Who Would Carry Out A School Shooting?

This undated photo shows Adam Lanza posing for a group photo of the technology club which appeared in the Newtown High School yearbook. Authorities have identified Lanza as the gunman who killed his mother at their home and then opened fire on Friday inside an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 people, including 20 children, before killing himself. (AP Photo)

What makes a person grab a gun – or several guns – and walk into an elementary school ready to kill?

Many people are asking that question following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 young children and six teachers and staff dead.

Guest:

Dr. Ken Duckworth, child psychiatrist and medical director at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

concerned mother of teenager

I was shocked and horrified by the blog you referenced today of a woman who claimed her 13 year-old son is Adam Lanza. This public humiliation of a child by his mother should be shunned, not promoted. Her son lost electronics for a day for calling her a bad word in their private home. How long should she lose her electronics for after she has called her young child a mass murderer in the national media? The psychological damage to the child is hard to imagine, in the name of promoting mental health? It is no exaggeration to call it an atrocity.
- DrJoani
  
  There is an alternative truth to her carefully crafted story. She has a blog that is horrendous. A link of protest showing some of the horrible things she writes so masterfully and nastily about ALL of her children (ho ho chortle chortle?) can be found, (Sarahkenzior.com) if you are interested.
  In any case, as my son wrote to me, she is NOT Adam’s mother.And clearly she isn’t a mental health expert of any kind. She is or seems to be a self-aggrandizing mom whose son needs help. And perhaps she does too!
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003000884786 Navin R Johnson
    
    Your link is wrong, here is the correct one: http://sarahkendzior.com
    
    Thanks for that, now I wonder if they Mom is the one to blame…
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003000884786 Navin R Johnson
  
  That kid did far more than call his Mom a bad name, he is a little psychopath. There is no cure for that, it is not an illness.
J Frog

I will be interested to find out what kind of MEDIA this shooter has been ingesting during his lifetime. Lots of violent, first-person-shooter video games? Lots of violent movies or music? You are what you eat.
- J Frog
  
  “Killer Adam Lanza ‘Obsessed’ With Violent Video Games”
  
  http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/365190/Killer-Adam-Lanza-obsessed-with-violent-video-games
  
  Haven’t we seen this before? Like with EVERY mass murder in the passed few years. Even the Norweigan murder. Our second amendment needs some work, but maybe our first amendment needs some, too.
  - Haywood
    
    And what about the medications he was on.
    Anyone ever do a search of the other shooters who many were loners and played these violent video games?
    Well nearly ALL I could find were heavily medicated for sometime prior to go berserk.
    Why is the media afraid to mention the role of Big Pharma? Possibly because they are major advertizers to the mainstream media.
Geosources

There no such thing as an assault weapon. These rifles may have military features, but most hunting ruffles are more accurate therefore more deadly. The shooter used two pistols, why does the media continue talking about assault weapons. Let’s talk truthfully about the issues, no same person has done a mass shooting, let’s talk about mental health.
tncanoeguy

So is one lesson from this, if you have a child with “issues” the last thing you want to do is bring a gun into the house?
tncanoeguy

Alabama cutting mental health services? They will reap what they sow.
Raoul

Who Would Carry Out A School Shooting?’

Not that I do not want solutions to this problem, but the business of Psychiatry is not an exact science. Yes I do agree that one is able to spot certain irregularities of one’s children at an early age. Mental health problems can be caused by a variety of problems both on a genetic level or by some outside trauma at any stage in life not related to ones DNA. Therefore, if one is serious about resolving American gun massacres then for those whom believe psychiatry is a solution then a person, regardless of age, who wants to own a weapon, then that person must be evaluated during the process of purchasing a gun. Then, just like any other license, a person (in this example) must be evaluated every five years to see if he is still stable. All this mental health testing goes out the window when a sane person (whatever that means) at a party or at a bar where alcohol and drugs are part of the venue, where a drug/alcohol argument breaks out and someone decides to resolve the non problem with a gun by killing someone. In America, for males, guns are like Viagra. As the commercial states: Men are know how to resolve problems!?! (something like that). Perhaps the quickest way to resolve this macho man problems is to allow all people to own a gun or an assault weapon of any type but with only a SINGLE CHAMBER that is designed “not to accept any type of clips “for one to 100 bullets. This way these macho men and children can have their weapons to kill “SOMETHING” but with only one bullet.In the T.V. sitcomb Mayberry, sherif Don Knots used wooden bullets in his gun. I wish I could return to the days of Maberry when people were nice to each other…… where common sense solutions prevailed. America does not need (demands) NRA fear solutions to sale guns for their investors without souls. Actually the law of the land for gun ownership is flawed…… it is a myth!
Sharonflecklpc

I would love to hear more debate about changing mental health laws. I believe gun laws have very little to do with why this happened and changing them is not likely to make anyone safer. This is about the way mental health services are delivered, or more accurately, not delivered. When a person is suicidal or homicidal, the most action that is typically taken is a hospitalization for two to three days. That patient is most often discharged with no additional supports or treatment. This can delay fatality, but in no way prevents it. People with significant homicidal and suicidal ideation need the right treatment. At this time, insurance companies are not likely to pay for the treatment that is needed. This is what needs to change.
it

I think there should be a ban on the media use of the names, pictures and life stories of these psychos. Why should I know the name of any of these killers other that it makes money for the media? Before you call for a ban on guns call for a ban on your own glorification of the crime for your profit.
Ted

Those that carry out these shooting are the “patsy”. Who put them up to this the media does not report. Again another “lone gunman”, probably heavily medicated and most likely has a RHIC-EDOM implant in his head. Another Manchurian Candidate to do the dirty work of the ruling class.
Its the same old news after one of these shootings. But no one asks WHO BENEFITS from it.
Those that benefit are the Globalists and their friends in the United Nations who are pushing for a total weapons ban.
After all, how can you have a New World Order with your citizenry or sheeples possessing weapons.
- DrJoani
  
  Yow!
Ted

You people are basically being “dicked around” by our so called “authorities”.
Haywood

Possibly we could have a “war on guns” like the other wars the US has had. These include the war on drugs, war on cancer, war on poverty, the Cold war and the current perpetual war on terrorism.
Lets see how that will work.
Haywood

The mainstream media had no troubles airing the beheadings during the Iraq war, or the Abu Ghraib photos, and you have no troubles doing special effects of people being shot to pieces in PG-13 movies, so WHY NO PICTURES OF A SHOT UP SCHOOL in Newton, Connecticut. Think we can’t handle it?Or are the authorities hiding something?
delphine12

A growing number of doctors believe that the meds are causing the violence. Dr. Breggin, a psychiatrist, wrote a book called “Medication Madness”. He discussed the 50 trial cases he was involved in where SSRI meds caused suicide, violence, murder of parents. Go to his website, http://www.breggin.com and look at the research and archived videos. Watch this video of Dr. Breggin testifying before Congress.
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http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=101&Itemid=95
MontanaFace

One thing that we know is that almost all shootings are carried out by males. Has anyone ever looked into hormone therapy for the mentally ill who are showing violent tendencies? Could some kind of reduction in testosterone be a simple enough solution to curb violent urges? How many men could benefit from this in their simple daily lives? We have all kinds of hormonal solutions for women, maybe there are a lot of men left out of this kind of option.