Mother of Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza 'was a gun obsessive living in fear of society's collapse'

[TomCADem]

Source: Telegraph UK

The mother of Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza who slaughtered 20 US schoolchildren and seven adults was a gun-hoarding survivalist who was stockpiling weapons in preparation for an economic collapse, it has emerged.

Nancy Lanza was shot four times in the head before her son Adam gunned down young pupils and teachers at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza told reporters at her Illinois home that her gun-obsessed relative was part of the ‘prepper’ movement that fears an economic collapse will lead to a breakdown in society.

“She prepared for the worst,” Ms Lanza said.


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/mother-of-sandy-hook-gunman-adam-lanza-was-a-gun-obsessive-living-in-fear-of-societys-collapse-16251468.html

---

I guess we should not be surprised that the gunman's mom was a prepper, which would explain why she had the arsenal that she did. It makes you wonder about the recent glorification of Preppers on the History Channel, which shows familes loading up on firearms and dry goods in preparation for the collapse of society. My take is the glorification of this movement along with right wing media's celebration of guns and paranoia about the government has lead to an explosive mix.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

1. I think it's interesting....

....that she and her family were certainly living a hell of a lot higher on the hog than a lot of other folks in this world. Usually preppers are hiding out in a bunker in the woods.

[TomCADem]

10. Many of The Doomsday Preppers Featured On National Geographic...

Are fairly well off and can afford impressive arsenals.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/shows/doomsday-preppers

[OneMoreDemocrat]

64. I dunno...

the more you have, the more you have to protect.

Seems to me that the type of folks who would seek to follow this path are those with 'stuff' that they want to keep for themselves once the end times start up.

[Loudly]

2. That's ironic. Fear of breakdown in society actually furthering it.

[They_Live]

63. Indeed, they are the breakdown.

We should all help each other, not destroy each other.

[svpadgham]

3. Ironic

I guess she wasn't prepared for the worst.

[Agschmid]

4. Also DailyMail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249185/Connecticut-school-shooting-Did-paranoid-gun-crazed-mother-trigger-Adam-Lanzas-school-killing-spree-Friends-say-believed-world-edge-collapse.html

[PSPS]

8. From your linked article...

[Windy]

5. Probably another Glenn Beck inspired nut.

No matter what her reasons, her illness, which is what it is, fostered illness in her son. She also gave him access to massive weapons and ammunition by obviously failing to secure her stockpile. So senseless.

[Divine Discontent]

6. It doesn't sound, then, like it's a big step to say she was a Fox News viewer...

and yet, that rotten animal, Huckster, should have been blaming the "end of the world" crowd that is hypnotized into watching Fox day and night!

[SemperEadem]

40. I seem to recall him just the other day

saying it was because god was taken out of public schools that his tragedy occurred. Well, the boy was taken out of public school and home schooled by his paranoid mother---so what about that, suckabee? The lack of god in public schools had nothing to do with this.

[malibea]

57. Ouch!

Take that! Now what is the "EXCUSE"?

[wordpix]

70. wow, someone should throw that back in Huckster's face, what an idiot

[Disgraceland]

7. And NRA...?

So what I'm wondering is: Was she an NRA member?

[YOHABLO]

9. Well this Apocalyptic ideology is presented time and again on the History Channel

This channel has strayed away from ''history'' and now has become the extra terrestrial/ end of times/ Nostradamus/ Mayan prophesies/ earth without people .. channel.

[TomCADem]

11. The Branch Davidians Were An Apocalyptic Cult, Yet Today...

...Folks who embrace this extremism are celebrated and featured on the History Channel and National Geographic.

[llmart]

49. The History Channel has very little to do with actual history any longer.

What I found back when I used to have cable (I won't waste my time or money on cable any longer) was it was the "let's glorify war" channel.

