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."

[Monty22002]

Loonie bins are expensive as hell. We’d have to take on another $ trillion per year of debt to try to control all these animals.

[greatvikingone]

“I’m not willing to allow someone to decide who is a danger prior to them committing an offense.”

There are some conditions that are well enough understood that with a diagnosis and family description of behavior should be sufficient for commitment.

[Hot Tabasco]

Knowing her son was mentally ill, why would she have taught him to shoot, and why were the guns accessible to him?

Why would you accept the word of a barfly named "Anonymous"?

Mr. "Anonymous" is likely the most quoted individual in this entire world............

[Drew68]

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

Not really. It's been used to remind us that nobody died in the Chinese knife attack, unlike CT.

[Verginius Rufus]

The money isn’t available—it is needed to build the jails for holding all those opposed to Obama’s agenda (as Harry Belafonte said the other day).

[Mrs. Don-o]

It was over 35 years ago that the courts made it impossible to involuntarily admit a person over 18 to a psychiatric hospital, unless they had actually done somthing potentially fatal to themselves or others. You really are supposed to wait until they hurt somebody.

I was a volunteer at a soup kitchen that had all kinds of borderline people. Oh, the stories I could tell. But you couldn't have them committed. The police would pick up women who were raving bonkers, and bring them over to the overnight shelter run by the (very courageous) Catholic nuns.

[Hot Tabasco]

Knowing her son was mentally ill, why would she have taught him to shoot,

The instruction began at an early age, likely long before any evidence of mental illness set in........

But who knows what the real facts are if you're reading MSM reports..........

[CynicalBear]

>> There are some conditions that are well enough understood that with a diagnosis and family description of behavior should be sufficient for commitment.<<

Not good enough. Allows for too much manipulation. Freedom to freely carry concealed will drastically reduce incidences like this as it has in multiple communities like Kennesaw, Ga and others. Those who still are stupid enough to try something simply get eliminated by those protecting themselves and those around them.

[TigersEye]

It is the wrong approach.

It sure is.

[arasina]

I read somewhere today that Adam Lanza had a disorder known as congenital analgesia, or insensitivity to pain. I either saw a television show or read something this year where an individual had this but I can't recall any more about it. I guess Adam Lanza was burning himself in order to see if he could feel the pain.

Here's a link to a recent story in The New York Times about a 13-year-old girl with the same problem. It must be awful for everyone, really. Ashlyn Blocker, the Girl Who Feels No Pain

[AppyPappy]

A lot of single moms surrender to their boys and just hope for the best. They are the ones who get mad when some homeowner kills them during a break-in instead of trying to wound them.

I guarantee he threatened her more than once and she wouldn’t kick him out. She watched him turn into a mass killer and did nothing to stop it.

Virginia Tech did the same thing to Cho. They ignored all the signs. The only person who did anything was Nikki Giovanni and they ignored her.

[jonrick46]

"Back in the day, and in many other countries today, that behavior would have gotten him sent to the loony bin."

You had better be careful over what you wish for. There is a money incentive by those who would financially benefit from the increased institutionalization of mentally impaired human beings. People will be picked up at the drop of a hat. Parents would lose their kids because some nitwit determines they do not like the way the kid talks. Or, how they look. Suppose you saw this man in the check-out stand. Would you put a call in to 911?

Or this girl?

Twelve-year-old Brianna Moore, who was expelled from school for her pinkish hair.

If you did, hold on to your house and bank account. If the school district did, the sky is the limit.

The lawyers are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of this cash cow.

[smoothsailing]

I repeat, the New York Daily News, what a crap rag.

BTW, I enjoyed reading your cogent missive.

[Chickensoup]

I guarantee he threatened her more than once and she wouldn’t kick him out. She watched him turn into a mass killer and did nothing to stop it.

Virginia Tech did the same thing to Cho. They ignored all the signs. The only person who did anything was Nikki Giovanni and they ignored her.
___________________________

I respect you immensely but frankly, there is nothing that she could have done. Nothing. The way the laws stand in this country, there is nothing that can be done unless danger is immenent. Nothing.

Whether she was happily married, whether she had all the monies and legal advice in the world, when an psychiatric patient doesnt want treatment, and there is no immenent danger, there is nothing that can be done.

This is not a gun issue,it is not a parenting issues, it is fully an mental health system issue. The lawsuits agains the people who implement such draconian measures to prevent early intervention and custodial care of dangerous people should begin. People with poor judgement who are abusing themselves.

[AppyPappy]

I have Aspergers(very mild) and I have a high threshold of pain. I’ve never taken anything stronger than an Advil. I don’t resist burning myself with a lighter because it hurts, I don’t burn myself with a lighter because I know it is bad for me. I also have no natural sense of empathy or sympathy. I could watch people die all day and it wouldn’t affect me(which came in handy when I worked in EMS in high school).
I’ve been around people like me and it scares me.

My guess is that the Aspergers was combined with paranoid schizophrenia/bipolar and drug use.

[AppyPappy]

She could have kicked him out of the house when he threatened her.

[Mr Rogers]

If someone is willing to kill you, how do you stop them from getting your guns? He could have use an oxyacetylene torch to cut open a safe after he killed her. OTOH, if she left them lying around, then I can see how that would be a problem.

[Chickensoup]

Loonie bins are expensive as hell. We’d have to take on another $ trillion per year of debt to try to control all these animals.
_______________________

Long term locked psychiatric facilities are much less expensive than what we do now which is to set them up in some sort of alone or congregant housing which they trash, send people to make sure they take their meds, which patients figure out quickly that they dont, have them in and out of ERs up to 10 times a week, have them half starve in the streets and need medical care, have them the biggest part of any police job, have them with provider teams of up to 10 people with in home supports, have them continue emotionally tortured.

[jonrick46]

"Mom apparently spent a lot of time drinking at a bar."

We will see how much alcohol played into this tragedy--for the shooter, Adam Lanza.

[Chickensoup]

She could have kicked him out of the house when he threatened her.

____________________

My experience is that these parents are frightened. I would guess he may be Aspi and antisocial. Dangerous combo. No lock too strong.