Sandy Hook motives

I thought it would be good to make a topic speculating the motives of Adam Lanza for the Sandy Hook shooting. As there is a large amount of mystery surrounding the event we cannot say for sure, but I thought it would be interesting to hear other opinions on what might have caused him to do it.

I will start by sharing my own thoughts on why he went on the shooting spree, and why he specifically targeted young children.

Firstly, as he was such a large gamer, I believe that he targeted younger children in order to make it easier for him to kill more people, and effectively achieve a 'high score'.

Secondly, I don't think there will ever be an accurate diagnosis for him, but after studying his childhood I think that it is safe to say there was something different about him - a 'mental illness' - that would have affected him greatly and played a large part in his making the decision to actually carry out the massacre. His childhood was very disruptive, he was extremely withdrawn, and his mother Nancy Lanza pretty much ignored any problems.

Thirdly, and in my opinion possibly the main reason for the events, is that I would put him as a misanthrope. I think that he had a level of hatred for society and acted upon this. The most compeling evidence for this is the call made by Lanza to Anarchy Radio about a year before Sandy Hook, about his interest in a crime where a chimp named Travis attacked his owner, before being shot by the cops. During this call, he says that Travis was so negatively effected by society and human life that he felt the only way out was to brutally attack his owner, comparing the effect on Travis to that on human children.

Here are a few good links incase you have not already seen them:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - Anarchy Radio call

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - Smiggles posts

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - interesting documentry about Lanza and the shooting

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - Adam Lanza timeline

Please post your own opinions!

I agree. Adam wanted a "high score". He was just taht sort of perosn - he made an excel spreadsheet enumerating spree killings, weapons used, number of people killed in each, wounded in each etc.

I also would stress Adam's mental ilness. Adam faced real anxiety when interacting with people. He had an obsession over germ and staying clean (Michael Jackson syndrome), he was afraid of shakign hands or touchign dirty doorknobs.
He was also afraid of bright light, having taped his windows down and admitted to wearing sunglasses wherever he went. Last but not least he was delusional. He suffered from hallucinations.

He certainly, like the vast majority of spree killers, was dissatisfiedd with society btu also deeply dissatisfied with his life as an alienated, mental cripple livign in his mom's house.

I can't guess how much was his relations with him mom a cause in all of this, I think they took taht part of the story to their graves.

Lanza was probably at least pedophile-curious, but if he was an actual pedophile we can't be sure but i doubt it. He did write extensively in defence of pedophilia.


So the answers are all around the place, but I think the key and the "founding stone" is his mentall ilness. This in turn led to his social isolation, alienation from society, misanthropy and him starting to live a life more and more submerged in spree-killing-fantasies. At one point it turned real.

Lanza was not an outcast by choice. His mental state forced him down this route and his scheming mother and the absolutely ineffective mental health professionals he delt with certainly did NOT help him.

Certainly an epic failure of professional, academic psychologists if I ever seen one. I believe the professional psychologists who delt with him should be held accountable professionally for their role in his case.

Quote :

Lanza was not an outcast by choice. His mental state forced him down this route and his scheming mother and the absolutely ineffective mental health professionals he delt with certainly did NOT help him.

Certainly an epic failure of professional, academic psychologists if I ever seen one. I believe the professional psychologists who delt with him should be held accountable professionally for their role in his case.

They did what they legally could do.

Do you want "mental-health professionals" to have the right to say that someone who hasn't yet hurt anyone should be locked up, or that a kid should be taken away from his mother?

Maybe you do and maybe you don't ... but that's what we're talking about here.

Sabratha wrote:

I agree. Adam wanted a "high score". He was just taht sort of perosn - he made an excel spreadsheet enumerating spree killings, weapons used, number of people killed in each, wounded in each etc.

I also would stress Adam's mental ilness. Adam faced real anxiety when interacting with people. He had an obsession over germ and staying clean (Michael Jackson syndrome), he was afraid of shakign hands or touchign dirty doorknobs.
He was also afraid of bright light, having taped his windows down and admitted to wearing sunglasses wherever he went. Last but not least he was delusional. He suffered from hallucinations.

He certainly, like the vast majority of spree killers, was dissatisfiedd with society btu also deeply dissatisfied with his life as an alienated, mental cripple livign in his mom's house.

I can't guess how much was his relations with him mom a cause in all of this, I think they took taht part of the story to their graves.

Lanza was probably at least pedophile-curious, but if he was an actual pedophile we can't be sure but i doubt it. He did write extensively in defence of pedophilia.


So the answers are all around the place, but I think the key and the "founding stone" is his mentall ilness. This in turn led to his social isolation, alienation from society, misanthropy and him starting to live a life more and more submerged in spree-killing-fantasies. At one point it turned real.

Lanza was not an outcast by choice. His mental state forced him down this route and his scheming mother and the absolutely ineffective mental health professionals he delt with certainly did NOT help him.

Certainly an epic failure of professional, academic psychologists if I ever seen one. I believe the professional psychologists who delt with him should be held accountable professionally for their role in his case.

I had not extensively considered the fact that other motives were caused by mental illness, I mainly just thought that it was another factor along side the others. Indeed after reading this I think I need to start considering the fact that mental illness played a bigger part in the shooting than I thought, perhaps it is what took it from just an interest for him to a reality for many.

LPorter101 wrote:

Quote :

Lanza was not an outcast by choice. His mental state forced him down this route and his scheming mother and the absolutely ineffective mental health professionals he delt with certainly did NOT help him.

