The Issue: Whether Nancy Lanza bears any blame for her son Adam’s attack at the Sandy Hook school.
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Unfortunately, Nancy Lanza, the mother of the Sandy Hook shooter, is dead (“Mother Made a Kid-Slay Madman,” Dec. 16).
She cannot explain why she did not take steps to ensure that her live-in son “with issues” would have no access to her firearms.
In analyzing this tragedy, we should start with the person who gave the killer access to the weapons, and that was his mother, not the nation or the gun lobby.
A specific individual abdicated her responsibility to her community.
Dierdre Burgman
Manhattan
Generations of children were introduced to guns and hunting by their fathers, grandfathers and sometimes even their mothers, learning proper usage, safety and respect for weapons.
I do not see anything wrong with this. To draw the conclusion that Nancy Lanza was some kind of weird person because she did this is ridiculous. The fact that she owned guns for protection is not an aberration either.
What law would have prevented him from killing his mother and stealing her guns?
Steve Becker
East Meadow
I think the mother is at least 50 percent culpable in the murders of the 20 kids and six adults.
Why in heaven’s name would she keep so many guns with an unstable person under her roof ?
Either get rid of them, or at least put locks on the guns. On top of that, she had that terrible ammo. No responsible adult would do that, gun owner or not.Al Burns
Far Rockaway
I am broken-hearted about the Connecticut massacre.
Even though Adam Lanza shot the gun, his mother is just as guilty as he was.
She knew he had mental problems, and with him living in the house as well, she should not have kept guns. She should have had him admitted to a mental facility.
The federal government has to put tougher gun laws into effect. Every school in the country must have metal detectors in addition to other security to prevent this from happening again. David N. Rodgers
Flushing
Everyone is focused on the mental state of Adam Lanza.
The information we are given points to a young man with mental issues aware to family, friends and his parents. Please explain to me how a mother aware of her son’s condition would give him access to all those weapons.
No parents in their right mind should have those weapons in the home.
News reports can tell me she had them under lock and key, but that’s not good enough.
If they were not in her home, this tragic slaughter would not have taken place. Blame must rest on Nancy Lanza as well as Adam.
Ralph Vitagliano
Rockville, Conn.