Nancy Lanza feared son, Adam, was ‘getting worse’; ‘he was burning himself with a lighter’

NY Daily News ^ | 12/16/12 | MATTHEW LYSIAK AND STEPHEN REX BROWN

[jimbo123]

Less than a week before her son would launch his horrifying attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School, gun-loving mom Nancy Lanza knew "she was losing him" and that "he was getting worse."

-snip-

Adam, who the coroner's office said Sunday shot Nancy Lanza, 54, several times in the head before unleashing a nightmarish attack that killed 20 schoolchildren and six others Friday, was prone to hurting himself, the drinking buddy said.

"Nancy told me he was burning himself with a lighter. In the ankles or arms or something," he recalled of a conversation they had about a year ago. "It was like he was trying to feel something."

[pepsionice]

The problem is that you can’t really turn to the state to fix this issue. No one is going to take over the responsibility of some nutcase relative of yours....unlike 1930s America where you could deposit a relative with the state facility and just walk away.

If we came to realize that 100k Americans represent a threat to friends, relatives, and school kids...maybe we’d be willing to revert back to the old system of facility management.

[Aria]

I know a mother who fought like hell to get her son, who she was afraid of, treated. Finally UCLA got him straightened out - at least for the time being. After trying various meds prescribed by various doctors that didn’t work UCLA “washed” his system and then put him on something else and now he’s a really good kid. Yet to reach puberty however.

[RitaOK]

An astute observation, and the mentally ill question is the issue we should drive home. The rage thing with alcohol and drug use is another target, but not guns.

Push and shove the truth of state of mind, not the state of gun that kills. Shove the cause down the throats of the Left, not the instrument. China just suffered 22 kids knifed in school by an adult mental case.

THAT story out of China must enrage the American Left & and their msm arm of the Marxist Party.

[RitaOK]

An astute observation, and the mentally ill question is the issue we should drive home. The rage thing with alcohol and drug use is another target, but not guns.

Push and shove the truth of state of mind, not the state of gun that kills. Shove the cause down the throats of the Left, not the instrument. China just suffered 22 kids knifed in school by an adult mental case.

THAT story out of China must enrage the American Left & and their msm arm of the Marxist Party.

[CaptainK]

Oftentimes mothers will take up the “cause” of a mentally ill son to the point that it goes against their husbands (this couple got divorced in 2009, which I believe was around the time the kid, Adam, was about to turn 18).

And just as often the father splits and takes up with a new woman because he can't handle what's going on at home.

[greatvikingone]

“...but it’s pretty clear that she had the liberal mindset that her very impaired son should be treated just like a normal child.”

That’s the impression I have too. It is the wrong approach.

[Chode]

yeah but i was thinking more about making sure he couldn't get to her guns! it's a hard call and i know that might have been hard to do, but... if she'd lived, she'd of been sued into oblivion

[Gay State Conservative]

You make very valid points.Not all kids (or people,for that matter) commit acts of violence but,all things considered,they might be more prone to such acts than “normal” people.From years of personal experience I can assure you that firearms aren’t the only things that qualify as “deadly weapons”.One vital lesson that must be learned here is the importance of keeping firearms away from certain people,including those with certain psych conditions.

[muawiyah]

http://www.mindlink.org/rights.html ~ handbook written about CT rules regarding rights of the mentally ill.

[muawiyah]

http://www.mindlink.org/rights.html ~ handbook written about CT rules regarding rights of the mentally ill. This is what she was up against. BTW, your point about his mother being the first one he killed is probably under investigation as we write each other. Bet he’s scragged some others!

[muawiyah]

http://www.mindlink.org/rights.html ~ handbook written about CT rules regarding rights of the mentally ill. This is what she was up against. BTW, your point about his mother being the first one he killed is probably under investigation as we write each other. Bet he’s scragged some others!

[greatvikingone]

“THAT story out of China must enrage the American Left & and their msm arm of the Marxist Party.”

Are any public figures talking about? A school is a soft target -a gun isn’t necessary to do harm, but it sure might stop it.

[Chickensoup]

“gun-loving mom” , “blast them from the sky”.

A little bit of an agenda here?

[Standing Wolf]

"gun-loving mom" "drinking buddy" "bar pal"

What kind of BS journalism is that?

