State Offers No Motive In Sandy Hook Mass Murder

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright November 26, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

            Like the 50-year-old JFK assassination marked Nov. 22, the Dec. 14, 2012 Newtown, Conn. Sandy Hook Elementary School mass murder has investigators scratching their heads for a motive.  With 20-year-old misanthrope Adam Lanza massacring his 52-year-old mother Nancy, 25 elementary school-aged children and school personnel and himself, Conn. State lead investigator Atty. Stephen Sedensky III had no explanation for the horrific massacre.  “The obvious that remains is:  ‘Why did the shooter murder 27 people, including 20 children?’  Unfortunately that question may never be answered conclusively,” read the state’s report.  Lay explanations for mass murder grope to find plausible reasons, like, prescriptions drugs, child abuse, social rejection, illicit drugs or alcohol use, political agendas or any other biological, social or personal excuses.

             Whether admitted to or not by Connecticut authorities, Lanza possessed the carbon-copy characteristics of most youthful mass killers, personified by the April 20,1999 Columbine High School mass murder, where teenage seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher.  Lanza far exceeded the carnage with his own rampage.  What the murders have in common is the murky mental health picture of certain wayward youth, whose disturbed family and social backgrounds, cult-like obsessions get fueled by violent video games, drugs and other escapes dragging them into a foggy fantasy world.  When you add to the mix the kind of social rejection and bullying it produces a potential lethal combination, especially with the availability of firearms.  Had Lanza, or his heroes Harris and Klebold, not had access of firearms 40 innocent people would still be alive.

             Second amendment advocates, especially the National Rifle Assn., often make the point that firearms don’t kill people:  People kill people, advocating arming more folks to prevent future gun-violence episodes.  What gun advocates refuse to acknowledge is what gun violence researchers have found for more than 40 years:  That the access and availability of firearms greatly increase the chances of gun violence.  Lanza “was under no extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse,” said Sedensky’s report, completely missing the dynamics of youthful mass killers.  Diagnosed with Asperger’s disease, something recently removed from the  American Psychiatric Assn.’s 2013 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V, a form of autism characterized by social incompetence, reclusive behavior but not typical speech impairments seen in autism.

             Sedensky misses the point about what he calls “extreme emotional disturbance,” typically reserved to more regressed forms of mental illness known as schizophrenia or bipolar disorders.  Lanza’s manic violent binge didn’t rule out some type of bipolar disorder or its associated personality defect known as “borderline,” “narcissistic” or antisocial personality disorder.  Organizing and committing acts of mass murder usually involve some kind of fitful emotional state and break with reality, where uncontrollable rage morphs into destructive acts like mass killing, fire setting or other criminal acts.  While Sedensky and others look to a prescription drug, seizure or some other brain-related or neuro-chemical event, they miss the obvious motives of a “grandiose last stand.”  With fragile, withdrawn, shy, socially inept types, subjected to enough social rejection and emotional abuse, it doesn’t take much precipitate violence.

             Looking for “the” motive often overlooks the predictable personality traits that fuel violent behavior.  Histories of abuse, rejection and social ostracism often accompany violent episodes.  Lanza’s obsession with his own tales of children’s slaughter or the Columbine mass murder, violent video games or ranking mass murders should have tipped off his mother long ago that her kid needed professional help.  Nancy’s complicity with her son’s mental illness, routinely taking him to shooting ranges, indulging his violent fantasies, earned her a bullet between the eyes.  She knew her son locked himself inside his room for months at a time, rejected all friendships, showed compulsive rituals like frequent hand-washing and communicated only through emails before his Dec. 14, 2012 rampage.  Parents with half of Lanza’s quirks should have sought mental health intervention.

           Stringing together a “motive,” Sedensky acted puzzled about what drove Lanza to mass murder.  Sedensky admitted Lanza “was undoubtedly afflicted with mental health problems; yet despite a fascination with mass shootings and firearms, he displayed no aggressive or threatening tendencies,” whitewashing his report to absolve the state of any responsibility to prevent mass murder.  Admitting Laza was “afflicted with mental health problems,” Sendensky raises some disturbing questions about the role of parents, teachers and others to pinpoint the pattern of peculiarity that should trigger mental health intervention.  “Yes, we have read the report, we cannot make sense of why it happened.  We don’t know if anyone ever will,” said Donna Soto, mother of slain teacher Victoria Soto.  Looking for a “Perry Mason” motive completely misses all the obvious warning signs in garden-variety mass murder.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.