[Divine Discontent]

12. oh, Lord, so she was a Doomsday Prepper, essentially!

these people waste more money on stupid survivalist crap in preparation for an economic apocalypse than I make in a year struggling horribly to care for my brother with MS. There's millions of people who believe this crap and have been living in fear since Y2K and especially after 9/11 when the psychological warfare began on the people placing many in fear. I think a good chunk of people who watch Faux Noise Channel for "news" are believers just like this woman at 13 seconds into this episode of doomsday preppers (you could literally hear Ms Lanza, the shooter's mom, saying what this lady says in the intro!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. I am not so sure how much of that is true

The gun collection is not that of a serious prepper. Not even close. Not clear what other things she was or was not doing. That she was a sport shooter appears to be true, but we do not even know what kind of shooting she did.

The European media has picked up on this but the US media is not pushing it nearly as hard. There are regional aspects to salaciousness it would appear.

==============================

As for prepping...I will freely admit to being a little tiny one.

Like others here on DU, some even on this thread (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021996670)have owned up to it. Its nothing to be ashamed of.

I live in the middle of raw desert in SoCal. Since the earthquake is coming, I have a reasonable amount of water and food stored. I also have a means to convert my solar panels from grid tie to local usage. I have a comm plan to contact my family (I live alone). So yes I have made some plans. All of this is recommended by FEMA and the state disaster people. I know my neighbors (though they are not physically close) and there would be cooperation. Guess I won't be on NatGeo at this rate.

Prepper is a huge continuum. Some are hardcore TEOTAWAKI idiots that scare the hell out of me. Most are like Mormons doing the 1 year supply of food/provident living thing and are fairly innocuous. Some are like me, Nadin, and others DUers who look at week to a month. The differences are dramatic in cost and attitude.

I recent saw for the first time the NatGeo TV shows about Preppers. I hope most of it is faked like many reality TV shows. Some real freaks there.

Everyone knows some preppers along that sliding scale. Many do not talk about it. If they are minor ones, like me, you assume everyone has that level of stuff done. If they are some of the freaks they don't talk about in case the zombies hear about it

[jeff47]

14. Here's the difference

You're doing disaster preparedness in a situation where there's plenty of evidence a disaster will come. But you aren't preparing for a hurricane.

The failure of most "prepers" is they leave out a step in their scenario:

1) Disease/Economic Collapse/whatever happens.
2) Existing infrastructure can't deal with it.
4) Society collapses.

It doesn't seem to occur to them that there is a step 3. That's the step when martial law is imposed. Governments don't roll over and disappear. They fight for their survival.

If the disaster prepers fear comes to pass, the government will eventually break out the tanks an other hardware to survive. Meaning society won't collapse.

[davidpdx]

15. According to my former co-worker

he said his mother had been barking about Obama imposing martial law all summer when he was home from Asia. From what he has said about her, she could be one of the same types with all the guns and food. I told him that he shouldn't go home next summer. Scary stuff.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. Actually we took similar precautions when we were in MD and we went through several hurricanes

Different in that there were four of us at the time, but not in intent. The good part was we had some warning and a basement. We lost trees and an outbuilding, but nothing serious. That was when I first learned that every woman in the house had some unique preferences.

Most preppers are not TEOTAWAKI, which is what you are addressing. They are like Nadin, myself, even the Mormons. The guys on TV are really freaks.

I have taken a look at some of their scenarios and I find them to be beyond credulity. However, I do not agree with your analysis either. In the case of a fairly instantaneous major breakdown nationwide, martial law could not address the resource issues and places like LA would die of thirst in the dark. In the case of a slower problem, there would be time for civil preparedness and the government could remain in control. However none of the doomsday scenarios I have seen are realistic, so I will limit myself to the big earthquake.

[jeff47]

22. I think you vastly underestimate the speed at which the military can be deployed

We're talking about a situation where either they break out the guns or the government goes away. That's plenty of incentive for the government to move quickly instead of worrying about "states rights" and such.

In the case of a fairly instantaneous major breakdown nationwide

The problem is believing such a situation exists. Even a plague takes a while to spread.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

24. I know pretty well how fast some units can deploy

However most units are not kept at that status, they would need to recall people, activate reserves and the NG. I also cannot see it being needed.

I too do not believe such a situation could happen either. Their view is some sort of EMP, natural or man made. Doing the math shows just how unlikely that would be.

[napoleon_in_rags]

26. You are totally right.

The prepper scenarios where law enforcement and military go away never made much sense to me.

[Patiod]

16. After Sandy, I adopted a little of that.

Getting a gas insert for my fireplace so I have heat for at least one room next time the electric goes, I stockpile some food and water (per FEMA), and we use kerosene lamps all summer on the deck, and they were mighty handy when the electricity went out

I think its the whole "underclasses gonna rise up and try to get our stuff" mentality that's so creepy.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. Its not going to be the underclasses, its going to be the Zombies...didn't you get the memo?

The TEOTAWAKI guys are actually fairly rational in some ways. If you accept their assumptions, some of it actually makes sense.

If there was somehow a nationwide EMP event that disabled the overwhelming majority of power distribution, comms, and just about anything electric, it would be one helluva mess and all of their nightmares could well happen. However, when you do some basic calculations on the size of the weapons and the technology it takes to get them there, you realize that it is just not going to happen.

A funny story along those lines. A student asked me on behalf of his mother (a TEOTAWAKI prepper) how hard it would be to build a Faraday Cage to protect a computer. When I asked why, he said she wanted to be able to get on the Internet after the everything fried. She was serious. I was courteous to the student and suggested that if the big zap happened, there was not going to be an Internet, something his mother had not even considered.

[coalition_unwilling]

29. I keep a couple pounds of dry lentils and several gallons of water handy (and

adequate supplies of salt and pepper). I figure if the shit hits the fan, I can go all-lentil for at least a few days. The lentil is a very versatile little foodstuff, nutritious as hell and very chamaleon-like in its ability to absorb whatever spices one throws at it. Can't praise it highly enough. Dry storage is a piece of cake (npi).

[ProgressiveProfessor]

31. For short term situations, buy more of what you usually eat seems to be the best way

I am on a well and have a storage tank, I have LOTS of water. For food its canned or dried stuff that I would eat anyway. Don't have much in the fridge normally. Do have a little freeze dried camping stuff. I have refused to stock MREs. I carry lifeboat rations in my road kit. I hope I never need to eat those.

I have learned to date the cans...sometimes they get pushed to the back of the shelf and stay there too long.

[coalition_unwilling]

32. Sounds like you're simply being prudent. Hey, if the shit does hit the

fan in SoCal and you can still drive, stop on by for some of my lentil stew!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

33. When the big one comes, few people will be driving anywhere

I ride a KLR 90% of the time. It can get through just about anything. Short of a major crevasse opening up across SoCal, I should be able to get home.

Lifeboat rations are interesting 5 year shelf life regardless of temperature. http://www.bestglide.com/Mainstay_3600_Info.html

[Comrade Grumpy]

18. You're right; that is pretty cold.

[truthisfreedom]

20. Possibly part of the problem, but I think the son was mentally ill.

He took it to an entirely different place.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

23. Not sure we know enough to say that yet, but it is certainly a possibility.

The divorce was not all that long ago, so I would think the roots of it go back before then. No one is saying or asking anything about his father.

Its going to be a sordid tale when this all comes out.

[davidpdx]

25. True

I've been avoiding reading to much in the media because they glorify people like this the same way they did with the guy who shot Gabby Giffords. I think it's very possible the mother was manipulating him and he was a ticking time bomb. It will be interesting when and if the father comes forward and says something (who knows, maybe he won't). Other family members seem to know what was going on so they might give a better indication of the situation.

I happened to see the clip of the beginning of SNL and just bawled my eyes out. It was a very classy thing for the show, the school and the kids in the choir to do.

[napoleon_in_rags]

27. Last I heard, he was a sane adult. That makes the mother a victim.

The story seems to switch every day regarding whether the guy was mentally gone or not, but the bad guy here is clearly the one who opened fire on 20 elementary school students. We can't forget that.

[primavera]

46. No one who shoots up a school full of children is sane

That is a contradiction in terms.

[obamanut2012]

56. Not true -- sociopaths are sane

[Nihil]

66. Sociopaths are sane but homicidal sociopaths aren't.

Given that "sanity" is largely a convention rather than an objective state anyway,
the difference between "a sociopath" and "a sociopath who murders loads of random
children" can only be described as the presence of insanity.

[obamanut2012]

67. We have to agree to disagree

Sociopathy isn't a mental illness.

[Nihil]

68. Did you actually read what I posted?

> Sociopathy isn't a mental illness.

Find where I suggested that it was.

Hint: This was what I posted

>> Sociopaths are sane but homicidal sociopaths aren't.
>> Given that "sanity" is largely a convention rather than an objective state anyway,
>> the difference between "a sociopath" and "a sociopath who murders loads of random
>> children" can only be described as the presence of insanity.

Second hint: the adjective "homicidal" and the clause "murders loads of random children"
are the defining aspects of both sentences. Anyone with a grasp of English would be
capable of recognising that neither of the above sentences suggest that sociopathy
is "a mental illness".

[malibea]

59. I agree with you.

I agree with you totally. No sane person shoots and kills children, randomly! Especially if they don't even know them .

[Myrina]

61. Disagree.

Having been an outsider since childhood, picked on by schoolmates and adults, teased/humiliated/ marginalized and having those scars deeply ingrained so that some 30 years later they come back and ravage me all over again, I can say that it wouldn't be a stretch of imagination - or an episode of insanity - that would cause anyone the kind of rage & dispair that would lead them to do what Lanza did.

Sometimes you just get fed up and filled with rage at how obnoxious the human race is & how hateful/hurtful the world seems.
Some people stop themselves short and some people say 'fuck it' and walk into a (school/movie theatre/hospital) with a machine gun.

[napoleon_in_rags]

65. I feel that too, but I'm waiting for the facts to come out.

I'm really interested in what this guy's deal was. I deeply feel you're right.

But still, even if he was insane, the mother still paid a hell of a price for making the wrong choices regarding his treatment or whatever, that was the original point. But I'm sure you agree with that, and I gather that's not what you're saying.

[primavera]

69. I wasn't expecting so much debate on the matter

I gather posters are concerned about what constitutes "insanity" from a legal and/or clinical point of view, which wasn't really what I was thinking about at the time. Personally, I take a broader view of "insanity" than either the legal or the psychiatric communities seem to, so I'm not really speaking to those communities and they technical debates. As far as I'm concerned, if you shoot up a bunch of children, there is something seriously wrong with your mental state. Since I believe that actions don't occur without some underlying cause and I'm not a believer in simplistic, moral notions of "evil"... well, mental illness figures prominently in my personal interpretation of such events.

[coalition_unwilling]

30. If humanity 'got what it deserved,' Earth would be a people-free planet. How's

that for cold?

[Chemisse]

35. It is cold. The ex babysitter described her as

a loving mother who did a lot for her kids.

It must have been hellacious raising this young man.

[John2]

39. By all accounts

to me she was a loving mother. You can love your kids too much also and be overly protective of them. I heard that she left her job as a financier and married a guy who became very successful at a company like Mitt Romney did. She sounds like Ann Romney to me. She sounds like a woman, that depends on men and easily influenced by them. I'm intrigue with her love of guns and how she might have perceived things in society. I don't think she deserved anything but just a misguided woman, influenced by her circle of friends. It seems like that her friends are really circling the wagons trying to protect her too. That is understandable they are loyal to her. If Adam was my son, I would have gotten him help a long time ago from professionals, instead of maybe overly protecting him. She could afford it. The former Husband sounds like the type, that goes out and made the money like Mitt Romney, while the wife stayed at home to take care of the kids. This was a very wealthy family, with their own circle of friends. Usually they are protective and portray things as if it is a fairy tale, yet they divorced.

[Chemisse]

42. When the whole story comes out, we will probably see that she got him plenty of help.

That would be my bet. And I don't think there is any evidence that she was OVERprotective, except in the sense that she had school personnel on the lookout for him hurting himself accidentally because of his inability to feel pain. But I think any parent would be cautious in that way.

[John2]

43. I ask one question of you?

Is there any information out there, that Mrs Lanza taught or encouraged her troubled son how to shoot and become familiarized with guns?

[llmart]

50. I've read on other threads here....

that she took her sons to shooting ranges all the time.

[Chemisse]

55. I haven't seen it first hand, but that's what is being said.

That is generally a good idea if a kid is going to be around guns. I have never seen any evidence that being trained to use guns properly leads to mass murder, and in fact I have not seen evidence that being familiar with guns is more likely to make one a killer.

Illnesses like schizophrenia usually come on in the late teens and early 20s, so the killer may not have been mentally ill as a youngster.

[Sienna86]

37. Highly possible she suffered from some mental health issue herself

Let's see what the investigation turns up.

[cliffordu]

28. I wish she was still alive to see what the fruit of her life wrought.

I'd love it to see her interviewed by the media.

I wish she could carry that weight to her grave.

Unfortunately the little shit she bore, the fruit of her life, the beast to whom she supplied the guns,

the human waste that killed all of those babies and their teachers took that from us, too.

May they both rot in hell, cellmates forever.

[davidpdx]

38. In some respects she's lucky she doesn't have to deal with the fallout

No matter what her involvement was.

[Sky Masterson]

34. Right-wing Media is to blame for this

They stoked her paranoia.

[RandiFan1290]

36. Glenn Beck loses another Facebook friend. nt

[UpInArms]

41. the history channel is part of the newscorp arsenal

Happened a couple of years ago

[KurtNYC]

44. Look at the power of expectations.

Shooting 20 first graders IS the collapse of civilization.

Civilization is bombarded with negative images and expectations -- all so that somebody can make a buck.

[Franker65]

45. Society really has broken down as we know it

How would these gun-nuts feel if their own kids were shot in cold blood. Disgusting and needs to change.

[ancianita]

47. There's an entire prepper culture. Nat Geo's had season shows on this. WTF? Is this hype?

Infowars claims that these people will all be rounded up as domestic terrorists. Are these people an example of a collective sickness? If these executive orders are real, what do we all really make of them?

All of this is unsettling, and the public should at least be aware that this exists. I really don't know how to think about it all.

[Zoeisright]

48. Then she got what she wanted.

Doomsday.

[gordianot]

51. Guns will not help concern about Society's collapse, election of Right Wing nutjobs is the problem.

There are too many to list. One entire political party.

[toby jo]

52. Fear's a monster, it's a drug - these folks live in that grip

Would like to see these guys stand up to the psychological component of why they are doing what they do. From the outside, we get it, it's easy to see.

Where are their leaders? Quit humping your guns, guys, and stand up like men and think.

[malibea]

62. Thank you, thank you!

You are saying what needs to be said, sir or madame. These losers, cop outs and otherwise general rejects and dejects, can not cope period! First, they think that the world owes them something- WHICH IT DOESN'T! And secondly, they think that they own the effing world and that when things don't go their way, they get mad and start shooting.

All of them need to go away --to someplace where perhaps someone gives a fluk about what they think! I am sick and tired of hearing their whining about things going wrong. Nobody promised them a rose garden. They are lucky to be alive the way they have existed up until now.

Geez-Get a life!

[yellowcanine]

53. I heard the term "prepper" for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

Can't go into the details as it was a confidential inquiry but suffice it to say I was less than impressed by the coherence of the person asking the question. The fact that these are some of the people stocking up on guns and ammo should concern us all.

[Hubert Flottz]

54. Too Much Rush Limbo and

Glenn Beck?

[and-justice-for-all]

58. She was a 'doomsday Prepper'?

I wonder how much influence that NATGEO program had on her.

[Myrina]

60. Sounds like she had mental issues of her own ...

n/t