My older brother has AS - only recently dx, but I've known for a few years that he fit the description. He's less accepting of that. Previous to the dx, he found out that his GP wrote in his file that he has a "poisonous personality". He was close to crying when he told me that. I get so angry that people that have that kind of power haven't made the effort to get to know him more - don't know how awesomely funny he is, or that he loves animals, and that he's "poisonous" mostly when he feels he's being attacked. One night 10 years ago he was on the edge of suicide and demanding a reason why he shouldn't do it. I yelled back that he shouldn't because I love him. We didn't use that word in our house growing up. It turns out that he does not recall anyone ever telling him that they love him. Everything that ever went wrong in our family somehow got pinned on him. He was bullied in school horribly - relatively little physical stuff but constant other kinds of bullying that he usually ended up being strapped for. My point is that sometimes when he is really raging about someone or a group of someones, I am afraid that he will do something. He doesn't have any weapons and actually hates firearms, so I don't think he will but ...

I'm not defending the actions of the shooters at all, but part of me does understand the level of the pain that has brought them to that point.