Sandy Hook Shooting – LonelyMachines

Sandy Hook Shooting Report Released

The Connecticut State’s Attorney has released their report on the Sandy Hook shooting [pdf]. The case has been declared closed at this point.

There aren’t any substantial revelations about Lanza’s motives. He was not found to be taking medication, nor was he under the influence of drugs at the time. He does not appear to have told anyone his intentions in advance.

Regarding the search of his home, other weapons were found. All of them were registered to his mother in accordance with state and federal laws. A computer was found in Lanza’s bedroom, but he appears to have damaged it to make the contents unreadable.

(…) investigators found a computer hard drive that appeared to have been intentionally damaged. To date, because of the extensive damage, forensic experts have not yet been able to recover any information from that hard drive.

In a typical criminal case, the investigation would remain open when potentially important evidence was still being examined.

Continued...

Civil Rights

Sour Grapes

2 comments

Immediately following the Sandy Hook shooting, the gun control lobby told us they wanted a conversation with us. They seem to define “conversation” as a plurality of ultimatums. It comes as little surprise that the NRA is giving them nothing they want.

Nor should we. We’re not the ones who turned the murder of 20 children into sickening political theater.

There’s simply no point to bargaining with the anti-gun lobby because that’s the last thing they want. Negotiation implies that each side gives something, but when have they ever given us anything? We have no philosophical or moral obligation to sit down with people who simply want to look noble while chipping away at our rights.

For those who wished the NRA was more “conciliatory,” ask yourself this: when has the anti-gun lobby ever been conciliatory? Never. They’ve always been vengeful, arrogant, and morbid. I remember the rhetoric that preceded the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.

Continued...

Civil Rights

A Time to Mourn

3 comments

Emotions are still raw from Friday’s shooting in Sandy Hook. We want explanations. That’s natural. The media and legal system will examine Adam Lanza’s history and mental health in detail in the coming weeks, but in the final accounting, those answers may be inconclusive and unsatisfying.

Certainly none will come from politicians who jumped into the fray to capitalize on this. Less than an hour after the first reports, the Brady Campaign sent out a press release calling for new legislation. Dianne Feinstein and Charles Schumer spoke of it “finally being time” and of this incident serving as a “tipping point” before we even knew the exact name of the shooter or what weapons he’d actually used.

The “conversation” we keep hearing the pundits bandy about on the evening news isn’t any such thing. It’s a set of canned talking points and legislative proposals that predated this massacre. The new laws being pushed are the same old laws that get reintroduced every year.

Continued...