The Creepy Little Weirdo’s Mom

Posted on | December 20, 2012 | 16 Comments

The Washington Post notices that most folks in Newtown, Connecticut, don’t see the murderer’s mother as a victim worth mourning:

Police said that before he attacked the schoolhouse, [the creepy little weirdo] pumped four bullets into his mother’s head as she lay in bed. . . .
“I am feeling that there is more anger toward the mother than there is toward the son,” said Lisa Sheridan, a Newtown parent.
“Why would a woman who had a son like this, who clearly had serious issues, keep assault rifles in the house and teach him how to shoot them?” she said. “To deal with that, there’s a feeling here that we’re just going to focus on the 26 innocent people who died at the school.” . . .
Nancy Lanza apparently broke no laws and suffered a violent, tragic death. People who knew her . . . see her as a victim like any of the others.
But for some, how to refer to her — and what to think of her — is a subject of much conversation. While some call her the first victim, many think she bears at least some of the blame.
“Maybe somewhere there is a deep thought that the shooter’s mother could be responsible for leaving the guns available,” said Himansu Patel, the Newtown Convenience and Deli owner, who decided to leave Nancy Lanza out of his memorial to the victims. . . .
Much remains unknown about [the creepy little weirdo] and his mother. But everyone here knows that Nancy, 52, was the legally registered owner of the powerful .223-caliber, military-style Bushmaster rifle that was used in the nation’s second-deadliest mass shooting. And they have heard that federal investigators have determined that mother and son visited numerous shooting ranges together.
It is also known that [the creepy little weirdo] had psychological or emotional problems that made the most basic elements of daily life — such as school and social settings — challenging for him. The state medical examiner said he had been advised that [the creepy little weirdo] had Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder that is not associated with violence.
Those facts have left questions hanging over Newtown. Did Nancy Lanza do enough to try to keep her guns out of her son’s hands? Should she have helped a young man with psychological problems learn how to shoot?

Notice, by the way, the Post isn’t calling the Bushmaster an “assault weapon” (because it’s not), but instead — in keeping with the media’s misguided “exotic weapons” narrative — is calling it “the powerful .223-caliber, military-style Bushmaster rifle .”

Focusing on the weapons as the demonized villain of the tale, rather that looking at the complex human factors involved in this horrible atrocity, is much easier and, in terms of Democrat Party politics, certainly convenient. But the politics of convenience seldom solves problems.

Category: Connecticut, Crime

Comments

16 Responses to “The Creepy Little Weirdo’s Mom”

Peter Ingemi
December 20th, 2012 @ 5:34 pm

Stacy you don’t get it, to them the problem is “How do I ban guns and disarm Americans?” Not “How do I prevent mass murder in schools”
Bob Belvedere
December 20th, 2012 @ 5:36 pm

Until we know the facts, I wish people would stop discussing the Mother and the Father. We only know what sources have said and a few bits of information.
K-Bob
December 20th, 2012 @ 5:51 pm

The ratio of decent reporting to incredibly incompetent reporting on the facts of this massacre is somewhere in the low hundred-thousandths. It amazes me how little verifiable information is really known about any of it, even this long afterward.
smitty
December 20th, 2012 @ 5:59 pm

If I can make a positive, general statement that may not apply much to the massacre in Newtown, I hope dads across the land take time to renew their relationships with their children.
And with their wives.
And if there are marriages that are in need of renewal, get some counseling. Save those relationships!
Again, let’s fall short of connecting dots, but make sure we’re taking care of the little things. So that they are less likely to grow into big, tragic things.
K-Bob
December 20th, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

Sounds like a blog-worthy essay could come of that. Especially this close to Christmas.
Shermlaw
December 20th, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

Given the government’s current penchant for banning “scary looking” things, one wonders why Helen Thomas was allowed into Presidential press conferences.
K-Bob
December 20th, 2012 @ 6:05 pm

“Seems” I mean. I work so hard to remove auditory references to written words. Then out comes “Sounds like”. Bad hands. No biscuit.
robertstacymccain
December 20th, 2012 @ 6:12 pm

The word “pretext” comes to mind.
Conservative Girl
December 20th, 2012 @ 6:13 pm

As a person who grew up very close to Newtown, know children and a teacher in the school at the time of the shooting and a person who has a mental illness as well as being a strong advocate of the 2nd amendment, I have to say that I too question the thought process of allowing her ill child access to guns. Now, we don’t know if she had them locked up and if so how. But to take a child with rage issues like his to shoot a gun is irresponsible at best. The obvious rage this young man displayed didn’t come up in day. He had to have been showing signs of it previously. Maybe she was so tied into the problems that she ignored them or was in complete denial about it. Sadly not only do kids with mental illness have to deal with an almost impossible system of getting them the help that they need, they also have to deal with friends and family who don’t or won’t admit what is really happening. Jared Loughner another case in point. Everyone knew he was troubled. AZ has some of the most lienent laws to get help, yet no one even tried. As far as have been told anyway. Much work remains to be done to help the mentally ill in this country. Maybe this will jump start actual action, since Gabby Giffords shooting obviously did not.
WJJ Hoge
December 20th, 2012 @ 6:37 pm

“… powerful .223-caliber …”

.223 Remington isn’t a legal cartridge for deer hunting here in Maryland because it is considered too weak for a humane kill.

Oh well, we can’t let facts get in the way of the narrative, but WaPo deserves four Pinocchios for that error.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
December 20th, 2012 @ 8:01 pm

What little we have learned supports sympathy to the parents. Especially the mom. Granted in hindsight I get why many would want to blame them for their monster of a son (he was a truly evil actor–and people want to have a cause and reaction to make sense of it all), but sometimes a kid is just a bad seed. I agree with Bob, we should wait and see what the evidence shows.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
December 20th, 2012 @ 8:02 pm

Good advice.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
December 20th, 2012 @ 8:03 pm

I sometimes want to bang my head against a wall after reading some of the crap the MSM puts out there.
richard mcenroe
December 20th, 2012 @ 8:23 pm

They’re Alinksying a murder victim.
Dai Alanye
December 20th, 2012 @ 10:19 pm

I suppose sooner or later someone will figure an angle to blame Mrs Jughashvili and Mrs Hiedler for how badly their sons turned out.
SDN
December 21st, 2012 @ 9:15 am

Conservative Girl, no one wants to get involved because “getting involved” means a real risk of becoming the whackjob’s prime target. Ask the mom here. And we don’t set up protections from that.