The scapegoating of Nancy Lanza

According to the script in progress, implicitly or explicitly, we blame Nancy Lanza for her son Adam's baffling rampage – if only for keeping five weapons in her home. Photograph: Reuters Photograph: Handout/Reuters

Addressing the bereaved community of Sandy Hook last week, President Obama read the names of Adam Lanza's victims – all 26. On the one-week anniversary of America's second-most lethal school shooting, bells tolled across the nation – 26 times. But even omitting his suicide, the impenetrable killer's victims numbered 27.
American education has not so deteriorated that even the president can't count. The discreetly deleted fatality was Adam's first and no doubt primary target: his mother, shot in her bed, four times in the head. Yet grief on Nancy Lanza's account has been stinting. With funerals of children and teachers standing-room-only, Nancy's service last Thursday drew a sparse two dozen relatives.

Read more: Here