Sandy Hook Shooting
December 14th 2012, will forever bring back horror for the people of Newtown, Connecticut. As parents kissed their children bye in the car line, that chilly December morning, they never knew that it might be their last. At nine thirty that morning, the lives of children, teachers, and their loved ones, would change forever. Adam Lanza, a twenty-year-old man, barged into the doors of Sandy Hook Elementary. Along with him, a gun in which he would use to kill twenty children and seven adults. Thus creating one of the worst mass shooting in U.S. History. At first glance, the Sandy Hook shooting looks as though it could not have been prevented or stopped. After a closer inspection of the shooter, Adam Lanza’s warning signs and actions prior, the true story starts to unfold. Sandy Hook was not an accident, and was caused due to the failure of taking action.
A huge part that contributed to the massacres that occurred at Sandy Hook, was Adam Lanza’s untreated mental illnesses. According to the New York Times, Yale University called drastic measures of mental illnesses on Lanza, years before Sandy Hook. They reached out to his mother, who was also killed at Sandy Hook, in concern, but she quickly disregarded the issues. Although they could not directly blame anyone, they did confirm that his mother accommodated to his disabilities, rather than treating them. Even when he showed signs of severe mental health problems, he was still allowed to have access to firearms in his home. Some of which being high-capacity magazines. Looking further into the Yale University’s Child Study Center, it was noted that Mrs. Lanza refused the idea of medication to treat his problems. These untreated illnesses are a predisposing factor. Yale tried to work with the Lanza’s, in order to create other paths of treatment, but all were shot down, due to the fact that Mrs. Lanza stated she wanted to keep Adam “sheltered”. This bubble like environment that he surrounded himself in only made him feel isolated. Ultimately this made him more prone to the violence in which he would day dream about, in an online community of mass-murder enthusiast, in which he was apart of. If Mrs. Lanza would have taken Adam’s illnesses seriously, her, and twenty-five others would still be living today. The Lanza’s constant denial and failure to take action, is what contributed to the making of a mass murderer.
Although Adam’s mental illnesses did contribute to Sandy Hook, another factor was the F.B.I.’s documents. These documents held concerns about Lanza, and was not released to the public until after the shooting. If the topics discussed in the papers were acted upon, the horrific event of Sandy Hook would have never taken place.
Four years before the massacre that occurred at Sandy Hook, more than twenty-four police officials were warned of Adam’s homicidal plans. In the documents lied a conversation that took place with Lanza. The conversation entailed his intention to kill the children of Sandy Hook Elementary School. He also made it clear that he was in possession of an assault weapon, so that he could carry out his planned attack. This conversation was reported to the Newtown Police Department in two thousand and eight, according to the agencies released documents. After the disturbing conversation was told to the police, they quickly shut down the possibility of Lanza proceeding with his plans. They told the individual, who reported the conversation he had with Lanza, that the police department could do nothing about it. This was due to the fact that Adam himself did not own the household guns, instead his mother did. All of the guns were also purchased legally, furthering the fact that there was no action to take. In another entry, a woman in which he had met online, two and a half years’ prior, said she knew about his obsession with mass shootings. She said that he was working on “…a list, or spreadsheet, meticulously documenting the details of hundreds of spree killings and mass murders”. He devoted all of his free time into researching these types of events. Unfortunately, concerns from others did not stop there. He would share and describe his pedophilic ways to women he met online. Lanza would go into detail about adult and child sexual relationships, and how both sides of the sexual relationship was profitable. At a closer inspection, they found materials related to pedophilia, and also found out that he advocated for pedophiles rights. All of these reports, were reported prior to December 14th. With officials being aware of his deviant acts, they could have at least kept a close eye on his actions. Instead, they proceeded to push these concerns aside. They missed the opportunity to save dozens of lives, due to their fear of upsetting one.
Although we will never know what was in the mind of the twisted twenty-year-old, the day he decided to take multiple lives, we do know that it was not spontaneous. It was a progression of issues, that were failed to be taken seriously. Due to his diagnosis of untreated mental illnesses, he began to spin out of control. This was all confirmed in F.B.I. files, which opened our eyes into his last years of life before suicide. In short, Sandy Hook could have been prevented, if concerns were taken soberly.