Alas, divorce courts often award full custody to the mother solely as prejudicial default, and some mothers will do _anything_ to make the father’s continued involvement practically or pragmatically impossible (I’m watching one case up close now - uuuuuuugly; poor kid is just a club to beat dad with).
Yes, maybe he just fled the family for a new life.
And maybe he can’t do a d@mn thing to be involved.
Suffice to say: it only took 1 disturbed kid in a house with 1 gun to figure out how to access it and perpetrate slaughter - and without that gun, he likely would have figured out some other way (gasoline comes to mind).
One thing to be loved about people on FR is that they are not passive people. If there is injustice perpetuated by government, the courts, or misguided groups or individuals they speak up, fight and demand justice. If Lanza’s father felt the courts, hi ex wife or whatever was hampering or preventing his ability to exercise his paternal responsibilities to his son, he could have fought and tried harder. He, a bit like Jeff Flake, chose to withdraw and then whine. Fully understand the difficulty of the situation and would like to think that personally would act differently but appreciate the complexity and reality of the circumstances.