Adam Lanza
Nearly a year after the horrific mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the state attorney general’s office has released a report. It provides many details and some answers, but there is one question to which the report concedes it has no answer:
Why did 20-year-old Adam Lanza kill 20 young children and six adults, after killing his mother in her own bed?
That there is no answer is not surprising. But what the report does remind us about Lanza is just as important.
Adam Lanza clearly had serious mental health issues. He was isolated at home and had been withdrawn from his peer group at school. He lived with his mother but refused to allow her into his room. Most of their communication was through email. He was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, manifested obsessive-compulsive behavior, was uncomfortable with loud noises and being touched, and did not like birthdays or holidays.
He refused to submit to any psychological therapy and though he had been prescribed medication, he refused to take it.
So far, we are describing “normal” psychological illness and/or developmental difficulties that definitely warrant attention but do not indicate a propensity for violence. Even if you consider Lanza’s known obsession with violent (and nonviolent) video games, we still are not necessarily dealing with a potentially dangerous individual. But when we add to that the report’s enumeration of a love of guns that he shared with his mother and a preoccupation with death and mass gun murder, all of the alarm bells should go off. The Attorney General’s report states that Lanza maintained a spreadsheet of mass murders and had pedophilia-related literature (though not graphic pornography).
In any situation of this nature, the “medical model” should be the guide. In other words, if you have acute or persistent sharp or pressing pain in your chest, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are having a heart attack. But it absolutely behooves you or those close to you to have it checked out right away. If a woman notes a lump in her breast, it does not mean she has cancer, but it needs to be checked out.
Likewise, anyone who already has known mental disease and displays a preoccupation with death or killing needs to be examined by competent authority. And each state needs to provide the easy access to mental health facilities that makes this doable.
That would have been the only practical way this horror could have been avoided.
We can talk all we want about limiting guns or enhancing background checks. But when you’ve got the pressing pain in the chest, you want to know where the nearest emergency room is, not how to eat a diet with less saturated fat.
It would be useful to know and understand the root causes of Adam Lanza’s motive. But his symptoms were observable, and that is what we need to learn from.
I definitely agree with this.
I also feel that improving the accessibility of mental healthcare would also help reduce the more common forms of murder and abuse. A lot of homicide and battery stems from relatively simple mental health problems, such as drug addiction or alcohol abuse.
When I first heard about this on the news the introduction to Anatomy of Motive came to mind. The events in that case are quite similar. A young adult gun addict attacked children at a school. There the motive as easier to understand. He was a pedophile who was denied access to children by the adults. There does not seem to be a clear trigging event in this case.
Tragic story. Mark,what are your views on gun control? While there are no easy answers,would you say that if we had stricter rules events like this could at least be less likely to occur?
I would love to see more gun control if I thought there was any compelling data that it would work. The fact is, Zeno, that we have so many guns floating around the country now that there is no effective way to keep them out of criminals’s hands. I would certainly like to see better background checks, but as we saw with Lanza, a mentally unstable individual can easily obtain a gun from someone else. And while I have so empathy or common cause with the NRA, I have to admit that it isn’t NRA members or sympathizers who are committing either the mass murders or felony murders. I believe the Second Amendment has been badly interpreted and has little relevance to the modern world, but it is there. I wish I had a real solution beyond greater awareness all around and vigorous prosecution of gun crimes – including cleaning out the prisons of nonviolent drug criminals so we have room for the violent gun criminals.
We would love to hear from you or anyone else on the issue. Thanks.
Zeno, with all due respect, gun control does not stop violence related to guns. Take a look at the statistics. The highest rates of gun-related homicides are in areas with the strictest firearm regulations. And here is a great big FYI for all the people who are so gung ho for gun control: Criminals do not care about laws! How is that so hard to understand? Tighter restrictions on guns does nothing to criminals, it just punishes those who are law abiding citizens who were given the right to own a firearm by the founders of this country. Too many people have jumped on the anti-gun bandwagon because somehow they imagine this is the end-all to gun related (or any related) violence. People need to know their history, they need to understand why the second ammendment was put there. The right to own a firearm means so much more than gun-ownership. It means, A. I have the ability to protect myself and my family, and B. I have the ability to provide food in cases of emergency for my family. It is a representation of freedom from dependency on any type of government entity and the ability to disagree with politics without being at risk to starve or be harmed. It is a tangible representation of every principle that this country was founded on. Strict regulations on guns are not going to stop violence anymore than regulations on knives stop stabbings. Bad and sick people do bad and sick things. Guns are not responsible for that, people are. If this country wants to change the way things are we have to concentrate on how to stop and/or help bad and sick people–not their weapon. That’s just crazy. Its like taking the car to jail when the driver is driving drunk.
Very well written, very straight forward. As a Peer Recovery Specialist-Mental Health…the observations are by your expertise. Where the Mother herself brought no further interventions-allowed guns, did the Mother. Have Mental Health that was not diagnosed herself, as part of potential breakdown in parenting? There are many resources out there, National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI). If Mother had Mental Challenges she may not have known where else to go for assistance or did not press for more help for her child..nor herself.
Interesting questions and observation, ChrisAnne. I think you’ve highlighted not only the need for mental health resources, but also a public education and awareness program on how to use them. Thanks.
Mark, while many comment that there was a breakdown in parenting, Asperger’s..denial to take prescribed meds..it’s not rational for the mother to have permitted guns. So why did no one pick up on the Mother..unfortunately Mental Health runs within family..not just a single person in a family with diagnosis. Mother seems to have had no fear..nor perhaps fully understanding Asperger’s.
Someone did not see all the signs with Mom &Son. Such a heartache..for both.