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Well, INMO, she did not take very good care of her son. Taking care of a kid with obvious issues does not mean just feeding and clothing him. She was in obvious denial about her son's abilities and disabilities. Her son needed structure and support.
In my estimation, the most inexcusable part in all of this is how in hell could she have possessed these firearms and/or let her son anywhere near them knowing what she must have known? I understand that she couldn't have foreseen a school massacre, but she surely could have foreseen him attacking another family member or one of her friends or just some random person in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is just inexcusably bad judgment on her part.
We Americans like to look at everything in black and while. We're the good guys and they're the bad guys and all that jazz.
I have been thinking about the shooting in Sandy Hook. There is no question that the act was immoral and caused extreme pain and suffering to many people. However, I don't know if it is enough to call Lanza evil for what he did. It seems that the man suffered greatly mentally and emotionally. I know everyone has problems and few will go and kill innocent people because of them. We truly will never know just how much pain he felt inside.
What do you think? Is Adam Lanza evil?
Adam Lanza did evil, but he was also the product of a sick and twisted culture of evil that worships killing machines.
He grew up with guns and had quick, easy access to guns. Absent that, 26 innocent people would be happily going on with their lives today.
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Mental illness = crazy
psychopath or sociopath = evil
Aspergers = neither (perhaps best thought of as "nerd syndrome")
I don't know if Lanza had some mental illness - it looks like it will be a very long time before the cops share what they know, so they're won't be any way to judge. But someone who would coldly shoot several times into each body, one after another starting with his mother's face - that smacks of evil more than of just snapping under some strain.
The actions they commit are what determine if they are evil or not. In some people's minds, no person is responsible for their actions. Murder a child? Molest the neighbor kid? Torture cats? No, you're not evil, you're just ill. Bullchit. They are evil. The person may be ill as well, but their actions make them evil.
Seems like I have read that something like 25% of the population of this country is on some sort of psychoactive drugs. Does that mean that this 25% can murder people and be excused because they are "sick"? No. They are still responsible for their actions. There are plenty of people that are "depressed" that do not go out and commit murder.
People who murder almost NEVER, EVER are acquitted by reason of insanity. If so, they are still sent to a mental institution. NOBODY is excusing murder. People are trying to figure out WHY. Yes, mentally ill people are still legally responsible for their actions. It is very difficult to prove by law and legal standards, for example, that people are retarded. Not too very long ago, at least in Florida, our courts decided that we should not execute retarded people. However, the next step was what evidence it took to "prove" someone was retarded. The IQ number which is what's used to classify people as retarded is not enough in Florida. There are a number of activities and actions, like for example, if the person with an IQ of say 65 can understand whether or not he gets the right money change when making a purchase, well, that means he's not "that" retarded, etc. You have to prove a whole series of things from his childhood before he is considered by law to be too retarded to execute.
Do you not understand that if YOUR BRAIN is damaged or sick that it will tell you to do CRAZY things? So what if you had some accident tomorrow and you became brain damaged in say your frontal lobes a bit and you started doing crazy stuff, hurting other, etc., would that make you inherently EVIL? I don't think so. When you have mental illnesses they can come from a large variety of sources, but things like aspergers, schizophrenia, and many others you INHERIT them usually. For me, "EVIL" means that the person is not mentally ill and is perfectly capable of understanding his/her actions and take those actions to HURT and make others SUFFER HORENDOUSLY. They are not motivated to do things as a result of a mental illness they cannot control, and usually act out in an effort to stop their madness. Just my opinion.
I don't know where you're getting this idea that issues which are used as mitigation AFTER SOMEONE HAS BEEN CONVICTED OF MURDER, in the sentencing portion of the trial has anything to do with the guilt/innocence portion. Can you find a cite to a person who in the past decade used the defense of insanity and was acquitted and was set free? That defense is so rarely used because of the legal definition of insanity. It is almost impossible to win with that defense.
He was fed a steady stream of dangerous pursuits that were not good considering his fragile state of mind. Take his violent video games away and he'd be bummed but he'd eventually find something else to obsess over. Take away the access to guns and he'd never have the opportunity to go on the rampage he did. Institutionalize him and get him in therapy and he could have worked through many of his problems and even been released at some point.
He may have flipped out and stabbed his mother and killed her anyway and may well have went to the school and went on a knifing spree at recess. He might have been able to do other things like use a car as a weapon. Or maybe he'd have just killed himself. Clearly the major issue was that he was deeply disturbed and was allowed to get to the point where he was a clear danger and had access to weapons he shouldn't have. He was also failed in not being taught empathy, ethics, and compassion and responsibility and the ramifications of his actions. Thats a pandemic problem across all America.
Obama says we have to change and we do. Not the way he thinks but in a way that would do far more to stop this kind of madness.
