There’s been some interesting conversation afloat in the Something Awful forums the past few days. (ya, finally!)

Summarizing, from the AP report last week:

LOS ANGELES – The Orange County man who killed two neighbors and then turned a shotgun on himself desperately sought friends on the Internet but was ridiculed for his sometimes angry and bizarre messages.

and …

Two days before Halloween, Freund, who lived in the wealthy community of Aliso Viejo, donned a cape and a paintball mask and drove to a neighbor’s home, where killed a father and his 22-year-old daughter. He also fired into another home, wounding a person inside who was cut by flying glass. Freund’s shotgun jammed when he fired at another neighbor. Freund then went home and shot himself.

Here’s the gaming connection …

Freund only opened up on the Internet, which he accessed from his computer-filled bedroom at his parents house. The Times said he played online games, discussed movies and TV shows such as “The Outer Limits,” posted reviews of online businesses, bought and sold video games and paintball supplies on eBay.

(please don’t say he played Warcraft, please don’t say he played Warcraft …)

Now, here’s the Something Awful connection.

In a firearms forum on the Web site somethingawful.com, Freund talked about staging a “Halloween shootout” to get even with pranksters who vandalized his pumpkin last Halloween.

That was met with ridicule.

“I can imagine this mongoloid, sitting on his creaky porch, one strap on his overalls, leaping up and running to the defense of his precious 24-ounce pumpkin,” read one response.

Freund’s comments got him banned from the Web site three days before his rampage.

Well, to be fair, EVERYTHING is met with ridicule on Something Awful … that is the point of SA, after all.

Oh ya, he also asked the SA gun goons where he could buy buckshot in Orange County, California, and they answered. And ridiculed.

Tragic situation all around, and I’m sure some of the SA regulars are living their own private Hell right now, as would I.

Frankly, if not for all the Internet Drama Hoes crying wolf about fake suicides, murders and mayhem over the years, the rest of us might believe the real nutjobs when they threaten the same.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Read more: SA forum summary of events in General Bullshit. (Don’t miss Insidious’ post — 11/6/05 at 22:07 — of his ebay transaction with Mr. Freund.)

The original SA thread where Freund asks for help with his buckshot problem.

SA’s Leper’s Colony, the listing of the banned, with Freund (forbiddenforum) banned for “Murdered two, then himself.” (posterity trail: ban date 11/02/05 03:40am)

SA’s The Firing Range reacts to the news.