A shared fascination.
After fatally shooting his mother in the face, investigators say [Adam Lanza] took three of his mother’s legally-owned weapons that he used in the assault, including a Glock, a SIG Sauer, and a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle. In addition to those three weapons, cops also recovered a .45-caliber Henry repeating rifle, a .22-caliber Marlin rifle, and a .30-caliber Enfield rifle…
… According to the Post, Nancy Lanza was a gun enthusiast who often took her son shooting with her. “She’d take them to the range a lot … Nancy was an enthusiast — so much so that she wanted to pass it on to her kids,” said her former landscaper and “occasional drinking buddy” Dan Holmes. “She took her two sons to the gun ranges quite a bit to practice their aim. She was a really great shot from what she told me. Whenever I finished work and went inside to chit chat, she spoke often about her fascination with firearms. Nancy had an extensive gun collection and she was really quite proud of it.”
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Why would she have three powerful guns in the house when she knew her son was so deeply disturbed?
It sounds as though she had quite a lot more than three.
And “powerful” doesn’t say it. You use these guns when you’re pinned down in Helmand Province.
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It defies logic … that an average citizen with a gun is going to disarm a crazed killer.
All those guns all over the house, and herself a very good shot. Yet when it came to it, Nancy Lanza was unable to defend herself from one of the most notorious mass murderers in American history stepping up to shoot her face off.
But then, she’d devoted herself to training and arming him.
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“She prepared for the worst,” [a relative of Lanza’s] told [a] newspaper. “I didn’t know that they [the guns] would be used on her.”
Yes. She was prepared for a firefight in Kunar Province.
As for this woman not knowing the guns would be used on her relative – try reading some statistics.
Did it occur to you – or anyone in the family – that a paranoid family member living alone in a hidden-from-the-road, closed-off house, with an insane twenty-year-old and a military arsenal in it, might be something to keep your eye on?
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Prepare for Nancy Lanza to become a patron saint of the armed survivalists.
December 16th, 2012 at 7:56AM
The dog that didn’t bark: thus far, no one interviewed – including family members – has reported any contact whatsoever with Adam since 2010 (his brother’s recollection of last contact).
So much for Newtown’s self-proclaimed neighborly small town America. I think this kid had been extremely isolated for a very long time. That alone can lead to psychosis, violent behavior and nonsensical reactions. See solitary confinement and ostracism (Kip Williams’ most excellent review includes many examples of school violence as an end result of chronic and severe social rejection – link: http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/uajyxyJzQPS2eEMAMBW5/full/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085641?spnCategory=525&spnDomain=17&spnContent=23&spnContent=28&spnID=30147&&😉
December 16th, 2012 at 8:05AM
aek: Yes – in reading about Nancy Lanza, I’m beginning to get a sense that the reality inside that house will make Carrie look mild.
December 16th, 2012 at 12:58PM
Your rhetoric’s a bit overheated on the arsenal, I’m afraid. Most of those are relatively small guns, more suited to target practice than anything. I certainly wouldn’t expect a .22 or the .223 to be of much use in a serious firefight; those are mostly varmint guns, suitable for squirrels and rabbits, mostly.
The .30 Enfield is a WWI rifle, if I’m not mistaken (I’m surprised it’s in firing condition– usually they hang above mantles), and about as large a caliber as my father-in-law hunts elk with. My wife has a .270, which is not very much smaller). The .45 seems to be this one: http://henryrepeating.com/rifle-45-70.cfm which is a lever-action, a fairly old-fashioned type of rifle which is much more of a pain to fire, nevermind fire quickly, than most hunting rifles I’ve shot.
I can’t speak for the Glock or the SIG Sauer, since they both cover a very wide range of styles, but overall, it doesn’t seem like a very impressive arsenal to me anyway.
That’s not to take away from the horror of the actions taken with the guns– even a .22 can kill if used improperly– but with the exception of the .45, these are not particularly “powerful guns”, and that one only has a measly 4-round capacity. The lines about Kunar and Helmand provinces are a bit overwrought.
December 16th, 2012 at 3:18PM
“…even a .22 can kill if used improperly…”
This is a candidate for understatement of the year award. A head shot with a .22 is most likely to kill of any caliber as the bullet has the strength to pierce the skull once, but not twice. That means it bounces around the inside of the skull, turning the brain into mush with 0 survivability. Sometimes, not often, a higher caliber bullet will go straight through and the victim survives.
December 16th, 2012 at 5:28PM
A head shot is likely to be lethal regardless of caliber, but in Colorado, that .223 ammo is banned for deer hunting for being too weak, and thus less likely to kill.
December 16th, 2012 at 5:32PM
I stand by what I said. If you have ever noticed my prior posts, then you know I am an attorney and have handled hundreds of criminal cases. As you may have guessed, I also have been to many training seminars on these issues. A .22 head shot is the most lethal head shot there is. If you don’t know that your knowledge about weapons is deficent. Your prior statement is a candidate for understatement of the year.
December 16th, 2012 at 6:00PM
You win all the internets, and arguments carried out therein. For cryin’ out loud, it’s not as if I was saying you can’t kill anybody with a .22. FYI, http://wildlife.state.co.us/SiteCollectionDocuments/DOW/RulesRegs/Brochure/BigGame/biggame.pdf page 14.
December 16th, 2012 at 6:29PM
December 17th, 2012 at 2:09AM
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