It is deepest hurt of untimely departure that is most testing to condole. Why blame the world? The world is free of sin; the blame is yours and mine. Easiest thing is to absolve ourselves from all guilt to blame the gun, the manufacturer, the gun laws and the crazy killer and move on. But hold on, there is much more to this tragedy than just a gun control here.
Abul-'Alaa' Ma’ari said that “A grief at the hour of death is more than a hundred-fold Joy at the hour of birth." May all these innocent children killed callously and cold-bloodedly Rest in Peace. May the parents have the nerves and courage to face this most unfortunate senseless tragedy. There are four delicate failures here that need immediate addressing the social collapse, unstable mind with apparently little medical intervention, extra concentration on video games and unhindered access to guns; all these significant features present a lethal blend and combination of causes leading to a tinder waiting to blow up.
1. Social breakdown: Mr Lanza had moved out in 2009, remarrying a University of Connecticut librarian in January 2011. He last saw his son Adam in June. But the devastatingly shy young man had taken the divorce poorly. Peter Lanza was ready to pay the money as much as they wanted but not his time, the boy was totally wrecked and broken; he wanted some love and care.
"The kids seemed really depressed" by the break-up, said Ryan Kraft, 25, who stayed with Adam when Mrs Lanza went out.
"He would have tantrums," Mr Kraft said. "They were much more than the average kid [had]."
Mr Lanza's lawyer Gary Oberst said: "He was very upset that he was getting divorced, but he didn't want to take it out on anybody.
"He did more than he had to with the divorce. When he came in to consult with me, I said 'This is what your obligation is.' And he said: 'That's not enough. I want to do more.''
Mr Lanza agreed to pay $240,000 annually to his ex-wife, and Mrs Lanza appeared to live in comfort with Adam. The home was immaculate; the swimming pool behind the house well maintained
Moral: Individualism is of no good, if you cannot pay attention and give time to your progenies. Money rarely will solve any problem; it is caring and continuous attachment to your children post divorce that is most important. What a calamity, how low significance of life has descended too. Where is the veneration and reverence of life? Where is the poise and composure required for the sanctity of our broods? If we are separate lets spend some more time and listen to our children closely, hear them well. This requires no legislation but self sacrifice and our responsibility towards fellow beings.
2. Unstable mind that needed an immediate medical care:
Adam Lanza was a peculiar, bizarre kid, recluse, clever, a genius and fiercely intelligent. "There was something that was above the rest of us."
"Adam had a lot of mental problems." A family insider said. " autism or Asperger's syndrome, and a personality disorder. (Asperger's syndrome, is a type of autism which is more usually diagnosed in those with higher than normal intellect.)
A study suggests that 50 per cent of the prison population in the US meet the criteria for the diagnosis. Those with such disorders are more likely to embark on impulsive, risk-seeking behaviour, in an attempt to escape feeling empty or emotionally void.
He was subject to outbursts " He was not on Face book, unusually for any Westerner of his generation, and did not appear in his 2010 High School Yearbook. Instead were written the words: "Camera shy." Adam Lanza mother had pulled him out of Newtown's public school system because she was unhappy with the school district's plans for her son. Was he happy about his?
Moral: It seems so far that he was not under a care of a psychiatrist. Legislation has given too much power to the patients, it is judges and lawyers who determine 'who will receive the care' but it should be the doctors and professionals who should have been involved. Proper diagnosis and counselling may have helped his demons to sleep. The fact of life is that ‘Evil and wicked’ is a gaudy and boisterous creature. Man remembers such a catastrophe far deeper than what pleases them. An acute sense of general grief and mourning descends like a dark cloud on the entire existence of man. A father who could not remember to see his his unstable, unhinged son from June and continued to earn huge sums needs some soul searching to do here.
3. Unhindered access to guns.
Nancy had an extensive gun collection and she was really fairly proud of it. She was a really great shot and had her allure with firearms. The police has found a Glock handgun, a Sig Sauer handgun and a Bushmaster rifle from the shooting site at Sandy Hook. All these weapons are probably the same that were registered in the name of Nancy Lanza, she had five weapons registered to her, those included a Sig Sauer, a Glock and a Bushmaster. Nancy Lanza Adam Lanza’s mother, would take Adam 20-year-son to the gun range often. She took her two sons to the gun ranges quite a bit to practice their aim.
