Adam Lanza's Motive? Mother In Process of Having Him Committed

Adam Lanza Reportedly Enraged That Mother Was Seeking to Have Him Committed



Nancy Lanza

Late last week, I read that the police had a strong idea as to the motive behind the insane and heartbreaking Sandy Hook shootings committed by Adam Lanza.  Today, via the HuffPost, that possible motive was disclosed:



Adam Lanza

"From what I've been told, Adam was aware of her petitioning the court for conservatorship and (her) plans to have him committed," said Joshua Flashman, 25, who grew up not far from where the shooting took place. "Adam was apparently very upset about this. He thought she just wanted to send him away. From what I understand, he was really, really angry. I think this could have been it, what set him off."

The HuffPost article contained some other interesting information I had not heard before:

"Nancy Lanza reportedly volunteered with kindergartners at the school for several years. Flashman said that Adam "believed she cared more for the children than she did for him." On the day of the massacre, Nancy was Adam's first victim. Flashman told Fox News that Nancy was also good friends with the school's principal and psychologist, both of whom were killed during the incident.
Lanza had also reportedly cut off communication with his father, Peter, in 2010."

I have a few thoughts on this.

One, this motive "makes sense", and that helps me because I need to make sense out of this insanity.

Two, Nancy Lanza should have taken all of her guns out of the house if she knew her son was very angry about the possibility of being committed.  It should not have been beyond the pale of her reasoning to expect that her son might respond violently, if to no one else other than herself, if he was indeed very angry about her plans.  The fact that she apparently believed he was mentally ill to such an extent that she was willing to give up her custodial role, one that she by all accounts took very seriously, only buttresses my belief in this regard. 

Reportedly, Adam Lanza had never been violent, despite his problems, so doesn't it make sense that he was demonstrating some significant change of behavior that caused her to seek his commitment?  And, doesn't it make sense that maybe, given his habit of locking himself in a windowless room in the basement of their home playing "Call of Duty" from morning to night, that the change she saw that caused her to seek his commitment was a shift towards violent tendencies?  If so, and Nancy Lanza saw the anger of her her theretofore placid son further escalate once he learned that she was seeking to have him committed, should she not have removed her guns from their household? Isn't that what you would do?  Don't you think this idea crossed her mind, and maybe more than once?  Did Nancy Lanza's apparent "survivalist" agenda subsume any instinct she had to remove her guns from the house?  Can such "fanaticism" ever be a good and rationale thing?

What Happened to This Child...

Finally, the murderer had spoken to neither his Father nor his Brother since 2010.  For a boy to be estranged from his Father and older Brother suggests the boy may have a very deep problem, particularly where, as here, they appear to be "normal" while he was clearly not.  Meanwhile, his Mother taught this obviously troubled boy/man how to master firearms.  Say what you want, but had she, say, taught him how to master fishing, cooking, flying RC airplanes or to drive a race car, maybe this tragedy would have been avoided.

John A. Gallagher is an employment lawyer who represents employees in Pennsylvania.

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