What interests you most about Adam or the Sandy Hook shooting?

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I find Adam to be the most interesting component of the shooting. His anorexia, in particular. It has been said that he was 6’0 and 85 pounds at one point (3 months before he died??) which would be nothing short of remarkable and would raise many questions.

Adam is one of the shooters that will always be interesting to me

He took his reason for the shooting to his grave and we will probably never know why he did it or what was going through his head.

The most interesting thing about the shooting is Lanza's suicide. I believe Lanza went into a crouching position and placed the gun to the back of his head. After shooting himself, Lanza laid down into a fetal position and the hat fell off his head while he fell over.

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Over the past 4 years of researching him, I have been asked this multiple times. Ive stayed up nights on end thinking about Adam and his ways. A truly interesting person, don't you agree? He had amazing viewpoints and understanding of the world around him. Not to mention, the boy was so mysterious! So many unanswered questions remain. I feel as if has left clues, that i'm still trying to piece together.

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It's because he grew up on the internet like many of us, had many of the same interests, yet he went on a mass murder seemingly out of the blue. He seems more self aware than the average spree killer.

Probably the fact that Adam Lanza was almost born to be a mass shooter.

I would like to know why he choose to attack a elementary-school. As far as i know he didnt focus much on elementary-school-shootings,so i wonder why he did this. Sure, he was well-informed about Mass-Shootings in general,but he didnt "set priority" on Elementary-Shootings.( as far as i know) Besides that im "interested" in the relationship between him and his Mother,like how she didnt realised that something is going in the wrong direction(especially his malnourished appearance to the end) I dont know why,but this Case seems like Grey Gardens to me.

Lanza's online comments interest me the most.

With a lot of shooters like Adam, I feel like the internet trail they leave behind is the most interesting. It seems to yield the most discussion about what they were like as a person, something we may not always get if family members and authorities don't want to release personal information.

It's been said Adam brought two hooded sweatshirts because he wore one to cover his utility vest and another to place over the guns he brought with him in the car.

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Futility wrote:

I would like to know why he choose to attack a elementary-school. As far as i know he didnt focus much on elementary-school-shootings,so i wonder why he did this. Sure, he was well-informed about Mass-Shootings in general,but he didnt "set priority" on Elementary-Shootings.( as far as i know) Besides that im "interested" in the relationship between him and his Mother,like how she didnt realised that something is going in the wrong direction(especially his malnourished appearance to the end) I dont know why,but this Case seems like Grey Gardens to me.

Just from the top of my head, Adam displayed an interest in Patrick Purdy and the Cleveland Elementary School shooting and Thomas Hamilton and the Dunblane School Massacre. Considering the scope of his research there are no doubt many more cases like these he was well-versed in.

As for why he chose to target an elementary school, he seemed to have a fixation on childhood and how society perceives and treats children that he has written about many times, but I believe it was also because they were easier targets compared to shooting up a middle school, high school, college, university or any other location or institution.

As for Nancy, she did express concern about Adam throughout his life and especially towards the end, but she felt there was little she could do without further alienating him from her.

TechClub wrote:

Futility wrote:

I would like to know why he choose to attack a elementary-school. As far as i know he didnt focus much on elementary-school-shootings,so i wonder why he did this. Sure, he was well-informed about Mass-Shootings in general,but he didnt "set priority" on Elementary-Shootings.( as far as i know) Besides that im "interested" in the relationship between him and his Mother,like how she didnt realised that something is going in the wrong direction(especially his malnourished appearance to the end) I dont know why,but this Case seems like Grey Gardens to me.

Just from the top of my head, Adam displayed an interest in Patrick Purdy and the Cleveland Elementary School shooting and Thomas Hamilton and the Dunblane School Massacre. Considering the scope of his research there are no doubt many more cases like these he was well-versed in.

Indeed. There was a katana found at Lanza's house after the shooting - I wonder if this was his way of giving a subtle nod to the Osaka school killings.

Nothing, really.

QuestionMark wrote:

TechClub wrote:

Futility wrote:

I would like to know why he choose to attack a elementary-school. As far as i know he didnt focus much on elementary-school-shootings,so i wonder why he did this. Sure, he was well-informed about Mass-Shootings in general,but he didnt "set priority" on Elementary-Shootings.( as far as i know) Besides that im "interested" in the relationship between him and his Mother,like how she didnt realised that something is going in the wrong direction(especially his malnourished appearance to the end) I dont know why,but this Case seems like Grey Gardens to me.

Just from the top of my head, Adam displayed an interest in Patrick Purdy and the Cleveland Elementary School shooting and Thomas Hamilton and the Dunblane School Massacre. Considering the scope of his research there are no doubt many more cases like these he was well-versed in.

Indeed. There was a katana found at Lanza's house after the shooting - I wonder if this was his way of giving a subtle nod to the Osaka school killings.

Interesting. I never made the connection but that's very possible. I've wondered before if Adam's Nunn Bush shoes were a reference to John Wayne Gacy (who worked for the company at one point) but considering Adam seemed to have been fixated on mass murderers and not serial killers perhaps it's just a coincidence.

Ivan wrote:

Nothing, really.

Great contribution, thanks!

I suppose it's how self aware & "meta", so to speak, Adam Lanza actually was. Also the fact that Sandy Hook & The Stockton Schoolyard Shooting had striking similarities like how Patrick Purdy and Adam Lanza had mental handicaps (Very Mild Retardation and Aspergers) or how both carried out the worst school shootings at the time

Probably Lanza's motives and behaviors. How it influenced the country afterward is interesting too.