Certainly an epic failure of professional, academic psychologists if I ever seen one. I believe the professional psychologists who delt with him should be held accountable professionally for their role in his case.

They did what they legally could do.

Do you want "mental-health professionals" to have the right to say that someone who hasn't yet hurt anyone should be locked up, or that a kid should be taken away from his mother?

Well, first of all I want mental health professionals to actually be competent in what they do. Which means make the corect diagnosis given the information available. I want them to press for time necessary observe a patient to make such a diagnosis if theys see something is very wrong. Adam Lanza was not Eric Harris. He was not a seemingly normal, articulate, outspoken teenager. It was very obvious that something is very, very wrong with Adam.

Giving him a bogus Asperger dignosis and then allowing him to remain outside of school and at the same time not continuing with any sort of mental health treatement is gross negligence and outstanding incompetence on the side of the professional. Guy responsible actually fled the country before the shooting, because he was already accused of malpractice and was in some shady sex scandal about molesting teenage patients or something of the sort.

Even so - not one institution bothered to check up on Adam. Nobody gave a fuck why is this guy suddenly pulled out of school for no good reason. Nobody bothered to check if he was allright or not.

And yes, I believe he should have been properly and thoroughly observed, then diagnosed, then confined and treated in a mental health facility regardless of what him mom thought. Why? Because he WAS a danger to himself and others and it would have been pretty obvious if anyone took the time and effort to observe him for a longer period of time.

If they did their jobs correctly, 27 people would still be alive today. Perhaps Adam given proper treatement would have been better by now and was out able to have some sort of constructive life even.

eli27 wrote:

I had not extensively considered the fact that other motives were caused by mental illness, I mainly just thought that it was another factor along side the others. Indeed after reading this I think I need to start considering the fact that mental illness played a bigger part in the shooting than I thought, perhaps it is what took it from just an interest for him to a reality for many.

I think the vast majority of other factors involved are in some way the results of his mental ilness.

His mental condition was what caused his mom to tae him away from school, which in the end resulted in his alienation and isolation. this in turn caused his dissatisfaction with life, his obsession with killers and guns was imho a result of that.

Its a chain of cause-and-effect domino blocks. His mental health was teh first domino block, his suicide and teh killign spree was the last domino.

LPorter101 wrote:

Quote :

Lanza was not an outcast by choice. His mental state forced him down this route and his scheming mother and the absolutely ineffective mental health professionals he delt with certainly did NOT help him.

Certainly an epic failure of professional, academic psychologists if I ever seen one. I believe the professional psychologists who delt with him should be held accountable professionally for their role in his case.

They did what they legally could do.

Do you want "mental-health professionals" to have the right to say that someone who hasn't yet hurt anyone should be locked up, or that a kid should be taken away from his mother?

Maybe you do and maybe you don't ... but that's what we're talking about here.

We are talking extremes here. I agree that the mental health professionals failed to help him and were inadequate. Perhaps it is not about the question of whether or not he should have been locked up, but that if they had done a better job he may well have been given proper treatment and effective medication that would have prevented the massacre. Mental health can be as crippling as physical, if someone is physically injured and not properly treated it is recognised as unacceptable, so it should be the same for mental illness.

Sabratha wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

Quote :

Lanza was not an outcast by choice. His mental state forced him down this route and his scheming mother and the absolutely ineffective mental health professionals he delt with certainly did NOT help him.

Certainly an epic failure of professional, academic psychologists if I ever seen one. I believe the professional psychologists who delt with him should be held accountable professionally for their role in his case.

They did what they legally could do.

Do you want "mental-health professionals" to have the right to say that someone who hasn't yet hurt anyone should be locked up, or that a kid should be taken away from his mother?

Well, first of all I want mental health professionals to actually be competent in what they do. Which means make the corect diagnosis given the information available. I want them to press for time necessary observe a patient to make such a diagnosis if theys see something is very wrong. Adam Lanza was not Eric Harris. He was not a seemingly normal, articulate, outspoken teenager. It was very obvious that something is very, very wrong with Adam.

Giving him a bogus Asperger dignosis and then allowing him to remain outside of school and at the same time not continuing with any sort of mental health treatement is gross negligence and outstanding incompetence on the side of the professional. Guy responsible actually fled the country before the shooting, because he was already accused of malpractice and was in some shady sex scandal about molesting teenage patients or something of the sort.

Even so - not one institution bothered to check up on Adam. Nobody gave a fuck why is this guy suddenly pulled out of school for no good reason. Nobody bothered to check if he was allright or not.

And yes, I believe he should have been properly and thoroughly observed, then diagnosed, then confined and treated in a mental health facility regardless of what him mom thought. Why? Because he WAS a danger to himself and others and it would have been pretty obvious if anyone took the time and effort to observe him for a longer period of time.

If they did their jobs correctly, 27 people would still be alive today. Perhaps Adam given proper treatement would have been better by now and was out able to have some sort of constructive life even.

I was still writting my message when you sent this, so sorry to repeat you!

Quote :

Well, first of all I want mental health professionals to actually be competent in what they do. Which means make the corect diagnosis given the information available. I want them to press for time necessary observe a patient to make such a diagnosis if theys see something is very wrong. Adam Lanza was not Eric Harris. He was not a seemingly normal, articulate, outspoken teenager. It was very obvious that something is very, very wrong with Adam.

Well, yeah.

