It is quite clear from the newspaper articles I read that, just like Frymer, everyone believed Adam to be an alienated youth. Some discuss his transition to and from homeschooling, others his penchant for video games, but almost all discuss how shy, reserved, and bullied he was. According to the New York Times, Adam's mother "frequently moved him in and out of school, and at times home-schooled him" (NYT, March 29, 2013). One thing that was brought up quite a few times was his love of violent video games. It seemed as if, yet again, media was trying to blame one simple thing for this disaster. "Mr. Lanza had spent most of his time in the basement of the home, primarily playing a warfare video game, ''Call of Duty.''" (NYT, March 29, 2013). They talked about how shy he was, especially after his parent's divorce, possibly looking yet again for another simple reason; "He always seemed like a quiet type. He was never really sociable. When you try to communicate with him, he would just kind of like have one- or two-word responses" (The Washington Post, Dec. 15, 2012). Another trait that is extremely common in these articles is the emphasis on the guns in their house. They gave details on exactly how many rounds he had, how many he'd fired, how many guns were in the house, even that a check was given to him by his mother to buy another gun. They discussed how "All three of the guns that Adam Lanza carried into Sandy Hook Elementary were owned and registered by his mother -- a pair of handguns and a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, his primary weapon." (Lowell Sun, Dec. 17, 2012). It was quite plain from the articles that not only did Mrs. Lanza own many firearms, so did Adam Lanza, although it is unclear why he only used hers. What is clear is that all of these articles are discussing gun control, when it is a difficult situation to control. In fact, in Frymer's article discussing Columbine, it wasn't the initial plan to shoot anyone, but to blow them up. It wasn't until the bombs failed that they resorted to firearms. What was also discussed was his mental instability. Depending on which articles you read, they may have only discussed how it made it hard for him to make friends, but some discussed how he was odd since he was five, and someone even commented "As horrible as this was, I can't say I am surprised . . . Burn in hell, Adam" (Daily News, Dec. 15, 2012). I do find it interesting that the Daily Mirror was so much more opinionated feeling than the other newspapers. One part that strikes that feeling in me is this, "Wealthy Nancy Lanza, 52, had first considered placing her tormented son, 20, in college and moving to London to escape him. But the gun-hoarding mum is said to have decided he needed to be locked up instead" (DM, Dec. 20, 2012).
Overall, these clippings do seem to support Frymer's ideas, the media spectacle surrounding this event pushed everyone to believe in their stories, bullies caused it, or violent video games caused it, or having weapons in the house caused it, or mental illness caused it. It is almost never approached as a bigger problem we may never solve, but rather everyone likes to claim they know why, or can at least speculate why.
I would like to add that everyone likes to claim that they 'saw it coming', or 'knew he was a bad egg', but if someone had asked them about Adam a few days before, they likely would not have thought anything but, at the worst, a little odd. It is easy to predict the past, but actually predicting the future is much tougher, which is ironically what these clippings are trying (and not succeeding) to do.
Frymer, looking at these clippings, would likely draw quite a few similarities between the press' reaction to columbine, and their reaction to Sandy Hook.
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