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UPDATE—5 PM, 12-15-12: A school superintendent said today there was no indication that Nancy Lanza had ever worked at Sandy Hook elementary in any capacity. (Law enforcement officials had said yesterday she’d been a kindergarten teacher there.) Lanza, 52, apparently was slain by her son Adam not at the school but in her home, before he went to Sandy Hook, forced his way in, and shot children in two separate classrooms multiple times. It’s still unclear why Adam Lanza went to the school. The three guns found at the school—two semiautomatic pistols and a semiautomatic rifle—apparently were purchased legally by Nancy Lanza. Acquaintances told the New York Times she was a gun enthusiast who sometimes went target shooting with her children.
But rampage shootings at schools, such as the one this morning in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed 27 people, including 20 children, are rare events. Common denominators can be found, but it’s also easy to draw sweeping conclusions, to ignore the unique circumstances of each episode, and, yes, to overreact.