Quote :

Giving him a bogus Asperger dignosis and then allowing him to remain outside of school and at the same time not continuing with any sort of mental health treatement is gross negligence and outstanding incompetence on the side of the professional. Guy responsible actually fled the country before the shooting, because he was already accused of malpractice and was in some shady sex scandal about molesting teenage patients or something of the sort.

There was a rumor that he was porking Nancy Lanza, as well.

Quote :

Even so - not one institution bothered to check up on Adam. Nobody gave a fuck why is this guy suddenly pulled out of school for no good reason. Nobody bothered to check if he was allright or not.

It seems that his mother did keep in touch with the school district:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Quote :

And yes, I believe he should have been properly and thoroughly observed, then diagnosed, then confined and treated in a mental health facility regardless of what him mom thought. Why? Because he WAS a danger to himself and others and it would have been pretty obvious if anyone took the time and effort to observe him for a longer period of time.

If they did their jobs correctly, 27 people would still be alive today. Perhaps Adam given proper treatement would have been better by now and was out able to have some sort of constructive life even.

Well, they did drop the ball, yes. But there's only so much that anyone could have done.

I guess I don't have the highest regard for psychiatrists - my mother took me to several during my childhood and teenage years. She kept insisting that there was something grievously wrong with me, when the truth was that she was at least as mentally-ill as I was.

(For the record, I was diagnosed with OCD.)

At one point I was on Luvox, Prozac, Risperdal, and Zoloft - all at the same time, prescribed by two or three different doctors. (Yes, my mother had me seeing more than one doctor at once - she kept saying that I was "crazy" and that I needed to be drugged into submission.)

When my dermatologist put me on Accutane, the psychiatrist I was seeing at the time freaked out - she said that Accutane would make me suicidal. (I had never had any suicidal ideation - it wasn't as if I was threatening to do anything.)

That time, my mother took my side - my acne was horrendous and we had already been to several dermatologists. So I stopped seeing that shrink and started seeing another one who had seen me a few years earlier.

Accutane was a wonder drug for me - it cleared up my horrendous acne. And I never felt suicidal while I was taking it.

eli27 wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

Quote :

Lanza was not an outcast by choice. His mental state forced him down this route and his scheming mother and the absolutely ineffective mental health professionals he delt with certainly did NOT help him.

Certainly an epic failure of professional, academic psychologists if I ever seen one. I believe the professional psychologists who delt with him should be held accountable professionally for their role in his case.

They did what they legally could do.

Do you want "mental-health professionals" to have the right to say that someone who hasn't yet hurt anyone should be locked up, or that a kid should be taken away from his mother?

Maybe you do and maybe you don't ... but that's what we're talking about here.

We are talking extremes here. I agree that the mental health professionals failed to help him and were inadequate.  Perhaps it is not about the question of whether or not he should have been locked up, but that if they had done a better job he may well have been given proper treatment and effective medication that would have prevented the massacre. Mental health can be as crippling as physical, if someone is physically injured and not properly treated it is recognised as unacceptable, so it should be the same for mental illness.

Yes, but from a legal point of view, it is tricky to figure out what to say, "This boy is grievously mentally-ill and needs to be locked up; this one isn't."

The legal standard is that if someone is ruled an imminent danger to him-/herself or others, then that person can be held against his or her will. How dangerous does someone need to be?

Again, I'm not saying that you're totally wrong here - Adam was clearly one sick puppy, and anyone with a working pair of eyes could see it. But there has be some kind of standard, and frankly I'd rather err on the side of freedom. I don't want the government to have any more power to lock people up than it already does.

Americans have a greater need for freedom and a higher tolerance of danger than do Europeans. That is why we tolerate gun violence to the extent that we do. In any other country, a tragedy like Newtown would have been followed by the passage of sweeping new gun-control legislation. But Americans don't like the idea of giving the government too much power.

Maybe we're right and maybe we're wrong, but that's the way we are. I couldn't change that even if I wanted to.

LPorter101 wrote:

Well, they did drop the ball, yes. But there's only so much that anyone could have done.

I guess I don't have the highest regard for psychiatrists - my mother took me to several during my childhood and teenage years. She kept insisting that there was something grievously wrong with me, when the truth was that she was at least as mentally-ill as I was.

(For the record, I was diagnosed with OCD.)

At one point I was on Luvox, Prozac, Risperdal, and Zoloft - all at the same time, prescribed by two or three different doctors. (Yes, my mother had me seeing more than one doctor at once - she kept saying that I was "crazy" and that I needed to be drugged into submission.)

When my dermatologist put me on Accutane, the psychiatrist I was seeing at the time freaked out - she said that Accutane would make me suicidal. (I had never had any suicidal ideation - it wasn't as if I was threatening to do anything.)

That time, my mother took my side - my acne was horrendous and we had already been to several dermatologists. So I stopped seeing that shrink and started seeing another one who had seen me a few years earlier.

Accutane was a wonder drug for me - it cleared up my horrendous acne. And I never felt suicidal while I was taking it.

After your childhood experience, I can see why we differ in opinions. I have not had such an extensive experience with psychiatrists, and so have a different outlook. I completely agree that it is unfair to lock someone up against their will just because of a chance they might harm someone - there is such a chance in anyone, deemed mentally ill or no. It is also unfair and unhelpful for someone to be messed around and put on the wrong medication, but that makes me all the more angry that psychiatrists did not do enough to help Adam. He needed proper care and medication, he was quite obviously unhappy.

