“I am feeling that there is more anger toward the mother than there is toward the son”
“Why would a woman who had a son like this, who clearly had serious issues, keep assault rifles in the house and teach him how to shoot them?” she said. “To deal with that, there’s a feeling here that we’re just going to focus on the 26 innocent people who died at the school.”…
Nancy Lanza apparently broke no laws and suffered a violent, tragic death. People who knew her — those who played in her regular dice game and those who saw her at her regular restaurant — said she was devoted to her son and kind and generous to others. They see her as a victim like any of the others.
But for some, how to refer to her — and what to think of her — is a subject of much conversation. While some call her the first victim, many think she bears at least some of the blame.
“Maybe somewhere there is a deep thought that the shooter’s mother could be responsible for leaving the guns available,” said Himansu Patel, the Newtown Convenience and Deli owner, who decided to leave Nancy Lanza out of his memorial to the victims.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »
Geez, is it really necessary to p-ss on the grave of this woman? She was shot in the face multiple times for God’s sake.
Doughboy on December 20, 2012 at 12:02 PM
As there should be.
Jabberwock on December 20, 2012 at 12:04 PM
We don’t know what the “availability” was. That is speculative. Maybe they were locked up and she kept the combination on her computer and her son hacked into it or something or maybe they were locked with a key and he somehow obtained the keys. Maybe she had only ONE weapon easily available and that was all he needed to kill her and then gain access to the others. From the information we have available, we just don’t know what the availability situation of those weapons was or how he gained access to them.
Did he use HER ammunition or did he obtain it from the Internet? We just don’t know. We DO know that he attempted to purchase weapons twice, the last time being three days before the shootings. That would imply that getting access to the ones in the house wasn’t so easy else he wouldn’t have needed to attempt to purchase weapons on his own.
crosspatch on December 20, 2012 at 12:06 PM
There seems like a lot of speculation about this poor woman. We don’t even know if there was a gun safe or not in the house. I suspect there was but he managed to get into it. I doubt he would need to be taught to shoot when you can learn anything off the internet. From what I gather, which may or may not be true since the MSM is my source:
he broke all contact with the father when he remarried
he became even more withdrawn
the mother tried to take him on a trip to get him out of the house
she tried to interest him into going to college or getting a job
she took him to a psychiatrist.
Blake on December 20, 2012 at 12:09 PM
What we do know:
She owned firearms.
What we don’t know (and may never know):
Whether she kept them locked up and the son found the key.
Whether she taught him how to use them (he certainly did know how to use them – we don’t know if SHE taught him).
But the idea that she should bear the brunt of outrage more than her son is ridiculous. She didn’t kill anybody.
Bitter Clinger on December 20, 2012 at 12:09 PM
Thank you.
Blake on December 20, 2012 at 12:10 PM
Why? First we don’t know how she stored her guns, and do you think she really thought he would flip out and kill her? Was she naive and stupid- probably..
That being said her son was fricking EVIL.. And he was smart and lucid enough to smash his hard drive to unrecoverable pieces. And he knew right and wrong enough to kill himself when the police go there.
The anger should be directed at the person who shot and killed 26 adults and children.
melle1228 on December 20, 2012 at 12:11 PM
You make a point. I read someplace, true or not, that the mother told someone not to turn their back to her son? She apparently knew he had a severe problem? She might have done more than we know about on how the kid was able to get the guns?
L
letget on December 20, 2012 at 12:11 PM
As soon as the story about her being a “prepper” got out, she was going to be the primary villain to alot of people whether she deserves it or not. I’ll just wait until there are more confirmed facts instead of continuing to react to one dubious report after another.
forest on December 20, 2012 at 12:11 PM
Bingo!
melle1228 on December 20, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Agree with you folks ^^^. As usual, the MSM is forming conclusions without knowing very many facts.
KS Rex on December 20, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Seeing as how many unstable young people are out there who could be the next mass shooter, its easier for the low-information types to blame the mother.
It makes them feel better.
cozmo on December 20, 2012 at 12:15 PM
Plenty of sensitive, caring comments from the Democrat Voters at the WaPo link:
Del Dolemonte on December 20, 2012 at 12:16 PM
I wonder why there isn’t anger toward Adam Lanza’a father and brother? If he was so noticeable off why hadn’t the school district done more? Or perhaps just perhaps he was not deemed dangerous by most people. For some reason psychotic people don’t have “I’m crazy lock me up” tatooed across their foreheads.
katiejane on December 20, 2012 at 12:17 PM
I feel like she was in over her head with him. The fact that he could not personally get guns, but was able to get hers and knew how to use them very well since he had training would suggest she made a poor decision.
How much blame she should be assigned is unknowable at this point without more information.
Dash on December 20, 2012 at 12:18 PM
I want to know what’s on that hard drive.
Kataklysmic on December 20, 2012 at 12:21 PM
Cross patch+1
Natch del
cmsinaz on December 20, 2012 at 12:23 PM
Sure, some are angry with the mother. But where were they to help her care for and deal with her son, day-in and day-out? Maybe they could have made the difference.
