Oh, I have absolutely made the case, as has plenty of actual professionals (links already provided) who work with PTSD.
First to the event...
1) He planned this at some point, which means that his desire to do it was enduring. It cannot be the result of a "trigger" or a momentary lapse into a "dream state" as others here appear to be holding out for.
2) He targeted a specific location, because after being a regular for years, that location was very familiar. He knew the layout and the security.
3) He knew to target the bouncer first, which means that he calculated his priority in targets. The bartender was also among the first specifically targeted.
4) He knew that Wednesday would provide him with many targets, because the bar had planned to host a student line-dancing night in which some 200 people attended.
This was not PTSD...
1) According to his High School track coach, he assaulted her and she declared that he had a
propensity to violence before he ever joined the Marine Corps.
2) If he was in combat, which is why I offered up to 'Lursa' his most probable location and its violence during his tour in Afghanistan (November 2010 - June 2011), the professionals did not recognize PTSD upon his military exit in 2013. That being stated, the Marines who served with him, declared that
they saw little combat.
3) He went from being a married man and an Active Duty Marine to being divorced and voluntarily Honorably Discharged in 2013 to live with his mother. For years, his neighbors could hear "
frequent, aggressive shouting" between Long and his mother. This year was especially vicious.
4) Earlier this year, police mental health professionals who responded to one of these domestic issues, saw no PTSD to be concerned about.
5) If he did have
undiagnosed PTSD, then his symptoms would have involved grief, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and anger. Not homicidal tendencies to plan and commit mass murder upon American civilians who had nothing to do with anything.
6) He was clear enough in his Facebook message that he shrugged at being insane and mocked the American population for its forecasted "hopes and prayers" and how people actually "wonder why these keep happening." This is not a message of war protest or political rage. Again, he planned this against dancing students at a bar that he frequented....not a mosque full of the "enemy."
* If PTSD was a factor here, he would have lost it in a fit of rage, murdered his mother, then stuck his weapon in his mouth and pulled the trigger. This was obviously just an angry, self-wallowing basement dweller who had nothing really to live for and simply wanted to hurt innocent people that had absolutely nothing to do with him. But the very first thing that even the President of the United States did was connect "Vet" to "PTSD" and encourage the stigma and confusion of what PTSD is to the masses. From this, people right here on this thread have taken this quick and easy answer even further and declared that he did it in order to protest a war in which he was a hapless victim of, after he volunteered for it.
If he did have
undiagnosed PTSD, it would not have driven him to plan and execute a mass murder seven years after his Afghanistan tour. We have a history of Vietnam Vets living in the streets and Afghanistan/Iraq Vets coping and dealing with PTSD because Vietnam Vets insist that we get help in order to deal with our depressions, heightened anxieties, irritating paranoia, and almost complete lack of patience for everyday, mundane things. By trying to argue that this nutcase was John Rambo and that this is just what PTSD does, it merely pushes Vets to further avoid the discussion. I actually hate the term.