For me I am a decent actor (my dream is to be an actress), so I have always been quite good at acting normal and jolly even if I am not feeling so, I would rather keep to myself than have someone poking around in my brain and I avoid therapy like the plague, it just makes me cringe ... I guess my character is closer to Eric's than Adam's, if we are comparing to shooters XD

eli27 wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

Well, they did drop the ball, yes. But there's only so much that anyone could have done.

I guess I don't have the highest regard for psychiatrists - my mother took me to several during my childhood and teenage years. She kept insisting that there was something grievously wrong with me, when the truth was that she was at least as mentally-ill as I was.

(For the record, I was diagnosed with OCD.)

At one point I was on Luvox, Prozac, Risperdal, and Zoloft - all at the same time, prescribed by two or three different doctors. (Yes, my mother had me seeing more than one doctor at once - she kept saying that I was "crazy" and that I needed to be drugged into submission.)

When my dermatologist put me on Accutane, the psychiatrist I was seeing at the time freaked out - she said that Accutane would make me suicidal. (I had never had any suicidal ideation - it wasn't as if I was threatening to do anything.)

That time, my mother took my side - my acne was horrendous and we had already been to several dermatologists. So I stopped seeing that shrink and started seeing another one who had seen me a few years earlier.

Accutane was a wonder drug for me - it cleared up my horrendous acne. And I never felt suicidal while I was taking it.

After having such bad childhood experiences, I can see why we differ in opinions. I guess that as I have not had such an extensive experience with psychiatrists, I have a different outlook. I completely agree that it is unfair to lock someone up against their will just because of a chance they might harm someone - there is such a chance in anyone, deemed mentally ill or no. It is also unfair and unhelpful for someone to be messed around and put on the wrong medication, but that makes me all the more angry that psychiatrists did not do enough to help Adam. He needed proper care and medication, he was quite obviously unhappy.

For me I am a decent actor (my dream is to be an actress), so I have always been quite good at acting normal when I am feeling 'off', I would rather keep to myself than have someone poking around in my brain and I avoid therapy like the plague, it just makes me cringe ... I guess my character is closer to Eric's than Adam's, if we are comparing to shooters XD

Well, Eric told his doctor that he had suicidal and homicidal ideation, and the doctor diagnosed him with OCD.

OCD or Asperger's seem to be the catch-all diagnoses given when the doctor either a) can't figure out what's going on or b) doesn't give a shit.

Many psychiatrists charge hundreds of dollars for a ten-minute "counseling session" - they talk to the kid for a few minutes, then they sign the prescription. It's a racket.

Now, I did see a bona-fide psychologist at one point. She was nice - didn't know shit from shinola, but at least she listened to me talk about my problems.

LPorter101 wrote:

OCD or Asperger's seem to be the catch-all diagnoses given when the doctor either a) can't figure out what's going on or b) doesn't give a shit.

Many psychiatrists charge hundreds of dollars for a ten-minute "counseling session" - they talk to the kid for a few minutes, then they sign the prescription. It's a racket.

Psychiatry is such a joke sometimes. It does seem that a lot of people get wrongly pegged as having OCD or asperger's, which is so sad - could people just show a little fucking pride in their proffession and actually help people, rather than make a mockery of the whole thing.

Granted, not all psychiatrists are bad, but it just seems that too many are.

eli27 wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

OCD or Asperger's seem to be the catch-all diagnoses given when the doctor either a) can't figure out what's going on or b) doesn't give a shit.

Many psychiatrists charge hundreds of dollars for a ten-minute "counseling session" - they talk to the kid for a few minutes, then they sign the prescription. It's a racket.

Psychiatry is such a joke sometimes. It does seem that a lot of people get wrongly pegged as having OCD or asperger's, which is so sad - could people just show a little fucking pride in their proffession and actually help people, rather than make a mockery of the whole thing.

Granted, not all psychiatrists are bad, but it just seems that too many are.

Doctors kill at least as many people as diseases do. Psychiatrists are no better (or worse) than other MDs.

Like they say, think about how dumb the average person is - and then think about the fact that half of all folks are dumber.

Well, think about how incompetent the average doctor is. Half of all doctors are even more incompetent.

I guess they hope that putting a kid on psychotropic drugs will dampen his spirits to the point that he'll be too mellow to act out.

LPorter101 wrote:

There was a rumor that he was porking Nancy Lanza, as well.

Not relaly a rumor, rather an unconfirmed suspicion given the reasons why he fled the coutnry.

LPorter101 wrote:

Well, they did drop the ball, yes. But there's only so much that anyone could have done.

I disagree. When I look at teh OD misdiagnosis of Eric Harris, I can understand the cause of the mistake and frankly absolve the psychologist of any wrongdoing. Given the information available, an OCD diagnosis did in fact make the most sense in such circumstances.

I don't see any such explanation for Lanza. His mother's schemes obviously interfered with him getting treatement, and I find tis particularly important in the Yale case.

I think overall the blame lies both with Nancy, with individual psychological professionals, but also with the structure of mental health care in the US as a whole.

There doesn't seem to be a network put up to monitor, help and assist individuals with serious emntal helath issues, perticularly those that can't speak up for themselves (children, elderly, people with cognitive disorders etc). The US is one of the most advanced and wealthy countries in the world. I'd expect it to have done better in such cases. I hope Sandy Hook brings about some sort of evolution of US mental health care. Becuase Lanza's case obviously depicts teh dangers involved if people neglect the matter.

LPorter101 wrote:

I guess I don't have the highest regard for psychiatrists - my mother took me to several during my childhood and teenage years. She kept insisting that there was something grievously wrong with me, when the truth was that she was at least as mentally-ill as I was.

