Who is Adam Lanza? If someone had asked you that question two days ago you likely would have shrugged your shoulders and asked "who"? If I told you he was an intelligent but socially awkward 20 year old man from Newtown, Connecticut who had Asberger Syndrome you would likely have responded, "Oh, why do you ask?" If I went on to tell you that he was an former honor student and that he was shy you probably would have asked me "So what?" If I asked you what Adam looked like you probably would have wondered if there was a point to these questions. If I asked you those same questions today you would know all these things and more about Adam. If I had waited and asked you two weeks from now, you would know just about everything there is to know about him.
Adam Lanza is famous, or notorious if that is a better word for you. The whole nation is talking about him. He is on the TV. He is in the newspapers. He is all over the web. Movie stars, rock stars, and fashion models know his name. Hollywood writers and producers are no doubt discussing him. His deeds will be grist for newspaper editors and pundits for a long time to come. He will be opined about on Sunday morning news panels. He will be the subject of conversation on talk shows. You can be certain he will be a prominent topic of conversation on shows like "The View". Adam will be discussed by lobbyists and interest groups either to take advantage of the carnage or to limit the damage caused by it. He will be analyzed by psychiatrists and sociologists. They will want to know what made him tick. Even the President of the United States knows Adam and is talking about him. Adam's name will be bandied about across the nation and brought up in state houses and in Congress as legislators ponder what caused this tragic event and how we can find ways to prevent the next Adam. His prosecution will certainly get considerable press coverage.
Two days ago, Adam Lanza was a socially awkward outsider going to school every day with his shirt buttoned to the top and carrying a briefcase, (we now know that about him too), overlooked by his neighbors and no doubt shunned and an object of ridicule by many of his classmates. Today, Adam is known across the nation. Even if the media makes an attempt to deprive Adam of his notoriety by refusing to mention his name, the deed has been done and Adam's goal has been achieved. He has made his mark on the world and achieved a place in history. Adam Lanza is here to stay. Even after Adam's name recedes into history, there will always be "the kid who shot up that school".
We can be sure that there are more Adams out there fermenting in their bedrooms and basements. They feel ignored. They feel they have been cheated. They feel they have been unfairly denied the chance to achieve their ambitions because the world is indifferent, or even hostile to them. They hate a society that seems to have no use for them. They believe that they are victims. They want revenge. The shooters at Columbine had their revenge. James Holmes had his revenge. Adam Lanza has now had his revenge. They have achieved what they never could have achieved otherwise by wreaking havoc. Just like Charles Whitman before him, history will know who Adam Lanza was.
The question that is being asked now is what can we do to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. It is the right question. Frankly, I don't know if there is an answer to it. Many, if not most, will concentrate on trying to keep guns out of the hands of people who would harm others, which means they will try to keep guns out of the hands of everyone since we cannot know where the next mass killer or murderous husband will come from or who he will be. That will be a futile effort. Murderers are mushrooms. They will appear when conditions are right.
The problem is not that there are too many guns in this country. There are other nations that have a high rate of gun ownership without the violence we have here in the U.S. In Switzerland and Israel, most homes have assault weapons. Indeed, they are required to. The problem we have in the U.S. is that there too many people who are willing to use them. Why that is so is the real question. It should be pointed out that Hollywood, despite the avowed anti-gun position of most in the movie industry, has made a great deal of money off of films in which gun violence is an integral part. How many people did Denzel Washington shoot and kill in "Man on Fire"? Liberal icon Henry Fonda shot and killed three children in "Once Upon a Time in the West". How much money has vocally anti-gun liberal Quentin Tarantino made by stacking bodies in his movies? (How many people can quote the hamburger scene in "Pulp Fiction" from memory?) In one of his more successful movies, Tom Cruise starred as a hit man who nearly achieves his goal to murder all the people on his list. He only falls short by one. The reason he failed is because the openly liberal actor Jamie Foxx shoots him dead. Woody Harrelson and Julliette Lewis starred as pathological murderers in celebrated liberal director Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" where together they kill no less than 43 people between them. Then there the paean to guns and violence that is the "Matrix" series which is in a league by itself. What messages do such movies send? When will Hollywood put its money where its mouth is and stop treating violence and murder as entertainment? No time soon I suspect.
The rap music industry bears blame as well. Our youth are told that they should not turn their back or shrug off disrespect. Pride demands that sleights, whether intended or inadvertent, be atoned for. Insult must be avenged. Hip hop artists tell our kids that they should not tolerate disapproving glances or mutterings on the part of others. They portray violence and threats as legitimate responses to indignity. Popular rappers boast in their recordings of the revenge they have taken on those who did not accord them the respect they are due and warn others that the same fate awaits them. They proudly boast of all that their belligerency has gotten them in contrast to the anonymous and demeaning existence of those too timid to take what they are rightfully due.
It is easy to point to guns and blame them for the violence we have in the U.S. But, like clubs, knives, and spears before them, guns are simply tools. They can be used for good or ill. Left to themselves, guns are little more than paper weights. Guns have not become more dangerous over time. Guns are more difficult to obtain and safer than they have ever been. It is people that have become more dangerous. Why that is so is the question we should be asking. We should keep that question in mind as the debate over guns unfolds. We should keep that question in mind when we are sitting in a darkened movie theater engrossed in the violence onscreen or sitting on our sofa in front of the TV watching the bullets fly and the bodies drop. We should keep that question in mind when our children are listening to their favorite raps stars boast of their murderous ways and the terrible revenge they will take on those who would wrong them.
There was a time when young social outcasts took refuge by retreating into their own, private worlds. They would play Dungeons and Dragons or collect comic books. Adam chose to pick up a gun. Guns did not seduce young Adam Lanza. Guns did not corrupt him or put ideas of revenge and carnage into his head. They were simply the tools he chose to carry out his plan. To focus on guns is to ignore the real problem. There is something increasingly wrong with our culture. It begins with radical individualism where each individual is the center of his own private universe. It is fueled when religion and morality are banished from public discourse leaving only the thin gruel of "values" to sustain our consciences. It culminates in the Nietzschean call to rise up and break the shackles put upon the strong by the weak and dare to impose one's will on the world.
We will look to Washington in vain for a solution. Murder, guns, and violence have taken root in the American psyche. If you want to know how they got there, a good place to start is Hollywood. Americans have always had guns, but they have not always shot up schools, cafeterias, and movie theaters. There is something else going on here. Gun control is only a prophylactic. It will do nothing to cure the disease. Death and mayhem are no longer horrors. Thanks to Hollywood, they have become entertainment. Those who would ban guns in the U.S. should ask themselves one question the next time they are watching a violent thriller: are they enjoying themselves?
