets start with you. We learn in the last 24 hours along with his anger and guns, he suffered from paranoia. He was in newport, rhode island and had an encounter with police at his motel. He said he heard voices speaking to him through the wall, floor and ceiling and people were sending vibrations through his body but he claimed to have no history of Mental Illness and he wanted to file a harassment claim against the voices. The police wrote, no further action required although they did fax a copy of the report to the police. He should not be allowed to purchase a gun, which is exactly what he did a couple of days later. How did this happen . Alexis is with a long history of individuals who have reported psychotic phenomena , including laug lahne, lanza and others before. Most people with Mental Illness are not violent and less violent and are more likely to be victorvictimof violence. The small group of individuals, virtually all of them have suffered from a serious untreated or under treated Mental Illness. And when we combine that, antonio, with the remarkably and certainly planned lax gun laws that allow these individuals in the height of their psychosis and paranoia to get easy access to weapons we create a circumstance where these in fact, mostly unnecessary Mass Shootings become much more likely. What we need to do is to, among many things, institute a true system of universal background checks, a term that has been repeated so much that it almost loses its meaning but its incredibly important. If an individual who is psychotic filled with delusions and believing as we heard from alexis, that people are out to get them can with great ease get their hands on a weapon they can move in the midst of their impairment get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction. If it is the case that we have laws that although we have checks do not have even computer adequate reports require the fbi to destroy their records each day every 24 hours, that allow individuals to buy guns over the internet or at gun shows from unlicensed dealers, without any kind of background check whatsoever, then the background check system is so filled with intentional holes that its essentially a farce. People who have psychotic psychotic Mental Illnesses, if they have a significant barrier and one of time will often instead have the opportunity for treatment, that will prevent many of these crimes. Without that the gap between fullblown psychosis and fullblown tragedy is too thin. This is what we must face. Well doctor, talking about psychosis and talking about erratic behavior, we saw what happened in rhode island. Hes talking about voices. He wants to file harassment claims against those voices. Shouldnt police taken a more active response than something more proactive under these circumstances . It seems many of these mass shooters have sent very strong signals about their problems. You make a very good point. Dr. Stone, yes, they should. Furthermore its not quite correct to say that the mentally ill are less violent. Theyre five times more violent than the general population, but the figures are that perhaps 1 of the entire general population are at some point going to commit a violent crime, and it rises 4 to 6 those who are schizophrenic and bipolar, which means that many of the psychotic people dont have predisposition to make it clear, what im referring to is the fact that most people with psychotic illnesses despite the perception which has been nurtured by the nra, as you know, are not violent. And it is just this Smaller Group of individuals who have been associated with to an extreme degree with these Mass Shootings as seen in the secret service report. Thats undeniable. I think it is denial to a certain extent. In my study of 300 mass murderers about who a considerable amount is known in contrast to the 1300 other ones where there are only newspaper clippings. If you look at the ones in the United States where there is the vast majority of people committing mass murder, probably 25 , in my own series, 22 have a psychosis. In other words, this man apparently has paranoid schizophrenia. There are others who have paranoid personalties and people talk about think predisposition to blow up when they are fired from a job, lose a sweetheart, wife walks out, theyre individuals who old grudges. Please, paranoid personalities, as you know, is one of the most difficult disorders to treat because the individual is in the grip of a fixed and rigid delusion. So we really dont want to be distinguishing from psychotic disorders, number one. Number two, it is certainly the case that while your research may indicate otherwise, multiple studies including the work of the United States secret service has revealed, a, virtually without exception the individuals who have committed these mass crimes have been either with an untreated Mental Illness or an under treated Mental Illness, and there has been some kind of triggering event that has proceeded the illness. More over getting to antonios point. In virtually every one of these cases as we saw with juried lafners extensive postings on the airport and as with columbine, individuals announce in some form that they intend to commit the act. And raise that raises the question, can we preempt these acts. That again, that is my question. Once these signs are out there, what can psychiatrists do . If he apparently went to the Veterans Hospital and asked for help with some of this, where does the line get drawn between privacy and the Public Safety . Dr. Stone . Well, the fact that he had talked about these things to people in positions of authority meant that they ought to have had and really enjoyed the privilege of having him committed involuntarily to a hospital. The degree to which he could have benefited from treatment is another matter entirely. But at least they could have kept him safely away from the public for some length of time. There are many, many problems in dealing with particularly paranoid persons, whether theyre paranoid permanent were not psychotic, or those who are psychotic, they tend to reject therapy and help because they feel they dont accept other peoples opinions, etc. Theyre extremely difficult to treat. If they have the psychosis in which medication would be in order to prescribe what often happens they are then released, they take it for a little bit of time. Dont like the effects and leave it in the draw. Yet again you have a guy who was able to buy a gun. He was also able to maintain his secret clearance. We look at federal gun laws. They banned 36 categories that prevent people from purchasing you arms, and it just seems to me that that list should be expanded, and the second you Start Talking about psychosis, you Start Talking about trying to sue people, the voices in your head, something should be done to keep them fro allowing them to buy guns. We have 300 million guns, a little bit less in the way of guns than there are people. To imagine that people cannot get guns illegally even if theyre prevented by law is ridiculous. Theyre going to be able to get guns. The one who is are fixed aside from the guns this guy had a secret clearance. He had access to security. H that was a failure in the system. He should not have been able to get guns. He should have been locked up. But mafiosi, gangsters, theyre always able to get a gun. With what about that question that i just asked. Were there so many indications this man was not only allowed to buy guns but he was allowed to keep secret clearance. Do doctors need to share this information . The answer to your point is. We can have lists