“She'd take them to the range a lot. … Nancy was an enthusiast -- so much so that she wanted to pass it on to her kids.”
Moral: Guns are bad particularly these powerful guns are only good for war and offence or shooting and big game but beyond that the purpose is limited. Automatic weapons accelerate killings, they also gives a sense of control to a feeble personality. An instable mind or a loner provided with accurate target training with these lethal weapons will give him a false sense of weight and power; a calm before the storm appeared, as the boy looked at his innate insecurities he got help from other extenuating factors too.
Video Games:
Adam Lanza's hobbies were soccer, skateboarding and video games. Adam Lanza belonged to a technology club at Newtown High School that held computer gaming parties. He was also a technical whizz kid, keen on computers and video games, and part of a group who would meet up for computer programming get-togethers. Gloria Milas, whose son Joshua was in the club with Lanza, hosted one of the parties once. She remembered Adam's elder brother Ryan saying at one meeting: "“My brother has always been a nerd,” and added “he still wears a pocket protector”.
Moral: Add power guns with all this Rambo- Arnie Sega maniac games, these video games glorify killings. What is modern video gaming? It is veneration of violence this ''unlicensed killing education'' that every child in the home is exposed too needs to be tackled now. Parents have to do it, just don't let them play these dangerous killing games, no one man can conquer any world, wherever there has been an intervention it has cost US 5 trillion and the bill is still running, war and killing is a dirty expensive business.
Why children adrenaline levels are toyed with in field of violence. Why to show them that war can be won by one person? A killing machine that goes on killing a 1000 without being terminated. Will Adam mind would not have made the connection between those video games and the shooting spree he was about to embark on?
I was for curiosity today watching some of these games and movies and I think that it is not the guns alone, an instable mind plus constant gaming that popping of opponents 'killing look so easy' helps the whole crime to brew in mind that graduate to the execution stage and to the ultimate carnage.
The tinder box finally explodes:
Adam Lanza's mother Nancy, 52, was the first victim of his Friday shooting spree. Lanza shot Nancy in the face and then drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School, wearing black battle fatigues( like The Expendables Arnie- Rambo latest) and a military vest he forced entered Sandy Hook Elementary and begin firing where he killed 20 students and six adults before taking his own life. The gun used to shoot Mrs Lanza was her own. The weapons were lawfully purchased.
They are still trying to figure out why he focused on killing children, all aged between 5 and 10, in two classrooms. People don't talk from the graves , a person who hardly spoke ever have left a lot of questions unanswered the recurrence of this tragedy can only be avoided if proper post mortem that would look at all the angles is carried out, instead of a knee jerk politicisation of the gun issue.
As someone beautifully wrote he was "obscure in life" as he was "infamous in death" but we refuse to accept that we are ignorant about our collective responsibility. If we bring children; we should make sure that sending them a hefty cheque and providing them with all the facilities is not the only assignment and chore, it is also the grooming of mind and paying attention to the psychological needs.
I feel sorry for those who are so mean to see only a killing machine without appreciating the whole set of circumstances that made an unstable child 'a killing machine.' The mother needed help, the community was watching and the father was observing, yet this individualism takes its own ugly course. I ask a simple question from my own conscience and morality ‘Is this a sign of human progress turning into our rival. Is it not our collective decay and failure leading to a lapse of our society and our oblivious descent into a well-orchestrated self-dictated extinction?
Please reach out to a solitary soul and try to touch the hearts of those who need love and direction. Don't forget when we as humans fail we fail as a society too, lets not turn away from the fact that we have some responsibility of any future carnage on our hands if we continue to 'glorify' violence and killings the way we do in Hollywood films and our video games. This whole idea of 'goodies beating the baddies' and Rambo-Arnie taking over the world with the merciless killing of Far Easterners with super weapons will take a toll on the minds of youth. ( The Expendables)
US politicians and media is searching for quick answers as an instant gratification to uproot the tentacles of this ugly heinous well entrenched cancer, it needs old thinking of 'caring without regrets.' It is more about universal introspection than legislation.