Adam Lanza's father speaks In New Yorker article

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<p>If we don’t know, does that mean we shouldn’t try to find out? We have an obligation to the future innocent victims to pick apart and analyze the lives of mass murderers. It is irresponsible not to do this. Hundreds or thousands of innocent lives are at stake.</p>

<p>I misunderstood your question, Bay. I thought you meant, is there something we now know to tell parents to prevent their child from becoming a mass murderer? There is not. </p>

<p>But if you were asking, in principle, might there be something, some treatment or behavior now unknown, that parents could use to prevent a child from becoming a mass murderer? There might be. But we can’t blame parents for not doing something they didn’t know to do and could not possibly have known to do.</p>

<p>I think it is pretty clear that we do know now what to tell parents to prevent their children who live in their homes from becoming mass murderers: Do know allow them to have access to guns. What was Peter’s obligation in this regard?</p>

<p>Bay. please read the nytimes article i linked earlier… </p>

<p>I read it anxiousmom. What is your point? That Michael could have killed 26 innocent children while living at his parents home, too? Michael hasn’t killed anyone yet.</p>

<p>Not allowing your children access to guns in your house does not prevent your children from becoming mass murderers. The Columbine killers bought their guns.</p>

<p>^ That is true. I suppose Adam could have taken his car to buy the 3 guns, hidden them from his mother, and carried out his plan. But that is not what happened. </p>

<p>Very interesting 30-minute interview with Andrew Solomon, conducted by Leonard Lopate on WNYC, NYC’s public radio station:
<a href=“The Father of the Sandy Hook Killer Searches for Answers | The Leonard Lopate Show | WNYC”>http://www.wnyc.org/story/father-sandy-hook-killer-searches-answers/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Not blaming anyone but I believe sociopaths are raised not born.</p>

<p>^^^^^^Not arguing with you, but based on?</p>

<p>I personally believe that there is no ONE cause, but is a combination of factors of biological pre-disposition plus life circumstances. Even the “experts” aren’t sure about this, though.</p>

<p><a href=“http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-antisocial-personality-disorder/000652”>http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-antisocial-personality-disorder/000652&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This is an excellent interview with Andrew Solomon and Terry Gross on Fresh Air:</p>

<p><a href=“For Sandy Hook Killer's Father, Tragedy Outweighs Love For His Son : NPR”>For Sandy Hook Killer's Father, Tragedy Outweighs Love For His Son : NPR;

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<p>I read somewhere after Columbine and again after another incident, could be Virginia Tech. I agree about pre-disposition. Some kids are just harder to raise and parents have their lives, too.</p>

<p>don’t see how they determined Adam to have been a sociopath. I think it’s much more likely he was schizophrenic. </p>

<p>My feeling is that there were so many factors at play (emotional, environmental, biological) that Adam was beyond one specific diagnosis. The only truth I can glean from this tragedy is that there were not enough set of “eyes” on this child to prevent him from careening out of control when whatever set him off occurred. The term “perfect storm” comes to mind.</p>

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<p>I completely agree about the lack of “eyes” contributing to the tragedy, but I see what happened more as Adam heading down the path (quite clearly, to his mother), and no one trying to stop him.</p>

<p>It seems that the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder may have disguised the development of schizophrenia or whatever else afflicted him.</p>

<p>Adam could easily have had multiple mental health issues and at this point, it is impossible to know. Autism may (at least somewhere along the spectrum) could well have been ONE of his issues. Have read many that believe there were at least one or more other issues.</p>

<p>Thanks for posting the link.</p>

<p>Whenever these young adults (esp the ones who lived at home) commit attrocities and folks ask why the parents didn’t see signs, “do something” I always wonder what the heck they are actually supposed to DO</p>

<p>I think one thing that has somewhat obscured the discussion of this case is the question of whether people with a diagnosis of Asperger’s are likely to commit violence. The real question is whether there were signs that this individual was at risk of committing violence, and there were. The problem was that the person best situated to note those signs not only didn’t note them, but actually made the instrumentalities of the violence easily available to him. Why she did this is impossible to say–it is perhaps most merciful to imagine that she was deeply troubled as well. I think it’s very difficult to say what the father should have done differently. Obviously, he must now wish he’d done something, even if he can’t figure out what it might have been.</p>

<p>Simple, missypie. If the young adult went to school, the parents were supposed to have homeschooled him instead. If he was homeschooled, they should have sent him to school. If the adult child tried to be active in social pursuits, the parents should have discouraged him because he upset other people with his behavior. If the adult child was solitary, staying at home alone all the time, the parents should have made him be active in social pursuits. If the parents tried to engage the child by entering in to his interests, they should not have done that. If the parents did not try to engage the child by entering in to his interests, they were negligent.</p>

<p>See. It’s simple. Whatever the parents did, it was wrong, completely wrong, and superior parents like the speaker (a parent who doesn’t actually have children with disabilities and has a distorted idea of what parenting a disabled child is like) would have prevented the tragedy by their superior parenting. </p>