Everytime one imposes a control one shifts accountability from the person doing it to the person who is controlling it. (E. Schuitema; Leadership – The Care and Growth Model)
I was reminded of this saying over the recent and very tragic shooting incident in Connecticut by 20 years old Adam Lanza. The massacre resulted in 26 casualties; mostly children below the ages of 10. Adam had first shot his mother to death at his home and then proceeded to the Sandy Hook Elementary School where he went on a shooting spree and eventually killed himself in the end.
There has been a huge outcry in the U.S regarding the imposition of gun controls because of late, the country has witnessed similar incidents where people take up sniper firing at random and kill innocent people blatantly. However, my questions are, “will the imposition of gun controls stop the people who wish to indulge in violent manslaughter?”, “is there something deeper to this phenomenon than the apparent lack of gun control?”
For us individuals there ought to be more between the lines than the apparent legislative duty of imposing gun controls. Aren’t these incidents a manifestation that the society needs a sense of moral accountability, human compassion and a cohesive family and community structure?
To me it seems that it’s far easier to play a blame game and put the entire onus onto a legislative flaw, Adam’s apparent ‘weirdness’, rather than to connect the strands of Adam’s world and realise how we as individuals can build a better and humane society. It’s far more effort to become a better parent, neighbour and an individual perhaps. For a society shocked and dazed by this horrible tragedy, it is far more important to go beyond the knee jerk reaction of calling for legislative controls and of calling Adam an evil, evil man beyond forgiveness.
The news reports say that Adam was a terribly reserved and very intelligent young man. He was so camera shy that the press has still not found a recent and appropriate enough photograph of him. His mother; Nancy Lanza had a fascination for guns, kept a sophisticated gun collection in the house and often took her two boys to shooting ranges. His parents had divorced 3 years ago. The divorce after 28 years of marriage had left the sons devastated. The father paid a very generous amount of alimony to the mother who felt she did not need to work because of the healthy financial income. It had been several years since Adam had seen his father. Adam was reported to be a video games enthusiast himself and played violent, mature audience, videogames most of the day in his home theatre in the basement of the house. He had a particular obsession for the game Counter Strike in which players act like terrorists or counter terrorists.
The news facts are not conclusive in making an opinion into the incident and they are not meant to be. They are random news bites that may help draw attention towards issues deeper than Adam’s ‘evilness’. By stressing on only stringent gun control laws, the accountability of such crime is shifting to law makers rather than each individual in the society.
I leave it up to the readers to find connections between Adam’s life and the Sandy Hook killings.
References:
http://news.sky.com/story/1029156/gunman-adam-lanza-more-insight-into-his-world
Comments
7 responses to “Adam Lanza – An Issue of Gun Control or Attention?”
This was again a good article that leads us to examine the other reasons that could have led to this tragedy.
Gun control is just one subset but I agree that the society and psychologists should look at the other factors such as family relationships, effects of divorce on children and spouses and the western family laws that sometimes have a terrible effect on people who then resort to such violent acts. It’s also has a lot to do with our living and way of life.
Gun control would help, but certainly other factors too require attention and action.
Thank you Shahbano.
I think this guy bombarded his mind with this virtual world following the time he spent on such video games.I wudnt be too quick to blame the divorce but this guy may have struggled to come to terms with it and took comfort in his fantasies and this cud perhaps explain why he shot his mom first. maybe he blamed her for failing to keep the marriage together. My speculation could be entirely wrong but the undeniable truth is that he was troubled, unfortunately he cud not reach out for appropriate help! I agree that no amount of controls cud stop any trigger happy individual, people shud just take responsibility for themselves and seek help when in need. I’ve come across a lot of people that expect others to over care for them like they r children even when its not necessary.
Hey I ain’t Shahbano, wish I too was intelligent sensible like you people (Schuitema group).
Teboho Nkala, SOME violent video games were probably banned in US 3 years ago, but yeah violent video games do take their toll.
I know of an engineer who spent most of the night playing violent video games on line and he was so addicted to it that he started sleeping in office and in meetings the next morning, until we kicked his behind.
He later transformed into a religious guy and even I was surprised to see that not sure what triggered it.
One can transform for the better in spite of one’s circumstances. Adam Lanza’s circumstances might not have been the ingredients that made him the criminal that he became.
The point is, how each of us can see through this story and fill out the gaps in the society where we can through our respective roles, through our loving attention and through our sense of duty that goes beyond our self interest.
A mentally disturbed person+ weapons is a no no. Period.