Another major school shooting today ... Newtown, Conn

@wandeljw,

Quote:

Adam Lanza's mother was a prepper who believed she must arm herself for the coming economic collapse and breakdown of society. According to The New York Times:

Owning all of three or even five guns does not sound like a prepper and if she happen to be she is a victim of a crime in any case.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Proof that it was not spontaneous. He was thinking ahead of the consequences, and It shows that he was methodological in his actions.

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@firefly,

and...adding to that...he was aware that some consequences for such actions... might result in his being prevented from carrying out his plan (whatever it was)...hence the need to protect his body from shots from security force or police. More premeditation.

Perhaps, it's not a stretch to say that he might have been aware that what he was going to do was considered to be a 'wrong' action. I don't think of that thought as a stretch ..but someone else may think it is.

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@Val Killmore,

And...even so...and that he did that in such a fashion ... is proof of what? That he was not insane or that was sane enough to understand consequences? Can't decide that, IMHO.

However, that itself is a moot point, too. He's dead so there's not going to be any trial against him or his family.

So any thoughts that he lived out a video game 'for real' in his mind ..and fantasized it all to be part of an fantasy killer video game is indefensible, unprovable and furthermore irrelevant.

However, there could be some sort of potential future trial should a few scenarios play out:

1. if an autopsty revealed that he clearly was on medication that could create a psychosis or acute schizophrenia that produced hallucinations.

2. if he was being treated recently by a shrink for schizophrenia or violent outbreaks. maybe you can haul his shrink into court, but not sure that'll be productive in any meaningful way.

You can probably toss out the success of such a lawsuit, though, because any good pharma company with a team of lawyers will say show the court undeniable proof that what he experienced was acute schizoid or psychotic state and the drugs caused it.

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@Ragman,

Off hand I do not think that most people would consider anyone who killed 20 children and a numbers of adults for no rational reason and then killed himself is sane however with all his planning and the destruction of his computer hard drive he seems surely legally sane in that he knew what he was doing was wrong as far as the society was concern.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

Quote:

she is a victim of a crime in any case.

That seems to be forgotten, or simply ignored, by many people.

They keep talking about 26 victims, but Lanza killed 27 people. Even President Obama did not mention the mother's name when he read the list of victims, only those who were killed at the school.

There are 2 crime scenes in this case--both the home and the school--and the mother was a victim found in one of them.

Because she owned the guns her son used, and made sure he'd know how to use them, rightly, or wrongly, many seem to blame her for what happened at the school. And, for that reason, they may chose to disregard her death.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019939961_webmom20.html

Her family in New Hampshire is finally going to claim her body for burial.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/nancy-lanzas-body_n_2336898.html

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@BillRM,

@all

Unless and until autopsy results show clearly that he was on some potentially personality-shifting meds that creating violent episodes (prior to this event as well), all speculation is counterproductive to to say the least and an exercise in gum-flapping and another contributor to A2K-aos.

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@Ragman,

Agreed. Speculation has a million different directions, and most will end up nowhere near the truth.

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@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

Can there be a national discussion on what percentage of gun ownership reflects a "gun culture," rather than the desire to protect one's home and family?

Statistics consistently show that having a gun in the house makes you less safe.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I keep seeing things like "premeditated" and "planned" but I'm not quite sure of how anyone knows this.

Depends on what time period is required for "planning" something. If he drove or walked to the school, then I'd say it was planned, because that gives you plenty of time to think something over.

1 Reply

@DrewDad,

It was planned; he drove to the school with a gun(s).

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@Ragman,

Quote:

He's dead so there's not going to be any trial against him or his family.

There can be civil wrongful death claims made against his estate by the families of the victims killed at the school. And, since his mother pre-deceased him, his estate would include whatever she had left to him, including life insurance, I think--I'm not really sure about that. His parents may also have set up a trust fund for him that could be part of his estate. I'm guessing about all of this.

I think there could also be civil wrongful death suits against Nancy Lanza's estate because he used her guns, which may have been unsecured.

Any suit against a possible treating psychiatrist would likely be a malpractice claim for failing to recognize dangerousness and failing to have him hospitalized. If he/she prescribed an inappropriate medication, or one with an averse reaction that was related to the shootings, that could also be considered malpractice.
But the likely party to bring such a suit against a doctor would be Lanza's father, and I can't imagine he'd want to get involved in any legal action to keep his son's name in the news.

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@firefly,

Although a victim, there is no need to pay any respect to her.
Nancy Lanza, moron mom of the year: if she hadn't been blown to bits by her sicko son, I wonder if this dopey woman would have been charged as an accessory to mass murder.
If I had a son who was not emotionally stable, I would never let him play call of duty without supervision or for long periods of time, regardless of his age. This game shows extreme violence e.g., people being hung, shot in the head. Furthermore, what kind of fool stockpiles high powered weaponry and ammo in a home where an emotionally unstable, and undeveloped adolescent mental nut case lives? How many more idiot parents are out there teaching their emotionally unstable nutso kids how to shoot at a rifle range?

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

we know that military bases are about the safest place to be in america even though they are massively populated with some of our best trained and most practiced killers

You mean NCIS is fake?

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@Val Killmore,

@ all

I thought this was an interesting take on video games and violence:

I agree with him.

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@Val Killmore,

Quote:

How many more idiot parents are out there teaching their emotionally unstable nutso kids how to shoot at a rifle range?

There's none here.

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@firefly,

firefly wrote:

Quote:
she is a victim of a crime in any case.

That seems to be forgotten, or simply ignored, by many people.

They keep talking about 26 victims, but Lanza killed 27 people. Even President Obama did not mention the mother's name when he read the list of victims, only those who were killed at the school.

There are 2 crime scenes in this case--both the home and the school--and the mother was a victim found in one of them.

Because she owned the guns her son used, and made sure he'd know how to use them, rightly, or wrongly, many seem to blame her for what happened at the school. And, for that reason, they may chose to disregard her death.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019939961_webmom20.html

Her family in New Hampshire is finally going to claim her body for burial.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/nancy-lanzas-body_n_2336898.html

a multitude of guns and a wacko son is not a good combination, she bears some of the blame for her own death and the death of the kids

1 Reply

@djjd62,

Can you attach "blame" to her actions? She might be seen as a psychological accident.

It is having a gun culture that is to blame because it has been consciously chosen despite us all knowing that psychological accidents will occur.

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@Ragman,

perhaps the elimination of sales and the repeal of the"grandfather" status of these assault weapons would only be a part of the solution, but it would be a critical part nonetheless no matter what second amendment fans would say.

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@farmerman,

@all
The first step is to get the automatic and semi automatic guns outlawed. That removes an air of invincibility from the equation. As for the mental health issues, I think the only way mental health will improve is when the population in general's mental health improves.

3 Replies

Another major school shooting today ... Newtown, Conn

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