Christien on December 20, 2012 at 12:24 PM
I think the anger should be properly directed at Bushmaster, Glock, and Sig Sauer.
/MSM
CorporatePiggy on December 20, 2012 at 12:25 PM
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on December 20, 2012 at 12:30 PM
It was a babysitter when he was like 8 if it is the same thing I remember reading.
rose-of-sharon on December 20, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Sorry.
I know I am knee jerking on this one. I try not to do that.
However, from personal experience, I feel VERY strongly that the guns should not have been in the house. If she knew that either he was losing control or she control over him, those guns should have been gone. First thing.
It is sad to be critical of Mrs. Lanza. She has suffered greatly.
I am an ardent supporter of our 2nd Amendment rights. But as with any right, comes responsibility.
Jabberwock on December 20, 2012 at 12:32 PM
Jabberwock on December 20, 2012 at 12:32 PM
I agree with you. I don’t think the guns should have been in the house, but hindsight is 20/20. I don’t truly think if this mom suspected her son was violent she would have kept them there. I think she was probably naive and a little dumb, but I can’t conceive of her keeping guns even is she suspected he would only kill her. From what I have read, the only violent acts he ever commit was against himself. I think there was more of a fear of him hurting himself than others which would have been a red flag to get the guns out of the home.
I just think that in all of this we have lost the fact that the blame really falls on the one who planned, knew and committed the act. We have a tendency to blame everyone else and forget that.
melle1228 on December 20, 2012 at 12:38 PM
I’d want to know a lot more before I go blabbering like that. When did she buy them; when did she teach him; when did he start showing his violent tendencies? People who don’t the chronology of events always line them up in their heads to fit their question and it may not be so.
Anyway, she didn’t buy assault weapons. She bought weapons. They can be used for assault or defense. By descriptions of her character and life, if she bought and kept any kind of weapon it was a defense weapon.
Dusty on December 20, 2012 at 12:40 PM
You’ll get no quarrel from me on that.
First and foremost, it was him. That cannot change.
Jabberwock on December 20, 2012 at 12:49 PM
We don’t have all the facts yet, so don’t blame a victim and shift blame from the murderer. Nobody thinks their own kids is going to kill them, let alone the students at the school she volunteered at. This sort of thinking is what fuels the gun control demagogues, it’s disgusting.
Daemonocracy on December 20, 2012 at 12:51 PM
I have taught my oldest two grandsons gun safety and how to fire handguns. It really isn’t that difficult to use a handgun. In a classroom firing a handgun would be like shooting fish in a barrel not at all difficult. It doesn’t speak to any expertise at all.
As to all the speculation about the availability of the weapons in the home it is exactly that vain and idle speculation.
chemman on December 20, 2012 at 12:53 PM
This morning, CNN was running one of their silly opinion requests; this one was “How should Nancy Lanza be remembered.” Our instant response: “Who?”
apostic on December 20, 2012 at 12:57 PM
Mason Jenkins. Their son killed his sister & was waiting for his parents to return so he could kill them, too. Parents in total denial. I would feel sorry for them but for the fact that the dead daughter seems like an afterthought if they ever think of her at all.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/05/07/13868906.html
Blake on December 20, 2012 at 1:00 PM
Has there been reports of Adam Lanza having *any* violent tendencies prior than attempting to buy a gun a few days prior? The only thing I’m remembering is burning himself, but I also recall he might have had the disease where he doesn’t feel pain normally which can very logically explain why he would be experimenting with hurting himself. I agree that she might have had very little reason to believe he would do anything like this and until we know more I am going to reserve judgement.
Also very good point that if her weapons were so accessible to him there is no reason he’d attempt to buy his own and wait 3 days later to access hers. Of course we don’t know yet or maybe never will, but it points to the fact it at least they weren’t too readily available.
From all accounts I read she had dedicated her life to her kids and and everyone that tells accounts of her is positive. Maybe it was her pushing for him to get out of the house more that sent him over, it’s the only substantiated thing I’ve seen so far that points to any motive, hardly a reason to implicate her in what her son did.
rose-of-sharon on December 20, 2012 at 1:00 PM
She left him home alone, repeatedly, for days on end. In fact, she went on a mini-vacation, driving five-hours away, for the two days before the shooting.
She also taught him how to use the guns.
So either she taught him to open the safe in case of a break-in, or she kept it off guard until she came home.
My bet is on the former.
———————————————————————
Want to know why Newtown happened?
Christopher Krumm, 25. Was living in Massachusetts.
He drove to Wyoming and killed his father, a teacher, on Nov 30, during class.
Why? He blamed his father for “giving birth” to him with Aspergers.
That was all part of the initial new reports.
Two weeks later – to the day – Newtown.
Krumm was another one misdiagnosed with autism early in life, and was actually schizo.
The only reason Krumm didn’t attack his father’s class, was because his father – with an arrow in his head – attacked his son so the students could get out.
