Eerie parallels: Umpqua, Sandy Hook killers each shared gun love with moms
US News
Eerie parallels: Umpqua, Sandy Hook killers each shared gun love with moms
Like Adam Lanza, the gunman in the Connecticut massacre, Christopher Harper-Mercer in Oregon was living a mostly solitary life with a mom who shared his fascination with firearms. And while three years and thousands of miles separate the two incidents, the two illustrate the struggles parents face caring for a deeply troubled child, struggles that can inadvertently lead to a volatile outcome made easier by ready access to weaponry. Both women were long-time gun enthusiasts, and amassed weapons and took their sons to shooting ranges.
When you begin to bring guns into the home environment where you have that dangerous cocktail of behavior, that’s pretty unbelievable.
Mary Ellen O'Toole, a former FBI profiler
Harper-Mercer bears similarities to other school shooters: a young male focused on mass lethality and carrying out the killings in a military-like mission destined to end in the killer’s own death. He was a loner in his 20s, like James Holmes who killed 12 people in a cinema in Aurora, Colo., in 2012; Jared Loughner, who seriously wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six in Tucson, Ariz., in 2011; and Elliot Rodger, who killed six people near the University of California, Santa Barbara, campus last year.
In some cases, [parents] don’t recognize there’s a problem. In other cases, they’re aware of their child’s mental health issues, but they don’t see any evidence of violence, so they don’t see any reason not to take their kid target shooting.
Psychologist Peter Langman
