The True Alpha Male

"I'll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you."
"I don't know why you girls are so repulsed by me. I am polite. I am the ultimate gentleman. And yet, you girls never give me a chance. I don't know why."
"I deserve girls much more than all those slobs. You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one, the true alpha male."
"I know exactly where their house is and I've sat outside in my car to stalk them many times.
Elliot Rodger, 22, psychotic gunman

"Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA [National Rifle Association]. They talk about gun rights, but what about Chris's right to live? When will this insanity stop?"
"Chris was a really great kid. Ask anyone who knew him. His death has left our family lost and broken."
Richard Martinez, father of Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20

"You always think, 'Oh, that doesn't happen to me, that doesn't happen in my town. That's always just something on the news'. But that did happen and it's just, like, very overwhelming. A lot of shock hasn't even settled."
Jeff Dolphin, roommate at UC Santa Barbara University of Christopher Michaels-Martinez

"I don't know how on Earth a sick, disturbed young man was able to get hold of a gun. He was always a disturbed child. I don't know how he was allowed to get a gun. Something has to be done about gun laws in America."
Jenni Rodger, Aunt of killer Elliot Rodger

One set of parents has the great, good fortune of nurturing and raising a son who is a credit to them, to himself, to his community. Another set of parents suffers the gross misfortune of having a child whom their nurturing can do little to alter his distorted mentality. We define normalcy as people going about their business, not bothering others, cleaving to those they value in their inner circle, preparing to take their place in the larger society.

Abnormality represents the sociopaths, the psychopaths that roam the planet, anywhere that normal, well-adjusted people live in their majority. And sometimes it seems that the psychopaths successfully manage to persuade others in the normal range of behaviour and sensibility that they too belong in that demographic, only to discover at a later date that nothing could be further from the truth. For others, whose pathology is so obvious it cannot be  hidden, rejection is more immediate.

Humans are inherently gregarious by nature, and everyone, regardless of their mental equilibrium, does want to be included, to be appreciated, to be satisfied and fulfilled. Elliott Rodger who obviously did not lack for material things, lacked the comfort of emotional relationships with intimate others who appear to have recoiled from him. He exuded maladaption, though he modelled himself on the appearance of one who was well-adjusted, and was confused, angry and resentful at the distance between his aspirations and the realities of rejection.

He malevolently stalked those who rejected him. He nursed his grievances and planned his revenge. From covert to overt, he placed online his intentions in his manifesto detailing the misery of his life in what he titled My Twisted World. He bought three semi-automatic pistols, and two Sig Sauers from gun dealers. Background checks were clear since though he had been exposed to extensive psychiatric counselling, it was never at a mental institution and no accessible records existed.

He stabbed to death three men living in his own apartment. They must have been easy prey, trusting him. And then he took himself to the Alpha Phi sorority building, and when there was no response despite his pounding, he compensated by shooting three women standing nearby, killing 19-year-old Veronika Weiss and 22-year-old Katherine Cooper outright. At a nearby deli he shot and killed 20-year-old Christopher Michaels-Martinez.

Not yet sated, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger drove his BMW coupe to  another area where he shot people at random, injuring thirteen people by gunshot wounds, and others from collision with is vehicle. He had haunted Santa Barbara City College where he had been a student at various times. His family had seen his mad ravings on YouTube videos "regarding suicide and the killing of people", that he had posted, explained their lawyer, Alan Shifman.

It was his mother who is thought to have contacted police, concerned over those postings. When sheriff's deputies arrived at his home on April 30, they hadn't bothered to ask whether he was in possession of weapons, nor did they make even a cursory search for any . And the madness that engulfed the young man played out on the streets of Goleta, Claifornia.

That in his final agony he turned his gun on himself and died, will never be of any comfort to the families of those whom he mercilessly killed.