New York Daily News, what a crap rag.

Sort of yes and sort of no. The New York Daily News isn't much of a newspaper, though my impression is it's a slightly less flagrantly propaganda-driven operation than the Times of that same city.

Interviews with the killer's mother's drinking friends aren't likely to produce the definitive answers most of us want, but they're better than nothing, and may well lead to worthier sources.

In purely journalistic terms, this is a huge story, and there's an enormous demand for facts right this minute. Standard journalistic practice has always been to send out as many reporters as can be rousted out of low budget bars, and order them to dig fast and dig deep and bring back everything they can get their hands on. Editors, in the ensuing few days, used to toss the accumulated facts and impressions and reminescences and guesses and more facts and hunches on the table, sort through them, and make the best possible sense of the story as a whole.

There are a couple problems with that method:

1.) News consumers are in a red hot television-paced hurry these days. This is understandable, though it doesn't encourage intelligent, comprehensive, realistic journalism. The need for speed has trumped accuracy.

2.) This story has had a prodigiously large political cast from the moment the killer pulled the first trigger the first time, and "that changes everything," to coin a phrase. If it need be said, the failed main stream "news" media had their so-called "minds" made up from the outset this would be their golden opportunity to help President You Didn't Build That and the Democratic [sic] party give those knuckle-dragging Neanderthal NRA goons a hard slap across the face and agitate for more so-called "gun control." Whatever advances the "progressive" so-called "narrative" is all to the good; whatever stands in its way either isn't reported at all, or deliberately covered up with leftist extremist lies. Those have been the methods all along with the Fast & Furious fiasco: first don't report it, then try to hide it. If you expect the worst of socialists, you'll rarely be disappointed.

Very little time to gather facts plus "progressive" hatred of ordinary Americans and American civil rights adds up to a journalistic disaster. It's by no means the first such disaster, to be sure, though I have no doubt historians will point out in due time this was one of the larger and more egregious.

Fortunately for real Americans, there isn't a shortage of genuine, old-fashioned journalists who are ready, willing, and able to do everything newspaper reporters used to do. Most genuine journalists' stories show up on the internet these days rather than paper. They're gathering facts this very minute. They're looking over the material that's showing up in newspaper and television accounts, much of it blatantly hate-driven, of course. They're working on drawing the connections and sussing their way through the "narratives" the dinosaur "news" media saturate with totalitarian bias. Authentic journalists with old-fashioned integrity are on the job. We'll presently see a much more comprehensive, truthful, and intelligent story.

I predict some of what the Daily News has generated will show up in authentic news stories in another few days.

[bgill]

What kind of BS journalism is that?

Also, they went from the bar conversation being a year ago to a week ago. So, when was it that he was burning himself to feel something? A long time ago which may or may not have ended or was this a recent thing which can be another piece of the puzzle?

[9YearLurker]

Sounds like that was the drinking buddy’s assessment of why Adam would burn himself. But if it is like the probably of ‘cutting’, it would more likely have been done as a diversion from greater mental anguish.

[Chickensoup]

Not in Connecticut anyways. In many states you can probate them into the custody of a mhc facility for treatment if you can prove that he is a danger to himself or others.
___________________

And the family had to hire the attorney to prosecute the case, and immediate danger is the operative word.

[CynicalBear]

I’m not willing to allow someone to decide who is a danger prior to them committing an offense. That allows for someone like the pResident who now is leaning towards labeling conservatives terrorists. Commitment on someone’s word is dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed. Focusing on that as the cause for this tragedy is like what the libs are doing looking at everything but the society they have built by their liberal ideologies.

[rockrr]

I’m still wondering why they never institutionalized Jerry...

[Hot Tabasco]

Certainly, lets see how far down we can drag the mother:

A drinking buddy of Lanza

the bar pal, who did not wish to be named

... the drinking buddy said.

the conversation last week over craft beers

The anonymous pal remembered ...She "was a country girl" who loved to hunt with a falcon that would scare game she'd blast out of the sky.

Sorry but after the last comment of this apparent drunk who wishes to remain anonymous, I'm not buying any of this report..........

I've looked into falconry and the sport is the most highly regulated endeavor in the United States. You just don't go out and buy a falcon or other raptor to house as a pet or hunting companion........