Since I wrote my initial post on this subject, more information has come to light on the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown Ct. on Friday, and it is predictably disturbing.
The shooter, Adam Lanza, took his own life. Par for the course. The New York Daily News, in today's editions, reported that Lanza was----wait for it----diagnosed with an undisclosed personality disorder. In other words, this mook might have been schizophrenic. Worse still, he was carrying his brother's ID, which is why said brother, Ryan, was initially ID'd as the perp. Lanza, 20, slew his mother, who was a teacher at the school, then went to the school and killed 26 more, including 20 children (up from 18 in the initial posting), before turning the gun on himself to avoid going to jail and accepting the consequences and responsibility for his heinous actions.
One clue as to his motive might be the fact that his parents were divorced, and the father has long since remarried. Ryan Lanza told reporters he hadn't seen Adam in more than 2 years, which asks a more important question. How did Adam get hold of one of his brother's ID cards?
There is a local angle to this case in relation to my home district. The principal at Sandy Hook was in line for a doctorate from Russell Sage College, and thus, The Record ran a feature piece on her.
The biggest question remains unspoken, of course, in every other city. What if this happens here? We don't know that for sure. While schools around the country are using metal detectors and other means of security to dissuade kids from carrying guns into school to resolve personal conflicts, they still have to watch for the disillusioned, disaffected, disconnected-from-reality types who somehow, despite their afflictions, can gain access to guns and think that it solves all their problems. No, it doesn't. It never will.
There's a lot in this story that is messed up. Ryan Lanza was originally pegged as the shooter because the geniuses in charge of the media searched Facebook and found Ryan's page and automatically assumed he was the shooter without checking further. Before long, other mainstream sites copied each other and claimed the same. Ryan had to send tweets insisting he didn't do anything (as he was at work in NJ) and was likely dodging death threats.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible Adam got a hold of his brother's ID - either he visited his brother's place to grab it or perhaps he did what kids used to do to get fake IDs - borrow an older sibling's birth certificate and go get a license at the DMV.
The mental issue Adam had has been described in some outlets as "Aspberger's Syndrome" a form of autism (but highly functional on the autism scale) but I'm not sure if that is the reason this kid did what he did. Personally I think drugs had something to do with it (warping the mind and igniting paranoid delusions) but it may be a while if ever before we get the truth.
I feel horrible that so many parents have to bury their kids at Christmastime.
It's come to light that there was a near-copycat in California on Saturday, and that police in Oklahoma picked up an 18 year old dweeb well before the Newtown incident on Friday. This punk decided he wanted some of his friends to help him kill some people he didn't like.
ReplyDeleteJust what is wrong with kids today?