Metro

Mother shared her gun obsession with school shooter Adam Lanza

She created a monster.

Adam Lanza’s mother taught her son how to become a killing machine who used what he learned from her about firing guns to commit one of the worst massacres in American history at a Connecticut elementary school.

Weapon-loving Nancy Lanza regularly took her awkward loner-son Adam to shooting ranges, where the painfully shy boy — who suffered from the autism-related Asperger’s syndrome — blasted away targets using his mom’s small arsenal of guns.

“She’d take them to the range a lot . . . Nancy was an enthusiast — so much so that she wanted to pass it on to her kids,” said her former landscaper and occasional drinking buddy Dan Holmes.

“Whenever I finished work and went inside to chitchat, she spoke often about her fascination with firearms. Nancy had an extensive gun collection, and she was really quite proud of it.”

Nancy’s gun training took a tragic turn Friday when Adam grabbed her weapons and shot her dead in her Newtown, Conn., home.

He then took one of her handguns and two powerful rifles she owned to the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 students, six adults and, finally, himself.

Lanza’s mom cherished her guns, which she began buying after she divorced her husband in 2009, according to a report.

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The shooter’s aunt, Marsha Lanza, told ABC News that Nancy bought guns for protection because she was living alone.

Holmes recalled, “I remember one time she brought a nice case out, and when she opened it up, she pulled out this beautiful old rifle.”

“It looked really beautiful and old. She was really proud of that one. She would just smile when she looked at it.”

The revelations came amid other developments in the shocking tragedy.

* Adam tried to buy a rifle three days before the attack from a Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Danbury, Conn., but was turned away, employees confirmed.

The madman was rebuffed because he refused to follow the mandatory waiting period or undergo a background check, NBC News reported.

* Officials were also investigating whether Adam had an “altercation” with four school employees the day before the killings, NBC reported.

* The victims of the slaughter were killed at close range by rifle shots, according to the state’s chief medical examiner.

“Everybody was hit more than once,” said Dr. H. Wayne Carver at a news conference yesterday afternoon outside the school.

He said that the seven victims he personally examined suffered between three and 11 gunshot wounds.

Carver said the bullets used by the cold-blooded killer were designed specifically to penetrate deep tissue and do a “devastating” amount of damage.

All the deaths are classified as homicides, said Carver, who described the scene as the worst that he’s seen in his 30-year career.

The victims — dressed in “cute kid stuff” — suffered a “very devastating set of injuries,’’ he said.

* President Obama will visit Newtown tonight to meet with families of the victims and speak at a vigil.

* Last night, the killer’s family released their first statement on the tragedy, saying: “Our family is grieving along with all those who have been affected . . . We too are asking why. We have cooperated fully with law enforcement.”

* More details emerged about Adam’s diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism characterized by socially awkward behavior.

“[Nancy] would often talk about her son having social issues. She told me he was a brilliant kid . . . but that he was very awkward,” Holmes said. “He was a very fearful kid.”

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One of those issues was Lanza’s inability to feel pain.

“If that boy would’ve burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically,” said Richard Novia, who was an advisor to Lanza’s high school technology club.

The killer had a water phobia when he was younger, Holmes said.

The shy Adam was known for showing up for class at Newtown HS with a black briefcase and a shirt pocket lined with pens.

He walked down corridors “pressing against the wall, almost like he was afraid of people,” said Andrew Lapple, who called Adam a “tech geek” who was “always carrying around his laptop, clutching onto it real tight.”

A former classmate named Megan, 20, said, “He was a weird kid as a child, but he was just quiet. We never knew his real personality. He was just himself.

“He fell off the radar halfway through middle school, maybe seven or eight years ago,” she said.

Former neighbor Ryan Kraft told The Washington Post that the Lanza brothers were upset by their parents’ breakup and that Adam had obvious problems.

“He would have tantrums,” Kraft told the paper. “They were much more than the average kid.”

Nancy took her other son, Ryan, to New Orleans last year around the holidays, but Adam stayed behind. “Apparently, Adam didn’t like to travel,” Holmes said.

The doting mom flirted at her local bar, but was also guarded and didn’t date much “probably because of her autistic son,” Holmes said.

People who knew Adam said he showed no sign of a serious handicap or violent behavior, although he seemed “off.”

“We knew [the killer] was Adam, because we knew his condition,” said Mark Tambascio, owner of a local bar.

Adam “couldn’t deal with regular people,” he said. “He was kind of a sociopath in a way.”

Autism expert Nancy Alspaugh-Jackson said violent tendencies toward others are not commonly associated with Asperger’s.

But parents still should not let them use firearms, she said.

“Any child with a neurological or psychological disorder should not live in a house with access to guns,” said Alspaugh-Jackson, the executive director of California-based Autism Care and Treatment. “That is, to me, totally irresponsible.”

Marsha Lanza said Nancy pulled her son out of public school because she was unhappy with the school’s plans for his education, ABC reported.

Vance said investigators had “very good evidence” and hoped it would answer questions about the gunman’s motives. He would not elaborate.

Investigators have found no note or manifesto, a source said.

Nancy’s brother, James Champion, is a retired police captain in Kingston, NH. He declined to comment because the case is still under investigation.

FATAL ATTRACTION: Nancy Lanza became obsessed with guns after her 2009 divorce and shared the hobby with her disturbed son, friends say.

FATAL ATTRACTION: Nancy Lanza became obsessed with guns after her 2009 divorce and shared the hobby with her disturbed son, friends say.

WAITING TO CRACK: Adam Lanza (upper right) picked up his mother’s weapons obsession, leading to Friday’s school massacre. Twenty children were killed, and teachers and law-enforcement brought the rest of the scared pupils out to safety (bottom). (
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With Lia Eustachewich in Newtown, Conn., The Sunday Times of London and Post Wire Services