Can't speak for your case, but there are a lot of quacks and poor quality professionals who got their jobs and titles as a result of peronal connections etc. Tis is true both in the US and in Poland. Its much worse in psychology than it iis in regular healthcare.

One thing I cannot understand is why Mr Lanza went after his mother, to increase the body count?

It's hard to tell since there is not much evidence of his feelings towards her, but we can see that she was not a great mother and caused him to have a very disruptive childhood, so it seems more than likely that he could have resented her for that. This is only a speculation though as I have zero evidence to back it up. Also, I think you are right in that he was looking to kill as many as possible.

eli27 wrote:

It's hard to tell since there is not much evidence of his feelings towards her, but we can see that she was not a great mother and caused him to have a very disruptive childhood, so it seems more than likely that he could have resented her for that. This is only a speculation though as I have zero evidence to back it up. Also, I think you are right in that he was looking to kill as many as possible.

She went out of her way to make him happy ... I mean, the woman let this kid control nearly everything in her life. He wouldn't let her put up a Christmas tree because he hated all holidays. Hell, he wouldn't even let her open the drapes because he hated sunlight.

She bought all of his guns, for God's sake! She knew how sick he was, and she still went ahead and bought him an arsenal. If that's not blind maternal love, then I don't know what it is.

Maybe in some sick, twisted way, he thought he was doing her a favor. He knew that, after he was gone, everyone would hate her for having brought him into the world. Maybe he thought he was putting her out of her misery.

Or maybe not.

LPorter101 wrote:

eli27 wrote:

It's hard to tell since there is not much evidence of his feelings towards her, but we can see that she was not a great mother and caused him to have a very disruptive childhood, so it seems more than likely that he could have resented her for that. This is only a speculation though as I have zero evidence to back it up. Also, I think you are right in that he was looking to kill as many as possible.

She went out of her way to make him happy ... I mean, the woman let this kid control nearly everything in her life. He wouldn't let her put up a Christmas tree because he hated all holidays. Hell, he wouldn't even let her open the drapes because he hated sunlight.

She bought all of his guns, for God's sake! She knew how sick he was, and she still went ahead and bought him an arsenal. If that's not blind maternal love, then I don't know what it is.

Maybe in some sick, twisted way, he thought he was doing her a favor. He knew that, after he was gone, everyone would hate her for having brought him into the world. Maybe he thought he was putting her out of her misery.

Or maybe not.

I do agree with you that she was mostly doing what she thought was best for him. But, it doesn't mean she actually did and evidently he still wasn't happy, its very likely that he blamed her even a little as the closest person to him and the one that in a way controlled his life. Just because she thought she was giving him the best school life possible, she wasn't actually helping him and I think many would agree with me in saying that she was a bad mother. This, along with the lack of help he received when he obviously needed it - she basically ignored his need for help completely from 2008. Maybe I worded badly my initial post, I am not claiming that she did not love him or do what he asked, I am saying that she made bad decissions that grealty affected him, and maybe by the end he had realised. As I said before, this is pure speculation as I have no idea and probably never will why he actually chose to kill her, but these are my thoughts.

James411 wrote:

One thing I cannot understand is why Mr Lanza went after his mother, to increase the body count?

I doubt it was by accident, random or just to increase the body count.

He had a reason why he did it.

I assume he either blamed her for his own misfortunes, hated her on a personal-lavel, or wanted to get rid of a witness who would reveal something after his death he anted to keep hidden. Maybe all 3 of these reasons at once?

Either way, I'm sure he had a reason and starting the masacre by killing Nancy was a deliberate and thought-out decison on his part. Lanza was plannign the massacre for years.

Perhaps there was some event which sparked it and made it happen at that point in time and not later. But one thing that I'm sure - Adam had it all planned out and killing Nancy was a part of said plan.

eli27 wrote:

I am saying that she made bad decissions that grealty affected him, and maybe by the end he had realised.

I agree she made bad decisions, not sure how mch Adam realised it. Though I certianly doubt he realised it and then just suddenly snapped. This was a long-planned, long-awaited massacre.

Sabratha wrote:

I doubt it was by accident, random or just to increase the body count.

He had a reason why he did it.

I assume he either blamed her for his own misfortunes, hated her on a personal-lavel, or wanted to get rid of a witness who would reveal something after his death he anted to keep hidden. Maybe all 3 of these reasons at once?

Either way, I'm sure he had a reason and starting the masacre by killing Nancy was a deliberate and thought-out decison on his part. Lanza was plannign the massacre for years.

Perhaps there was some event which sparked it and made it happen at that point in time and not later. But one thing that I'm sure - Adam had it all planned out and killing Nancy was a part of said plan.

eli27 wrote:

I am saying that she made bad decissions that grealty affected him, and maybe by the end he had realised.

I agree she made bad decisions, not sure how mch Adam realised it. Though I certianly doubt he realised it and then just suddenly snapped. This was a long-planned, long-awaited massacre.

I agree, I at least think he must have blamed/hated her to some extent - maybe he had for a long time, and the death definately had significance, not just a bid for a higher body count. It seems to me after reading his smiggles posts and private messages that he was very smart, which would make me think that he would have seen how his mother was making bad decissions, but then I wouldn't be surprised if his vision had been clouded by mental illness enough that he possibly hadn't, at least up until the last few/couple of years.

eli27 wrote:

I agree, I at least think he must have blamed/hated her to some extent - maybe he had for a long time, and the death definately had significance, not just a bid for a higher body count. It seems to me after reading his smiggles posts and private messages that he was very smart, which would make me think that he would have seen how his mother was making bad decissions, but then I wouldn't be surprised if his vision had been clouded by mental illness enough that he possibly hadn't, at least up until the last few/couple of years.

