The issue here is very general one. The so-called common sense held by wast majority is just plain wrong. It is a just a consensus by ignorant public, and have nothing to do with more or less accurate description of reality, leave alone explaining any particular event.

This situation is so common, that people literally didn't know any better. Common sense about what things really are and how things works and why are naive oversimplifications and folklore at its best.

Common folks have no clue how, say, financial instruments works, or what software engineering is about, or what is mental disorders and Autism in particular. But everyone are cock-sure that they have an opinion and their opinion is the most accurate description of the reality.

99% of these talks are naive but emotional nonsense. Guns are not the causes. It is the same stupidity as to blame the pain for the cancer. Blaming autistic traits as the causes of some particular acts of people who "seems like autistic" is just as stupid as to blame food for obesity.

Yes, autistic individuals have much more pressure in society because they have very unpleasant, physical sensation of discomfort, comparable with pain or fear. We can do nothing with it, it just is. It is almost the same sense as of being overwhelmed by annoying, loud noise you have no means to escape.

It might be caused by mere presence of noisy, loud, annoying, hyper-active, rude and selfish people, it might be just forced conversation or forced eye-contact - each autistic individual has his own sources of causes of overwhelming annoying pressure.

It doesn't really matter how exactly it works, due to some inherent over-sensitivity of Amigdala or due to dis-balance in production or metabolism of some neuro-chemical substance, it doesn't really matter. The matter is that life is much less pleasant task if you are one of us.

The most interesting part is that most of autistic people don't even realize that they are somehow different from others, and that not everyone share the same feelings of being overwhelmed. It is very difficult realization, which requires lots of knowledge and intelligence. You're, of course, heard of it many times, but you probably thought that it is not about you.

So, like it or not, the cancer is society. It is that simple. How people threat each other (let alone how they threat Asperger and autistic individuals) is the cause of most troubles. Just what people are in general. The bell-curve is very real thing, and so-called ordinary people, en mass, is by no means a nice thing.

I do not try to say that this particular shooter deserves any mercy or special consideration. He is just like a sick animal - everything is too late. All I'm trying to say that do not talk about things you have no clue about. You may hear some shit about ASDs and event felt something like being overwhelmed by stress or depressed, but some people live all their lives under a constant pressure, source of which they didn't realize, having no idea that it is not the world around that is wrong.

World is the same for everyone. The hell is other people, you like it or not. Especially for autistic people.

Some idiots used an analogy with rabies, but, no. There are no microbes that produce toxins that rewires your brain so you have no control over it, so, you are not responsible for your actions. This is an instance of that naive oversimplification nonsense. It is all mental, and it accumulates in fullness of time, as chronic depression or constant agitation does.

By the way, most of accompanied mild, non-organic mental disorders go together. If you have physical discomfort being forced to deal with people, you likely have the whole bunch of personality disorders in their mild form. They are just artificial names of the same thing - consequences, effects, reactions to an overwhelming pressure.

btw, that illustration in original posting, with a girl in a corner is a good illustration of a common misconception.))

1. Autism is mostly boy's disorder. That picture is about clinical depression, which is women's trait, and it is just being shut in oneself.

2. To depict autistic narrowed focus, the corner must be not of a closed room, but something of a ruin, with no other walls or ceiling around, with all the world all around, but a boy didn't notice.