His kills count and the age of his victims did he kill such young children because it was easy or because he wanted to spare them from adult "life" ?

The background behind his life, but above all his views on civilization and culture.

TheGoodGuy wrote:

His kills count and the age of his victims did he kill such young children because it was easy or because he wanted to spare them from adult "life" ?

Yes.

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Duluth wrote:

Burn wrote:

The background behind his life, but above all his views on civilization and culture.

I think Adams views on culture and society, whilst interesting, were just pseudo-intellectual nonsense that he spouted to make himself seem quite deep and profound.

Perhaps. His radio call however was profound on the nature of mass murderers.

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Duluth wrote:

log_1987 wrote:

Perhaps. His radio call however was profound on the nature of mass murderers.

His call-in was definitely very interesting to listen to.

My opinion on Adam's views have changed. I don't quite think that they were "pseudo-intellectual nonsense" anymore. I don't know what to think about Adam and his views.

I hear people use the specific words "pseudo-intellectual" in reference to Adam's beliefs pretty frequently. My three questions for you, as someone who used to feel that way, are:

1) What does pseudo-intellectual mean in this context?
2) What is it about Adam's beliefs or reasoning that came across as being pseudo-intellectual or nonsensical?
3) Why have you changed your mind?

Agree or disagree, but most or all of the philosophical/political ideas that Adam discussed were not his own and I would suggest that they were certainly not nonsensical (although I might be willing to agree that he did not always express himself clearly).

The empathy towards the shooter.

Adam Lanza was certainly the first mass shooter I got into. And there’s a good reason for that.
Almost everything Lanza wrote looked like it was taken from the inside of my mind. I was bewildered at the relatability.

Then I found out about his awkward real life mannerisms. That definitely hit home as well!

And the fact he choose an elementary school really puts the icing on the cake. A bizarre case for sure

AMOG wrote:

And the fact he choose an elementary school really puts the icing on the cake. A bizarre case for sure

Wow.

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The fact that there doesn't seem to be a clear motive for the shooting.

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fast200 wrote:

The fact that there doesn't seem to be a clear motive for the shooting.

Prolonged social isolation, mental health issues and psychotic episodes.

I think with Lanza, we are looking at someone more similar to Michael Carneal or to Cho Seung Hui than to say... Kazimierczak or Holmes.

I find his writings, way of thinking, and the psychology behind him interesting

Mr Bubbless wrote:

For some reason Adam doesn't come off as mysterious to me, most of his philosophies make sense even if I don't agree with some of them. Maybe I'm just able to understand him better because I share the same disabilities that he had, although mine are not as severe (Yet?).

His philosophies don’t strike me as odd either. I’m not sure I can really understand him though, namely because I don’t have the same issues that he had.

(I drafted a bunch of responses to this question in a text file over the past few weeks and this post is them just cobbled together, so apolgies for the wall of text.)
So often, when you investigate a mass killer, their motives and views are just prepackaged extremist ideologies (Anders Breivik, Dylann Roof, Islamic terrorists, etc.) or the same edgelord copy-pasted "natural selection" or "fuck the world" rhetoric. Moreso, their online posts are often laced with profanity and are consistently superficial (looking at you, Nik.) So many claim to be "deep thinkers" or otherwise unique and generally aren't.

If they're ideological, you can expect much the same 2083 or Jihad-related talking points.
If they're psychopathic (ex. Nikolas Cruz,) it's the epitome of a lifelong tirade of aggressiveness and narcissism, which is alien to my life experience and gets boring quick.
If they're psychotic, most of the time you get something like this or this. They are generally the most interesting to me, but even then most blur together.

Adam is different.  My interest in attacks is mostly determined by the gap between my empathy for the perpetrator and the monsterousness of their actions. I have no interest in serial killings or psychopathic mass murderers, but the more deeply I can empathize with an individual, the harder it is to explain their actions and the more drawn in I am. Adam epitomizes that for me: I share a great many similarities with him, and yet his actions are one of the worst school attacks to date. It's a paradox that draws me in endlessly.

Also, his (extensive, which is another reason in and of itself) online presence is unique. He seemed to have a sense of humor (I had to contain my laughter when reading his untitled play,) unique and seriously thought-through views, and displayed language, interests, and behavior that strike me as belonging to a different class of individual altogether from most other attackers.

- Reclusive nature
- DDR obsession
- Eating disorder
- Technology addict anarchoprimitivist
- His ideas connecting society, technology, mental illness, and mass shootings ("symptomatic of anything other than your own inexplicable defectiveness?")
- His ideas on society's coercive nature and it's effect on children and children's rights
- Massive spreadsheet and comprehensive interest
- Destroyed hard drive
- Lovebound, his untitled play, and other interesting writings of his
I would hate to use the phrase "intelligence" or "intellectual" in here because it's pretentious / glorifying / Adam wasn't a super genius or anything, but there's a level of sophisication to his writings, philosophy, and views that just about every other killer besides Ted Kaczynski (and probably one or two others) lacks.

dyonqqr wrote:

and displayed language

I've always noticed that his writings and the language he used were very… verbose and complicated compared to the writings of other mass shooters. I don't know how to explain it clearly.

.

Honestly I hate the man he became when he headed to Sandy Hook Elementary, but before then... his forum posts are very interesting to read about- as Adam just seemed super mentally damaged. It's interesting to actually read the thoughts of a mass murderer before they go on their rampage and that's why I began studying them- to see who they were before their attack.

somehow less spergy than most of the community

(edgy answer incoming)

I wasn't interested in Adam Lanza. Adam Lanza was interested in me.