One more thing: in 2012, Adam got into some online argument on youtube (he always argued with people and insulted them btw) with his youtube "fuckcomments" account. This was the discussion:

Quote :

YoutubeUser: Hmmm. The title of the video led me to believe that I would receive some sort of lesson. In fact, that was a misconception experienced on my behalf, and I’m sure most would agree with me. That’s not to say I didn’t learn a lesson. I learned that there is no lesson to be gleaned from this particular video. I enthusiastically give this video two thumbs down.

fuckcomments (Adam) in reply to YoutubeUser : haha aww are you going to have to keep not hypnotizing people to molest them? how sad.

YoutubeUser35 in reply to fuckcomments: Nah. I’ll just keep getting it from your mom. She really likes me, and I didn’t even have to hypnotize her. Just be myself is really all I had to do. Sorry it took so long to post this. I just now bothered to read your drivel.”

fuckcomments in reply to YoutubeUser35 : We will fuck her together! Then kill her and dispose of the corpse!

So yeah, perhaps he was just being sarcastic. But the way he is being sarcastic is very telling. Seems he was angry with her in 2012 at least (the comment was added roughly somewhere in 2012)

I just remembered Mr.Adam Lanza had some sort of document called selfish on his hard drive in which he apparently criticizes women for selfishness. Perhaps reading this document will shed some light into his feeling toward his mother.

Sabratha wrote:

One more thing: in 2012, Adam got into some online argument on youtube (he always argued with people and insulted them btw) with his youtube "fuckcomments" account. This was the discussion:

Quote :

YoutubeUser: Hmmm. The title of the video led me to believe that I would receive some sort of lesson. In fact, that was a misconception experienced on my behalf, and I’m sure most would agree with me. That’s not to say I didn’t learn a lesson. I learned that there is no lesson to be gleaned from this particular video. I enthusiastically give this video two thumbs down.

fuckcomments (Adam)  in reply to YoutubeUser : haha aww are you going to have to keep not hypnotizing people to molest them? how sad.

YoutubeUser35 in reply to fuckcomments: Nah. I’ll just keep getting it from your mom. She really likes me, and I didn’t even have to hypnotize her. Just be myself is really all I had to do. Sorry it took so long to post this. I just now bothered to read your drivel.”

fuckcomments in reply to YoutubeUser35 : We will fuck her together! Then kill her and dispose of the corpse!

So yeah, perhaps he was just being sarcastic. But the way he is being sarcastic is very telling. Seems he was angry with her in 2012 at least (the comment was added roughly somewhere in 2012)

Had not seen this before, it's very telling. Even if it was sarcasm it does show he had negative feelings towards his mother. After all, any person who liked/respected their mother would not write an offhand comment about fucking her with another person, killing her, and disposing of her corpse.

eli27 wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

One more thing: in 2012, Adam got into some online argument on youtube (he always argued with people and insulted them btw) with his youtube "fuckcomments" account. This was the discussion:

Quote :

YoutubeUser: Hmmm. The title of the video led me to believe that I would receive some sort of lesson. In fact, that was a misconception experienced on my behalf, and I’m sure most would agree with me. That’s not to say I didn’t learn a lesson. I learned that there is no lesson to be gleaned from this particular video. I enthusiastically give this video two thumbs down.

fuckcomments (Adam)  in reply to YoutubeUser : haha aww are you going to have to keep not hypnotizing people to molest them? how sad.

YoutubeUser35 in reply to fuckcomments: Nah. I’ll just keep getting it from your mom. She really likes me, and I didn’t even have to hypnotize her. Just be myself is really all I had to do. Sorry it took so long to post this. I just now bothered to read your drivel.”

fuckcomments in reply to YoutubeUser35 : We will fuck her together! Then kill her and dispose of the corpse!

So yeah, perhaps he was just being sarcastic. But the way he is being sarcastic is very telling. Seems he was angry with her in 2012 at least (the comment was added roughly somewhere in 2012)

Had not seen this before, it's very telling. Even if it was sarcasm it does show he had negative feelings towards his mother. After all, any person who liked/respected their mother would not write an offhand comment about fucking her with another person, killing her, and disposing of her corpse.

I think its also important to note that the otehr user just made allusions to sex, he did not mention killing or any sort of violence. It is Adam who himself suddenly throws that killing part into the discussion.

Reading the book Newton an American tragedy. I have another idea for a possible. Perhaps it has been discussed on this forum.

In the book it says that Nancy Lanza was suffering from a genetic illness. The author of the book obtained this information by interviewing a close friend of Nancy.

Basically she(nancy) felt this illness would incapacitate her and thus she would be unable to manage Adam Lanza.


And thus she planned to sell her domicile and move to another state.


This proposed plan would have unsettled Lanza who had created his own fantasy. His fantasies were profound as he constructed a shooting range in his mom's basement and dressed in military camouflage. (according to the book)


Adam probably knew that this plan would destroy his world.

I agree with most motivation opinions so far.

I think he was so withdrawn, coddled and felt so worthless , that he got interested in mass shootings to make some sort of legacy, or name for himself.

I think picking children was both out of ease, and maybe a little jealousy of the "normal kids". He was definitely never normal in society's eyes. I also think he was extremely mentally ill. Not just the blanket termed Aspergers, something fatally wired in his brain.