of 36 or 360 categories, however, even though we can draw very sharp line between the neurosis and psychosis, including paranoid disorder, which is psychotic but not personality disorder. But if we have a system that allows those individuals to ea easily purchase those guns, via internet, via unlicensed dealers at gun shows, and if we have a system that does not allow them to be actually be checked in the background check then the simple iis a farce. This is why the Johns Hopkins summit and Harvard Research center and many other very esteemed and longlasting institutes of Public Policies have focused on the universal background check in all of its forms to prevent these sorts of crimes. There is no reason to split hairs about diagnoses. The individuals who commit these crimes in the United States are buy and large individuals with severe mental disorders and once again were seeing this begin to unroll. We want to get all the facts with alexis. If we try to pull those small needles out of a large hay tack haystack of Mental Illness were unlikely to succeed. But if we have strong background checks we can prevent those individuals from getting the guns to prevent them from committing their delusional violent crimes. Thanthank you for participann this discussion tonight. Coming up next. Is syria seeing another civil war, this time among the Opposition Forces . Why is alqaeda on its side of the war and how is it packeting impacting our side. The u. S. Has put a strike on syria on hold but a more brutal battle may be dawning between rival rebels in a multi dimensional civil war. There are at least a thousand factions, and many of them are linked to alqaeda. Senator joh john M John Mccain has been looking for support. Many want Bashar Alassad gone. The syrian would reject extremist and and jihadists. How right is senator mccain . Were joined in oh you are studio from istanbul, turkey. , and others. I thank you all for joining us. Today we saw a car bomb go off , no group has taken credit but there has been increased fighting between alqaeda linked groups and more moderate forces between the Free Syrian Army. As assad forces has increased their military movements. Ambassador what are you seeing inside syria now that u. S. Policy has evolved as it has and intervention has been pulled back . Well, i think there are two things that i would point out. One of them is that the u. S. Has seen to be weak and uncommitted. Were not serious about engaging in syria. Thats the lesson that comes out of the past couple of weeks with the u. S. Pulling back from strikes with the russians taking the initiative in negotiations in geneva. That is seen by all the parties on the ground. The second thing, there is a war going on. Of course people with differing agendas and different points of view are trying to win. So you see assad using all means at his disposal including chemical weapons to impose his will on the Syrian People and killing as many as necessary in the process. You see the alqaeda supported and extremist supported groups trying to advance their agenda, and those who support a more moderate pluralistic agenda as well theyre feeling buffeted by the drift away from the International Engagement that weve seen in the last couple of weeks. Alqaeda issued a warning about anyone who worked with the west. The United States and its allies tried this best to support the secular parties that are allied with the west. But they failed. I warn my brothers and families not to form any relationships with thighs parties. What happened in egypt is a perfect lesson on this. So hes talking about the people you represent. Hes basically talking about alqaeda fighting against the Free Syrian Army. What does this mean for you and the situation in syria in general . His statement was nothing short of a declaration of war against a moderate Free Syrian Army. Two days ago you also had a decree issued by alqaedas local affiliate the Islamic State of iraq. Further declaring war specifically against two moderate armies affiliated with the Supreme Military Council in aleppo simply because they stood in the way of alqaedas attempt to expand. Theyre fighting against the Free Syrian Army and alqaida east. A alqaeda has assassinated Free Syrian Army commanders in this past month alone. Youre seeing car bombs targeting Free Syrian Army headquarters in the east and potentially the one yesterday as well. The rhetoric has significantly heated up between alqaeda and the moderate Free Syrian Army. Youre seeing these clashes that are simply coming to a head and theyre boiling over because quite frankly alqaeda views the Free Syrian Army as one of its biggest threats. Lets take a look at the latest study on the rebels from james, and its sobering. Less than onethird of the Opposition Forces are seen as acceptable partners for the n. A. T. O. Allies, and thats something that american officials have acknowledged this. Numbers. A total of 100,000 rebel fighters but a thousand different factions. Alqaeda controls directly 10,000 fighters but 35,000 jihadists may be allied with alqaeda and 30,000 are referred to as moderate islamist factions. That does not leave too many people that the u. S. Would want to help. I think for a long time weve been looking at a very large spectrum that makes up the syrian opposition. We have roughly 100,000 fighters and as the new james report points out there is not an incredibly large portion of the traditional secular moderate that we would traditionally want to partner with. There is a spectrum there. So they put the number at 10,000 extremists, alqaeda affiliat affiliated groups. But there is also this larger the majority of the group there that is particularly focused on national indiana. Its important to separate out the groups that are affiliated with alqaeda and believe in alqaeda ideology of trying to build a transnational, versus the groups who may be moderatist or islamists that are still focused on assyrian project. Theyre focused primarily and solely on a syrian state. Groups of the syrian Islamic Group which are very conservative, and more conservative than western officials would like to work with. Groups like moderate islamists that are closer to the muslim brotherhood, and then the Free Syrian Army the more traditional moderate secularist. That range is still focused on syrian project. Theyre not trying to create a transnational copy like alqaeda would be trying to create. The director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in beirut recently said the rise of the islamic extremist groups just mentioned by ken, its a far bigger threat to the region than assad staying on for a for a how year few moreyears in damascus. This is a leader who killed several hundreds men, women and children. Certainly these groups are a serious threat. Lets not treat it as either or. If assad stays in powers these forces are going to stay there and theyre going to be fighting against assad and theyll still be getting external support. Its perhaps assad stays in power and they keep fighting. Thats bad, too. The reason these forces seem strong right now because the fast year the moderate forces have been starved of support from international community, the west, the United States, it has been reticent of getting involved while the more extreme elements have been garner support from countries around elements. Of course theyre going to appear now that thats thats a function of our own creating. What we need to do, where does the future go. We need to support a neither just assad in power nor fueling these extremist groups that are seen to be so incentive. And the