Analysis of Events before the Shooting
Sometime before 9.30 am, Adam Lanza killed his mother Nancy Lanza by shooting her four times in their house. Lanza then proceeded to Sandy Hook Elementary School where he forced his way into the compound, killing a total of 26 people. The first casualties of this crime were the school psychologist and the principal, who went out of the office to investigate the commotion and bang at the locked door. The teachers in classes responded instantly by moving out children from the immediate sights of the criminal. However, this did not prevent 20 children from becoming victims of 20-year-old Adam Lanza’s heinous acts.
The pre-shooting events give highlight critical issues in the management of schools and access to private assault weapons. The intention to kill children also points to a fact that there was a pre-conceived mind by the shooter to commit heinous crimes that day. While it is not clear whether there were arguments in the house before he shot his mother, the highest probability is that Lanza had a disturbed mind. This may have led to the construction of an evil pattern to end the lives of children. It’s possible that there were other institutions that he bypassed before getting to the school. This is a pointer to a planned event.
As written by Lysiak (2014), there were many pointers that Adam Lanza had a disturbed mind before he committed the crime. Off-site investigations showed that before the crime, Lanza had tampered with his computer by damaging the hard drive. However, most crucial in the outcome of the investigations was that there was a preconceived mind because the man had intensely analyzed past mass casualty attacks such as the Amis School incident of 2006, Norway attacks of 2011, and Columbine School shooting among others. These are acts of a hardened criminal. His actions and planning can be compared to the heinous acts of a terrorist whose mind is always to have maximum impacts. Their ideologies of mass casualty then killing themselves are highly evident in the Sandy School shooting. Adam Lanza was a killer whose aim was to have maximum impact and ending his life before he could be arrested by the police.
Legal Considerations
There are several legal considerations pertinent to the incident at Sandy School on December 14, 2012. The basis of legal proceedings in this incident is that it was a planned event. Investigations were clear that the event was highly planned, possibly one year before the event (Lysiak, 2014). While other experts in the analysis of the incident believe that the police force highly scripted the event and that there was no actual incident, the real basis of legal proceedings lies on the outcomes and line of action by the perpetrator of the crime. First, the perpetrator was able to access the assault weapon and drive to the school. Nancy Lanza was also reported to have trained Adam Lanza on using guns using her assault weapon. Most importantly, the incident help raise the question of gun control and access to guns by private citizens in the United States of America.
Essentially, two years after the fatal incident, investigators and policymakers in the United States of America did not carry out an intensive survey on gun violence in the country. Lysiak (2014) writes that the incident raised an important issue of safeguarding the misuse of firearms by private citizens. Gun legislation ought to have been relooked into as a way of preventing private citizens from taking violent matters into their hands using assault weapons. While gun legislation and related acts may not act as the main deterrent on misuse of firearms in the country, it is an important step towards control of ownership and guide on circumstances of use by private citizens.
Another legal consideration is on developing statutory obligations regarding child fatality. After the incident, it became pertinent to have a clearly outlined child fatality consideration review. The review ought to evaluate circumstances under which children die in out-of-home care, or death coming from unexplained circumstances. Such reviews would give critical recommendations on legal considerations to be undertaken, and especially on compensations. Issues of disclosures of important information regarding out-of-home deaths and unexplained causes of deaths for children are important for legal considerations.
Information Analysis
This is an important consideration emanating from the incident at Sandy Hook school on December 14, 2012. According to Turvey (2013), information sharing and synthesis regarding criminality are critical in averting intentional crimes. Intentional crimes are planned and usually involve more than one actor. However, in the case of the Sandy Hook school shooting, it was determined that Adam Lanza acted alone. There were no collaborators in planning for the crime, and therefore, there was no real connectedness of the crime to a network of criminal issues.
Investigations determined that Adam Lanza exhibited some warning signs which were not acted upon. Turvey (2013) writes that Adam Lanza had a disturbed mind, which constituted a mild mental health problem. Adam Lanza’s brother Ryan told investigators that his brother was autistic, but quiet to an extent that it was hard to deduce that he had the mind to commit such a heinous crime. In understanding the mind of a criminal, Turvey (2013) argues that there are always some mild indicators, no matter how close the criminal is to himself. The 2006 Amis School shooting is an example of how lone gunmen have interior characteristics that lead them to commit crimes. For example, in this case, the gunman had a loathing for females, and therefore, his sole motive was on killing female students. The Sandy Hook shooter had a known autistic problem. The problem ought to have been a warning to intensive care in managing his obsessive-compulsive characteristics.
Most important in this analysis is that such information ought to have been shared beforehand. The mother, Nancy Lanza was reported a gun enthusiast, and who had even trained her son Adam on shooting. While this raises a critical question of circumstances of private gun ownership, it also raises pertinent issues of information sharing. Close people to the family ought to have shared this critical information with law enforcers. This would have prevented such an incidence, where, even the mother to the gun trainee was not safe.
Conclusion
This paper has focused on the Sandy Hook shooting where 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed a total of 27 individuals. This case points to several pertinent issues for consideration. These include legal considerations and analysis of information. This, therefore, information sharing, effective statutory obligations, and good legal firearm legislation would have prevented the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings.
References
Lysiak, M. (2014). Newtown: An American Tragedy. New York, NY: Gallery Books.
Turvey, B.E. (2013). Forensic Victimology: Examining Violent Crime Victims in Investigative and Legal Contexts. Amsterdam: Academic Press.