Whether Adam Lanza thought he was saving the kids he killed from a wretched future in our society or whether he wanted to destroy the upcoming generations, the Newtown Shooting does not make much sense at all.

Adam never did explain why he wanted to kill 6 year olds

One of the most disturbing things was reading the reports from the police who went into Room 10 & Room 8.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I definitely remember feeling actual nausea while hearing descriptions of that entire situation. I'm pretty much numb to most crimes. I've experienced and seen a lot of violence in my life, but for whatever reason, Sandy Hook literally caused me to have 2 actual nightmares..

I know I seem callous since other massacres barely affect me, but this was beyond comprehension.

Sgt William F Cario removed the pile of childrens' bodies out of the bathroom in Room [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

It definitely would be traumatic for anybody.

You have to wonder if it was a quick end. Or if he had ANY second thoughts during. It's hard to.imagine anyone shooting tiny children with no expression or empathy at all.

Considering it was only 6 minutes from the first shot to the last ... I don't think he spent much time considering what he had done ...

good point. The thoughts during these are what I wonder about the most.

Violenta wrote:

You have to wonder if it was a quick end. Or if he had ANY second thoughts during. It's hard to.imagine anyone shooting tiny children with no expression or empathy at all.

I honestly don't think he did. He was too far gone, his mind was all over the place and he had some serious mental issues. With the time taken and the amount dead, we can see that he really went for it. If he had been feeling any regret, he probably wouldn't have killed 26 kids. I wouldn't be surprised if it felt like nothing more than a video game to him, what with hallucinations and even possible undiagonsed schizophrenia or similar.

Violenta wrote:

Very true..his real motive died with him that day. As horrible as this sounds, I truly wish he'd have pulled the "normal" school shooting. Children have absolutely zero chance.

I don't think the high school students crouching fearfully under the desks at Columbine had much of a chance of surviving either had Harris and Klebold been intent on killing everyone like Lanza. Most victims at schools are defenceless when angry nutjobs come in brandishing weapons to kill people. That's why these shooters are cowards.

bubbles wrote:

Violenta wrote:

Very true..his real motive died with him that day. As horrible as this sounds, I truly wish he'd have pulled the "normal" school shooting. Children have absolutely zero chance.

I don't think the high school students crouching fearfully under the desks at Columbine had much of a chance of surviving either had Harris and Klebold been intent on killing everyone like Lanza. Most victims at schools are defenceless when angry nutjobs come in brandishing weapons to kill people. That's why these shooters are cowards.

I'd have to disagree with that - committing a crime as profound as a mass shooting requires a whole ton of bravery. Sure, many do it for the easy way out. But it takes a large amount of mental strength to go into a school or other environment with the intent of murder.

Eric and Dylan actually did attempt to 'kill everyone.' They both had written plans of blowing up as many people as they could, apart from a select few. The only reason that it didn't follow through was because the bombs failed to explode, even when shot at. It just goes to show that no matter how long they spend planning the massacre, they simply want to die and hurt those who have made them feel that way. The accuracy of the weapons is not their first priority.

explicit wrote:

I'd have to disagree with that - committing a crime as profound as a mass shooting requires a whole ton of bravery. Sure, many do it for the easy way out. But it takes a large amount of mental strength to go into a school or other environment with the intent of murder.

I can see what you're saying, but it actually would've taken more strength from them to continue on with their lives. I still think they are cowards for taking innocent people down with them - unarmed, defenceless people like I said. It's easy to be brave when you're armed to the hilt standing over kids who are essentially cornered, caught off guard and are powerless to defend themselves. Lanza in particular was petrified of being taken alive and killed himself without hesitation as soon as authorities stormed the school.

I have a difficult time with Sandy Hook. Of all the mass shooters, he's up there as one that terrifies me. His behavior, his mom mollycoddling his every whim and his overall persona is creepy and disturbing. He shoots his mother in cold blood in her sleep and proceeds to slaughter little children. After reading the report of the officer pulling the bodies from the pile, I can't feel anything but visceral disgust for Lanza. Sorry.

I've heavily researched most other mass shootings, bombings and major tragedies, and most you can make some sort of sense from what the killers leave behind. I'm not condoning what any of them have done, I'm simply saying they had a reason, however distorted, that makes sense if you study the event and person.

Lanza left nothing behind, besides his odd computer files and postings on online forums that don't include even a hint at what he was preparing to do. I shy away from this topic because it's, to me, one of the most disturbing.

Tomb wrote:

Lanza left nothing behind, besides his odd computer files and postings on online forums that don't include even a hint at what he was preparing to do. I shy away from this topic because it's, to me, one of the most disturbing.

I actually got a lot out of reading his online posts: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Adam was a complete mystery to me until I read them and gained some insight into his thoughts. The comments that stick out to me the most are the following:

Posted in a "You know what I hate!?!?" thread:

"Culture. I've been pissed out of my mind all night thinking about it. I should have been
born a chimp. I would even settle for a post-language hunter-gatherer society."

Followed by another post in the same thread:

"I spent all day ruminating over how much I hate culture. Now I've calmed down and am
left lying on the floor, numbly perplexed over the foreign concept of loving life."

And another:

"I hate how I spend 99% of my time upset about culture, when life itself is the problem.
Culture just adds insult to injury."

We all know he was mentally disturbed and sitting in his room, basically cut off from the world outside and stewing in his own pessimistic thoughts did him no favors.

