A chilling new perspective on the Sandy Hook attack that launched the current onslaught of gun control legislation from New England to Puget Sound suggests that mass murderer Adam Lanza planned the attack for very long time and picked an elementary school because “he felt it was a point of least resistance, where he could rack up the greatest number of kills.”
The revelations, reported Sunday and today, bring new insight to a crime that inspired gun control measures across the country, including the Pacific Northwest. Gun legislation has so far failed in Washington, but Oregon lawmakers may still be working on some measures. A proposed semi-auto ban was derailed in Olympia, and a background check bill failed after sponsors threw out a cornerstone requirement for gun owner support.
According to the New York Daily News and Fox News, quoting an un-named veteran police officer who apparently learned information from a recent seminar, Lanza had a “spreadsheet” that investigators now believe was a “score sheet” on which the killer compiled information on other mass shootings. Lanza, a video gamer, apparently wanted his name at the top of this score sheet.
The Daily News account also suggested that as Lanza moved from room to room, he did tactical reloads – that is, replaced magazines in his rifle even if there were still cartridges – so he would have a fully-loaded rifle when he entered the next room. If that is the case, it would negate any conversations about banning so-called “high-capacity” magazines because he kept swapping them out after using only part of the ammunition they contained.
According to the Daily News account, written by Mike Lupica, Lanza learned the tactic from a gamer scenario. The unidentified cop told Lupica, “He didn’t snap that day, he wasn’t one of those guys who was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore.”
“He had been planning this thing forever,” the Daily News quoted its source. “In the end, it was just a perfect storm: These guns, one of them an AR-15, in the hands of a violent, insane gamer. It was like porn to a rapist. They feed on it until they go out and say, enough of the video screen. Now I’m actually going to be a hunter.”
The investigation also allegedly believes that Lanza’s mother became something of an enabler and that she bought guns for him despite his increasing fascination with firearms.
If the story is accurate, it would suggest that nothing – no new legislation, no waiting period, gun or magazine ban – could have prevented the Connecticut “glory killer” from carrying out his attack.
In the aftermath, the public is left to grapple with the reality that such attacks may not be preventable, regardless what kind of feel-good legislation is adopted that impacts only law-abiding gun owners. As has been witnessed in both Washingtons – with federal and state level gun ban proposals not getting much traction – the firearms community is done taking the rap.
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