We need to change and become a good people again. People that don't steal, lie, cheat, give in to our darker urges. We need to show compassion and kindness to others and have to do the right thing. And we have to teach our kids to be good people and we have to force an expectation that only that type of behavior will be tolerated in our society.
If we don't do that, we're only treating the synptoms of our societal decay and not the cause of it.
Aspergers = neither (perhaps best thought of as "nerd syndrome")
I don't know if Lanza had some mental illness - it looks like it will be a very long time before the cops share what they know, so they're won't be any way to judge. But someone who would coldly shoot several times into each body, one after another starting with his mother's face - that smacks of evil more than of just snapping under some strain.
You might do well to read the links I posted previously regarding aspergers and mental illness. I think your definition is not correct in all cases.
Well, those things may "smack" of evil to you, but maybe you're just not familiar with a lot of mental illnesses so you don't have all the facts.
I'm not so sure it will be a very long time before the information is shared, plus we already know he had aspergers. That seems to be factual and common knowledge. And as I've said before, it is very difficult to diagnose mental illnesses in patients with aspergers because they cannot express emotions as well as the rest of us, so it's hard to know that they are depressed because you cannot read their minds. Long term severe depression and paranoia in someone with aspergers certainly seems to be a very BAD COMBINATION and might very likely lead to acting out in a violent way. This young man most likely inherited the aspergers and therefore he had lived in an isolated state all his life for the most part.
He was fed a steady stream of dangerous pursuits that were not good considering his fragile state of mind. Take his violent video games away and he'd be bummed but he'd eventually find something else to obsess over. Take away the access to guns and he'd never have the opportunity to go on the rampage he did. Institutionalize him and get him in therapy and he could have worked through many of his problems and even been released at some point.
He may have flipped out and stabbed his mother and killed her anyway and may well have went to the school and went on a knifing spree at recess. He might have been able to do other things like use a car as a weapon. Or maybe he'd have just killed himself. Clearly the major issue was that he was deeply disturbed and was allowed to get to the point where he was a clear danger and had access to weapons he shouldn't have. He was also failed in not being taught empathy, ethics, and compassion and responsibility and the ramifications of his actions. Thats a pandemic problem across all America.
Obama says we have to change and we do. Not the way he thinks but in a way that would do far more to stop this kind of madness.
We need to change and become a good people again. People that don't steal, lie, cheat, give in to our darker urges. We need to show compassion and kindness to others and have to do the right thing. And we have to teach our kids to be good people and we have to force an expectation that only that type of behavior will be tolerated in our society.
If we don't do that, we're only treating the synptoms of our societal decay and not the cause of it.
I agree.
And the first step toward the change is to STOP WORSHIPING MONEY. People need to learn/remember that there are so many good things in life that do NOT INVOLVED MONEY and MATERIAL POSSESSIONS.
In my estimation, the most inexcusable part in all of this is how in hell could she have possessed these firearms and/or let her son anywhere near them knowing what she must have known? I understand that she couldn't have foreseen a school massacre, but she surely could have foreseen him attacking another family member or one of her friends or just some random person in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is just inexcusably bad judgment on her part.
How do you know she gave him access to the guns? Have you read that somewhere? Do you have a source?
My brother has a big gun safe which he keeps locked. Has there been some reporting that the guns were in the house fully accessible to the son?
I've been under the impression that she did have the guns locked away, but I may be wrong. If you could direct me to some information showing that she did not keep the guns locked up and her son had full access to them any time he wanted, I'd really appreciate it. Or even if the guns were locked up, and she gave her son a key to access the guns.
well, different people certainly have different definition of "evil" To me, I've used the word to describe my ex boyfriend, current mother in law, an unfit pair of heels, and Adam Lanza. The word evil by itself doesn't have to have a religious connotations. In my most humble opinion.
Apparently, Adam Lanza has some kind of mysterious mental condition. I just want to remind everybody that his condition has not been confirmed, let's not assume that he had asperger's syndrome, because all these ruthless speculation only stigmatize those people who truely suffer from the condition. Aspergers is not a form of violent mental illness, it is not mental illness at all.
The Lack of mental health care is a problem world wide.
It would appear that this is one area we can all agree on. So can we build on that, and
In knowing families and people with mental health issues are not getting the help and support they deserve. Therefore lets not make matters worse by allowing every man and his dog access to high powered guns.
Quite frankly, personal responsibility become such a foreign concept to a lot of people. So I suspect sandy hook tragedy will repeat in the future.
Adam Lanza committed an evil act. No need to sugar coat it. But he was a mentally disturbed person, he unleashed the evil at Sandy Hook school. However you want to choose your words, it is up to you. He shouldn't have been born.
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