I find it interesting how often the subject of paedophilia is brought up in his posts. Did he target children out of frustration? Did he target them because he hated humanity and children are the world's next generation? Did he target children because they were an easy target and were less likely to try and disarm him? Did he target young children because he knew this would set him apart from most American mass-shooters? Did he target children because he knew that some would find that fact even more repulsive, in order to say one last "fuck you" to society before he ended his own miserable existence?

One thing that really surprised me reading his posts and reading about him was (what I'm perceiving as - correct me if I'm wrong here) his empathy for animals.

Again, posted in the "You know what I hate!?!?" thread:

"I hate how life-apologists say (or rather, the very few of them who do anything other
than mock you), "Life isn't all suffering. What about the simple pleasures, like eating ice
cream?" They always use that example. Even if I didn't recognize the flaws in their assertion,
when I think of ice cream, I can only see a repugnant lump of pus crushed out of cows' bloody
nipples, who spend their entire lives confined in filth, where they're periodically raped so
that they're incessantly pregnant, after which their calves are seized from them, destined
to live the life of veal, with their only relief being an early death. From there, I always ride
the pessimism train down different tracks until it inevitably leads me to contemplating
over 500 million years of animals cannibalizing each other. Excuse me for not being
thrilled by the extra jimmies on my ice cream cone."

I remember reading some reports from Nancy Lanza's friends who said Adam apparently followed a strict vegan diet. If that's true, I wonder if he was vegan for ethical reasons? I note that the cookie recipe Adam posted is entirely dairy-free. If he really did care about animals, that's quite bizarre to me, as I've never heard of a mass-shooter caring about animals enough that they completely abstained from using animal products.

I've read a lot of his posts, and he is just someone I don't get at all. I guess it's the mass murder of children, which in my work brings a great deal of emotions, that I shy away from learning an awful lot about him.

Yeah, the guy was completely messed up, no doubt about it. His posts demonstrated that he was intelligent, eloquent and able to make valid points at times (I italicized those words because he had some really f**ked up, illogical views on things like the age of consent and was prone to generalizations and skewing virtually everything in a negative fashion), but the guy was so mentally ill he couldn't even function in reality in the most basic of ways. I guess that his isolation and inability to relate to most, if not all people just made things worse.

Another possible explanation that I didn't mention:

FlyerFan wrote:

afrrs wrote:

What were his motives ? The wikipedia page related to the event there is not a clear motive . Anyone have an idea about it ?

My personal belief is that he was obsessed with mass shootings and at some point reality stopped being reality and meshed with his obsession. He was a member of another Columbine forum that no longer exists but it is my understanding that he was a strange character there. (there is another thread in this same forum about that I think)

His posts definitely indicate he was fixated on particular subjects and people who (vaguely) knew him or Nancy described him as displaying severe OCD mannerisms.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Do you find him creepy? I know I sound like a wuss, but of all the tragedies I've studied, he's the worst to me. I read some of his online writings, and a lot of it makes me feel like a moron lol. Some of it is nonsensical.

I don't find him particularly creepy. To me, he was an incredibly mentally disturbed individual with several unusual elements to him and the way he lived his life. Because he chose to murder innocent people, I actually find him to be quite pathetic. Reading about him doesn't create any more uneasiness in me than what it does when reading about other mass shooters. I know that shooting tiny children is particularly vile and gutless, but I feel disgust towards any person who shoots an innocent, defenceless person. That's just so unbelievably weak.

Without (or even with) his guns, Adam was a scared, psychologically ill coward. Another piece of shit who I wish had been taken alive. I hope that the next fucker who tries something like this is overpowered or botches up their suicide attempt. I think with an increase in gun violence these days, perhaps we may see more people go into fight or flight mode when confronted by gunmen. Hopefully the police will also work on their efficiency in these types of situations, although I understand they responded quickly in the case of the Sandy Hook shooting.

How do we know Adam Lanza was mentally ill he could have been lying about his delusions to gain sympathy and have mitigating circustance for his crime.

"I just fucking hate this world, and the worms feeding on it's carcass" -Adam Lanza 2016

hate99 wrote:

"I just fucking hate this world, and the worms feeding on it's carcass" -Adam Lanza 2016

That is from the video game Hatred:

"My name is not important. What is important is what I'm going to do... I just fuckin' hate this world. And the human worms feasting on its carcass. My whole life is just cold, bitter hatred. And I always wanted to die violently. This is the time of vengeance and no life is worth saving. And I will put in the grave as many as I can. It's time for me to kill. And it's time for me to die. My genocide crusade begins here."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I have multiple theory's myself like but the prominent one in my mind is that he's mother was going too move house.
I don't feel he could of handled it, I also think he struggled with he's sexuality.
intriguing man.

I know my views on Adam Lanza are probably going to be looked at as controversial. I do not feel creeped out by Adam in the sense that I would consider him a disturbing individual. I found it eerie how someone so seemingly intelligent and coherent could mentally fall apart and commit such a violent act when he had no prior history of violence in his actions ever in his whole life before that point. I think Adam presented some logical criticisms of society but I reject his choice of actions on what how he decided to handle these conclusions he had made about society. At the end of the day Adam was still a human, one who just so happened to have been born with some severe disabilities that made it hard for him to mentally hold it together, along with what I personally suspect was many many years of bullying towards him that was swept under the rug. I feel bad that Adam felt so depressed that he had to go to the lengths he did and then kill himself. I feel bad about the whole situation. But there is almost certainly more to the story and I am sure the community likely had its role in fostering the sentiments that swirled in Adam's mind.