Connecticut mass-murderer's mother implicated in "motivation"

I choked on typing that word, "motivation". It doesn't seem fitting. I can't imagine really what could possibly classify as motivation.

I contend that indeed the monster who murdered his mother, the children, and teachers, was criminally insane-- psychotically delusional and obviously murderous. I have seen ppl who think the end was nigh. Remember recently that radio preacher who said the second coming/end of the world was nigh and it never happened? Did his followers go around shooting ppl though before the supposed day? No, b/c none of them were homicidally insane. And what abt. the upcoming Dec. 21-Mayan thing? Has anyone started killing ppl over that (and I'm presuming the lack of evidence pointing to that as the nutjob's motivation excludes that possibility, for now anyway)? No. So you can be psychotic and/or delusional and still not homicidally insane. Only on this case, the nutcase was.

So was his mother responsible here for his behavior? No. He picked up the guns, he drove where he did, he killed her, then the kids and teachers. He did it, not his old lady, as delusional as she may have been. She owned the guns, but never told him (we presume) to go out and kill ppl. Did she contribute though to his delusional state? Well I'm no shrink but I'll contend yes, she probably did. And should she have been more pro-active in monitoring his mental health status? Well, OBVIOUSLY! But does that make her at fault for his actions? No. I'm betting a number of ppl knew this loon was a walking time-bomb and they probably punted just to avoid the hassle. And for this, lots of innocent babies died horrifically.

Heaven's gain, our loss. Twenty new little angels for Heaven...

I agree that, ultimately, it was this kid that pulled the trigger. We find it unacceptable when women are given passes by passing the buck to some guy, so we can't go passing the buck to the mom here.

That said, you can't really compare some doomsday pastor preaching to grown adults ever Sunday to a child being fully emerged in his mothers paranoid delusions 24/7. She was herself paranoid, overprotective. That has to affect a kid. Now, when added to an unstable mind to begin with, that's a recipe for disaster. So as you said, it was him that did this, not her, but I do suspect she played her part.

I also note, violent video games are mentioned. It's only a matter of time before that gets jumped on by the special interest groups to go alongside the "white man" attacks.

"Did his followers go around shooting ppl though before the supposed day?"

Matt, it wouldn't have been the first time for a mass murder/suicide at a religious cult. That's where the term "drinking the kool aid" comes from.

What's interesting about this is that conspiracy theorists and survivalists are always portrayed in the media as lower class men, yet here was a well-to-do woman obsessed with it. Before we knew anything at all about this tragedy, we already had speculation that the guy was a nerd, that he had a learning disability or personality disorder, etc., etc., and I've even heard someone say that his mother had her hands full with him. I'm eager to find out just how much of that anti-male demagoguery holds up as we find out more about what really happened.

I didn't mean to imply that I thought apocalyptic religious beliefs/cults haven't been the spur for mass-murders at times. I was just saying that a person can hold such beliefs and still not go around killing people. I was just stressing that it's just-plain-crazy that's behind such murderous behavior. I mean, can anyone who does such unspeakable things *not* be totally nuts?

The grasping at straws is true. So far this has been blamed on nerds, video games, white men, guns, the lack of guns, and whatever else some sensationalist journalist thought might stick. Mass media does not have a vetting process.

However, I'm not ready to dismiss the whole thing as just another nutcase. There's a story behind every nutcase and they're often the products of an abusive upbringing. This is what the media won't touch with a ten foot pole, though. They use a foreboding tone when describing this guy as isolated and closed off - as if it weren't a preventable cause of the problem, but more of an innate trait of a creepy psycho killer.

It's also funny to me that early reports were that the mother had struggled with her mentally disabled son, that he had trouble in school, etc. But as it turns out, it's his mother who had crazy conspiracy theories, she who was described as having trouble "holding it together," etc. I find it suspicious that she was an unstable divorced single mother who home-schooled her kid.

No doubt the guy was mentally unstable and something "motivated" him to do what he did, but no doubt also, his "motivation" WOULD NOT have "motivated" a sane person to do the same thing.

Case in point - the first school shooting (to the best of my recollection) and the subsequent Bob Geldof song, explaining the "motivation." Oh yea, it was a she shooter too.

"I Don't Like Mondays"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDxFtQgoWt8

Wiki Story here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays

Thanks for that, MR!

My hunch is that something, say an argument, fight, squabble, what have you, occurred between the mother and son, things got out of hand and the switch was flipped. Maybe she drew a weapon on him and he took it from her and killed her which set him off or he obtained the gun on his own and killed her. But in a case like this, there is typically an emotional catalyst, which most likely erupted during an altercation between mother and son.

From what I have read there was a level of narcissism noted in the woman. She was very closed lip about the on-goings within her home and seemed to be this overwhelmingly caring and nice woman. Maybe she was but typically when you add these two characteristics together, there is something sinister within. She probably brought him to the point of him snapping and did the proverbial penis slicing with a gun to his mom, only to go temporarily insane and finding the one place that gave him solace...or the brunt of his embarrassment while he was young. Probably going to SHES to go back to his age of innocence.

What he did was a heinous act, however, I have to give him the benefit of the doubt, and hopefully it was his psychological condition that prompted these acts and not a sane minded man that did this.