Ron Fournier
What if nothing or nobody is to blame for Adam Lanza?
What if he had a form of autism that has little or no link to violent behavior? Lanza may have had Asperger’s syndrome but, even so, that is not a cause.
What if it’s too simple to lay the massacre at the feet of the gun lobby? Reader Larry Kelly tweets that shaming Aspies “makes about as much sense at stigmatizing the NRA. Pick an enemy … any enemy. Let outrage and fear rule.”
What if Lanza wasn’t provoked by video games? David Axelrod, a close friend an adviser of President Obama, tweeted last night: “In NFL post-game: an ad for shoot ‘em up video game. All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game.”
Blowback
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What!?
First and foremost, Adam Lanza is responsible for Adam Lanza. If he can function in public, he can be responsible for his actions.
And he will be known from now on as the scumbag in Connecticut.
cozmo on December 17, 2012 at 8:09 PM
That would mean that someone else isn’t responsible for our actions, and in this Brave New America such an idea just won’t fly.
Bishop on December 17, 2012 at 8:14 PM
That would be hell because leftieprogs need to be in control. Not necessary of themselves but the rest of us definitely.
vityas on December 17, 2012 at 8:29 PM
The point is that maybe there is no simple law or protocol that could have prevented this from happening.
WisCon on December 17, 2012 at 8:30 PM
We have to do something and do it in great haste!
forest on December 17, 2012 at 8:37 PM
The nut mother of his knew she was raising a lunatic and didn’t lock her guns up in a ridiculous safe. No kind of autism is going to take that blame away.
thphilli on December 17, 2012 at 8:41 PM
It’s all obama’s fault.
See how easy it is to find someone to blame?
Pork-Chop on December 17, 2012 at 8:52 PM
Without putting it quite that way, A good amount of blame could be put on the mother, just for allowing him access to the guns, having trained him in their use, and knowing he was severely disturbed and at the same time highly intelligent, intelligent enough to plan such an attack in detail and with deliberation.
Paul-Cincy on December 17, 2012 at 8:55 PM
It’s the guns fault. Ban them.
bgibbs1000 on December 17, 2012 at 8:56 PM
thphilli on December 17, 2012 at 8:41 PM
DAMMIT! Autism doesn’t make people kill!
annoyinglittletwerp on December 17, 2012 at 8:59 PM
The instant she knew that the kid was burning himself with lighters, she had a responsibility as a parent to make sure he did not have access to her guns so that he didn’t hurt himself. She failed completely in that regard. How a parent knows a child is hurting himself and allows him to have access to her arsenal is beyond me. I don’t know the woman obviously, but if the reports of her being a “prepper” are true, then she obviously had a few screws loose in her head as well.
thphilli on December 17, 2012 at 9:09 PM
You are serious, right? In today’s society all people are special little snowflakes and it’s all about feelings and self-esteem. If it made snowflake happy to learn how to shoot even though he was nuttier than a bag of pistachios, then learn how to shoot he was going to do. Are parents even allowed to say “no” anymore?
Yeah, she could have and should have been smarter, but we’ve let people become stupid and lazy. She’s just “unlucky” that her’s went postal. How many of them out there that for the grace of God are the same but have that last filter?
kim roy on December 17, 2012 at 9:26 PM
What? Do you mean what if it was just a psychotic asshole that killed for no other reason other than being a psychotic asshole? It can’t be. There must have been a reason. A conservative/republican reason like hate for same sex marriage or something like that. I blame Bush.
Frank Enstine on December 17, 2012 at 9:56 PM
As I’ve posited since Friday night.
What we know to be true…
We know the mother would frequently leave the shooter at home alone.
We know she believed the guns were necessary for protection.
We know she taught him, at least once, how to shoot.
So…
Why do we assume she didn’t teach him how to access the firearms in case of danger, when he was home alone?
Why else, was she teaching him how to use a gun?
budfox on December 17, 2012 at 10:31 PM
Even if it doesn’t accomplish anything! At least it’ll make us feel good – at least until the next one.
Ward Cleaver on December 17, 2012 at 10:38 PM
A Glock, a Sig, and a Bushmaster? Wow. Who was she afraid of? Someone in particular?
Ward Cleaver on December 17, 2012 at 10:41 PM
I don’t disagree, but she paid about the highest price she possibly could for it, too.
alwaysfiredup on December 17, 2012 at 10:41 PM
That was the reason she gave family and the few people she talked to guns about.
She was going down the “end o’ world” rabbit hole, since ’08.
I’m guessing, but it’s probably going to be the reason she initiated the divorce, along with the son.
Woman was losing it, so it makes no sense that she would leave this kid home, with weapons, if on one hand, she thought he could be in danger or two, he was a danger to himself.
Hell, she went to New Orleans with her other son and left the shooter home. For a week.
Where was he? At his fathers?
I’m betting what’s going to come out, is she used to lock this kid in his secluded part of the house, the adjoining two bedrooms.
Her pattern of being out was too frequent for a kid she felt the need to constantly watch over. No neighbor is claiming to have watched over or even seen the shooter in years.
budfox on December 17, 2012 at 10:59 PM
I’m curious, why are we thinking the mom was a nut or loosing it? I haven’t read everything published that we know so far, but I haven’t read anything negative about her?
First, he wasn’t really a kid, he was 20, an adult. Also, he wasn’t normal, but I haven’t read anything that suggests he had violent tendencies towards others. Even the reports of how weird he was in high school leaned towards him being withdrawn and introverted, not hostile and violent.
If he was hurting or burning himself, yes that is a problem sign of his mental health, but not necessarily a violent one. Lots of people with issues cut themselves that are not violent.
And we don’t know he had access, he could have overpowered her and forced her to give him the guns. But even if not, it’s irrelevant. He could have easily stolen weapons or made homemade explosives had he not had access at home.
I think it’s extremely unfair to blame the mom for what her 20 year old adult kid did knowing what we know now after the fact and not the situation before he did it.
rose-of-sharon on December 18, 2012 at 8:02 AM