Newtown was the shooter’s interpretation of what Krumm did. Kill your parent, attack a school.
budfox on December 20, 2012 at 1:01 PM
Im trying to recall the level of anger against the parents of others who shot people – Hinkley, Berkowitz, the Columbine shooters. Didpeople blame the Son of Sam’s parents?
katiejane on December 20, 2012 at 1:03 PM
Where’s the idiot father in all of this? Why does he get a pass?
envycat on December 20, 2012 at 1:06 PM
I’m just spitballing, but if Adam did have Asperger’s or another similar autistic condition, Nancy including her son in her shooting hobby may well have been done on advice of her therapist or the doctor trating Adam. Sometimes docs will suggest that parents include autistic kids in favored hobbies as a way to connect and hopefully get them to open up a little.
If Adam did indeed have a formal diagnosis of Asperger’s, that condition isn’t associated with violence so it could well have been reasonable.
Another thought…Some Aspies particularly like machines, engineering, and such. so delving into the many moving parts of a rifle and how everything comes together could be another way Nancy was trying to connect with her son.
Guess the main thing is since we don’t know any facts, let’s not rush to demoniz Nancy Lanze over something she, for all we know, may have been done with the full support of the docs trying to help her with her son.
JohnTant on December 20, 2012 at 1:10 PM
From what I do know of Mrs. Lanza…I would hate to have had to walk in her shoes…
d1carter on December 20, 2012 at 1:10 PM
It seems Monday morning quarterbacking is the new national pastime.
I may be just a dumb hick, but I blame the psychopath that actually killed people.
Fazman on December 20, 2012 at 1:13 PM
I do remember a lot of questions about why didn’t the parents of the Columbine perpetrators see anything coming. They were minors in high school though. Maybe because this was a 20 year old, it’s a grey area between childhood and manhood?
Curious about the situation with dad and brother too. Divorse as recent as 2009 so he grew up with him although no telling how much he was present. They hadn’t had contact in years, but not sure why and if that was a mutually desirable situation.
rose-of-sharon on December 20, 2012 at 1:17 PM
I saw a special about this a few years back. His parents went to the prison and had picnic lunches with him. During filming, their son quit blaming anonymous thugs for his sister’s death and finally said he did it (to the camera, when his parents weren’t around). By the end after they knew of the confession, they seemed to be looking for other denials to hide behind, because he was the only child they had left. Sad.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on December 20, 2012 at 1:18 PM
But he was fairly recently a minor child, who only got access to weapons because of his mother. His mother knew very well he was mentally and emotionally disturbed.
Paul-Cincy on December 20, 2012 at 1:19 PM
Anyone who ever bought a gun, is a bad person and is responsible for all gun crimes.
/liberal dogma
Rebar on December 20, 2012 at 1:21 PM
What do you mean?
cozmo on December 20, 2012 at 1:24 PM
You left out racist.
cozmo on December 20, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Another thing, the relationship between mother and disturbed shooter was apparently very tight. Her decisions had a great effect on his life — she was highly involved in his life.
There will be dozens of books written on this. By that time maybe they’ll actually get some of the facts right. I get the impression there’s a story here to tell that makes sense. Both he and his parents were well-educated and had ties to the community. This may have been the only thing wrong he did his entire life. So how did it happen?
Paul-Cincy on December 20, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Why are we so desperate to find someone to blame?
alwaysfiredup on December 20, 2012 at 1:25 PM
And the Columbine shooters were STILL minors.
You speak as if his attending doctor has provided you a dx. Did you read something other than the general info that he had Aspberger’s and his mother had become concerned about him? Are all young men whose parents have concerns about their behavior emotionally/mentally disturbed?
katiejane on December 20, 2012 at 1:25 PM
The brother is 24 & probably moved out of the house when he was 18. The parents separated in 2006 & divorced in 2009. He often saw his son & never quibbled about financially supporting him. In 2010 he remarried. Also tow years ago, Adam refused to talk or see him. I would assume the two events were connected, but who knows? Anyway, you can’t interact with someone who doesn’t want to interact with you. He was an adult by this time though financially dependent on his parents. Maybe they could have used that to push him more which could have easily backfired. I think his mother was trying to get him to be more independent.
Blake on December 20, 2012 at 1:25 PM
The fact he tried to go out and purchase a rifle first tells me her guns weren’t readily available to him or he wouldn’t have had any reason to attempt to purchase one.
There’s more to the story than what we’ll ever know because everyone is dead.
ButterflyDragon on December 20, 2012 at 1:28 PM
Yeah, that’s the documentary I saw. He only fessed up because he knew that continuing to lie would hurt his chances of parole. Prison looked pretty nice, too. He had a television, computer, stereo, & pictures of naked ladies in his “cell.”
Blake on December 20, 2012 at 1:30 PM
The article is right about one major thing. All media count 26 murdered. The mother isn’t pictured with the victims. Or counted in their number.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on December 20, 2012 at 1:33 PM
There’s a story that makes sense here but we still don’t know what it is. Was he a “nobody” who wanted to become a “somebody” even in death? Did he have a fight with his mother? Did he feel so defective that he couldn’t cope, and so went to his elementary school (some say he attended that school) to take his anger out at his past? Was he delusional, psychotic? Or was he fixated on some idea? There’s an explanation, we just don’t know what it is yet.
Paul-Cincy on December 20, 2012 at 1:34 PM
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »