Where did Adam learn to use guns? At home, like most mass shooters.

[pnwmom]

Obviously, the vast majority of people whose parents teach them to use guns do not go on to become mass murderers.

BUT a disturbed young person with no familiarity with guns is less likely to use them to carry out a crime than someone who is both knowledgeable about and comfortable with -- and maybe excited by -- firearms.

I can't understand why any parent with a child who's having a tough time getting through life -- as Adam clearly was -- would encourage an interest in guns and in target shooting, and would keep guns around the house . . . I just can't.

[bongbong]

1. Reason

> would encourage an interest in guns and in target shooting, and would keep guns around the house . . . I just can't.

Because thinking owning five guns will do anything for you is a form of mental illness.

[ellisonz]

2. Too many people in this country are selfish fools.

[HooptieWagon]

3. The Aurora shooter wasn't familiar with guns.

He only began purchasing them a few months before his shooting up the theatre. And apparently he had difficulty joining a practice range.

I do agree with you questioning the apparent ease of mentally ill people obtaining firearms. The Conn shooter's family appeared aware of his mental health situation, yet his mother had a collection of firearms that appears to have been poorly secured. And the Colorado shooter legally purchased his weapons at a local gun store and online, his mental health situation fell through the cracks. Same with Va Tech killer.

[pnwmom]

5. The Columbine shooter found his weapons at home.

So did the teenager in Oregon several years ago.

In both cases, and in the Lanza case, the parents encouraged this interest.

[HooptieWagon]

7. But you are ignoring the instances where that wasn't the case.

So there doesn't appear to be any causal relationship.
Where there does appear to be a causal relationship is a young white male with mental health issues being able to easily obtain weapons by one means or another...it's a recurring theme.

[former9thward]

4. How do you know what the parent was "encouraging"?

He probably learned how to use guns from video games just like most young people do.

Today's U.S. military recruits enjoy an arsenal of simulators and video games that sharpen their fighting skills and may even protect them from the mental stresses of combat. But experts caution that virtual reality could also help mask the reality of war.

That has not stopped the military from embracing video games to recruit and train a young generation of gamers who typically play commercial games such as "Modern Warfare 2," which passed $1 billion in sales in January.

"The Army has really taken a hold of gaming technology," said Marsha Berry, executive producer for the game "America's Army 3."

http://www.livescience.com/10022-military-video-games.html

Are you going to ban video games?

[pnwmom]

6. Because I read several reports of his mother taking him target shooting.

And of how she showed off her new rifle, bought as part of her gun collection, to the guy who was mowing her lawn.

He learned about guns from his mother. Whatever he learned from video was icing on the cake.

[HooptieWagon]

8. Yet the Aurora and Va Tech shooters had no history of gun interest

before purchasing their weapons during the planning of their killing sprees.

[pnwmom]

10. We don't know what they were exposed to in their homes.

We know how they acquired the weapons they used, not whether their parents owned or used guns.

[HooptieWagon]

13. Well, neither had owned weapons previously,

and I think if they were raised in gun-owning households and trained in firearm usage, it would have been mentioned.

[pnwmom]

14. You think the parents of the shooters would have been volunteering that info?

[HooptieWagon]

15. I'm sure police looked into it.

Checking weapons permits records and such. And I'm sure the police questioned parents thoroughly, and by all accounts they cooperated. Keep spinning, though. Maybe when you dig deep enough you'll find a clue.

[pnwmom]

16. Right. Because all guns are registered and all parents of mass shooters

are perfectly honest when talking to police. Gotcha.

[HooptieWagon]

20. If true, then your gun ban plan won't work,

because if your stereo-type is true, all gun owners (over a third of the population) will lie to police and conceal their guns. So good luck.

Now, in reality, as oppoaed to your bizarre fantasy, the police probably did investigate every facet of the background of mass shooters. Not only to "solve" the crime (not a great stretch, since they know who did it), but to understand why, and how can it be prevented. There is no reason for parents, other family members, school staff, mental health professionals if applicable, not to cooperate. Your premise is so weak as to be laughable, yet you stubbornly cling to it as usual.

[pnwmom]

25. Your lack of understanding of human nature and legal reality is laughable.

Parents who might have encouraged disturbed offspring's use of guns have strong reasons to conceal this, both because no one wants to admit moral complicity in a crime and because they could be liable to civil lawsuits.

What is my gun ban plan? I wasn't aware I had one.

[HooptieWagon]

27. Your lack of evidence is what's laughable.

You haven't provided a shred of evidence of a pattern of causality. All you're doing is pulling shit out of your ass and calling it fact.

[pnwmom]

28. You're projecting. n/t

[ohheckyeah]

18. I agree with your OP...

but if I remember correctly, the VA Tech shooter's parents were pretty conventional Koreans. I remember an interview I saw and they seemed shocked he could or would buy a gun.

[pnwmom]

19. Yes, that case was probably an exception. n/t

[HooptieWagon]

22. Only if you can make the case of a majority of the time being an exception.

Carry on, we're lmao at your lame spin.

[former9thward]

9. Given both the mother and the shooter are dead these reports are pretty easy to come by.

The amount of contradictory information I have seen so far coming from law enforcement and the media is astounding.

[pnwmom]

11. You're right about the media coverage. It was crazy how hard it was for them to decide

something as simple as whether Nancy was a teacher or not.

[OmahaBlueDog]

12. CNN: Adam Lanza's family: Mom liked parlor games, guns; dad, a tax exec, remarried

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/15/us/connecticut-lanza-family-profile/index.html

"It was just a nice, normal family," neighbor Rhonda Cullen said Saturday, recalling a recurring neighborhood ladies night over the Bunco dice game.

At odds with this image of New England gentility was how the Lanza household possessed of a cache of weapons -- including an assault-style rifle and two handguns -- in a community prized for its stillness.

Nancy Lanza had earlier worked in finance in Boston and Connecticut, said a friend who knew her well but who didn't want her name published. Nancy Lanza had retired or was on a break from her career, but she was not a teacher, the friend said.

The friend said Nancy was devoted to her sons and had been "caring for Adam," but would not provide further details.

[Cha]

17. "It was just a nice normal family"... Yeah, right..

until the shit hit the fan.

Very conflcting reports on how "normal" the family was.. especially Adam. Some "weren't surprised".. others said they "could see this coming". Those opinions are like RED FLAGS that didn't get heeded. It's obviously the RESPONSIBILITY of everyone now to do more than "notice" such behavior.

[ananda]

21. That family was NOT normal.

Not even close.

[slackmaster]

23. I taught my stepson to shoot a .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle when he was 10 years old

The speed with which he mastered the weapon really impressed me.

He was an avid player of video games.

[Johonny]

24. Rita Hayworth "I don't know how to shoot. "

Orson Welles "It's easy, you just pull the trigger."

You don't exactly need vast knowledge to shoot a person, particularly a kid at close range. If it was hard to use guns there would be significantly less shooting deaths.

As to should people have known... hindsight is 20/20. Things don't always work out like this SNL skit;

Reporter: Did you know him?

Neighbor: Yes, he was a very nice boy, quiet, never caused any trouble. Always willing to help out.

Reporter: Are you surprised he shot Buckwheat today?

Neighbor: Oh, yes, very surprised.

Reporter: Why is that?

Neighbor: Well, it's Boxing Day today. You don't expect something like this to happen on a holiday.

Reporter: I see. Well, are you surprised that your neighbor shot Buckwheat?

Neighbor: Oh, no, not at all. We all knew he'd try to kill Buckwheat someday. That's all he used to talk about. Even when he was little, he used to say 'Someday when I grow up I'm gonna kill Buckwheat'. He used to make all the other little kids play a game he made up called 'Kill Buckwheat'. He even wrote a song called 'Die, Buckwheat, Die' that he would play at parties. He would draw and paint pictures and give them to us as gifts. He was very generous that way. I have a piece he titled 'Dead Buckwheat #1627' hanging in my living room behind the couch.

[kestrel91316]

26. His mom apparently wanted to live by the sword.

So he and she died by the sword.