Letter to the Editor: What Makes an Adam Lanza?
The following essay was submitted to McLean Patch by Anne Speckhard, a McLean resident and an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School.
Adam Lanza was not a terrorist in the strict definition of the word: he had no political cause, but he terrorized a community and a nation and committed a heinous crime, reminding many of the Beslan School hostage-taking in which three hundred and thirty innocents were killed. I've been studying terrorism for ten years–interviewing terrorists, their family members and close associates, and their hostages – including those held in Beslan – and I find there are a lot of parallels between terrorism and mass shooting sprees. For one, terrorists are made, not born. The same is true for mass shooters. In the case of terrorism, I found that there is a "lethal cocktail" of terrorism that takes vulnerable individuals and moves them along the …
McLparent
4:28 am on Sunday, December 23, 2012
I don't have an issue with Obama's beef about limiting the access of citizens to assault rifles, but he should stop being a hypocrite. a) How about Obama not glorifying the death and violence associated with the military (e.g. Navy SEALs). I'm sure the SEALs would welcome much less profile than Obama and that kid in a candy store Panetta gives them. b) How about Obama talking to his Hollywood … more ›