Sandy Hook Conspiracy?
On the 14th December 2012, Adam Lanza killed his mother before traveling to the Sandy Hook Elementary School and murdering 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7. Seven adults also lost their lives while facing down the wrong end of an AR-15 rifle. He then shot himself before the police arrived on the scene. The shooting provoked much debate over key political issues after it’s occurrence, mainly around gun control in the United States. The official report indicated that Lanza acted alone in the shooting. No evidence was provided as to why he did what he did.
US Government involvement
A number of theorists have contended that the incident was a hoax by the United States Government. Talk show host Clyde Lewis wrote:
“Don’t you find it at all interesting that Adam Lanza, the alleged shooter at Sandy Hook, woke up one day and decided to shoot up a school and kill children at about the same time that Barack Obama told the U.N. that he would sign the small arms treaty?”
Some allege that the motivation behind the “hoax” was to push stricter gun control laws and to take guns away from survivalists. Many pro-gun owners believe they have a right to guns and that the government is trying to disarm the populace so they may be controlled more easily. Many of these individuals are theorists who believe that there is an oncoming economic collapse and that when it arrives guns will be paramount to survival.
A step too far
A number of Sandy Hook theorists believe that no attack took place. One individual believed that the whole event had been staged by the New World Order and videotaped footage of the town where the incident occurred. A Florida University Professor wrote an article expressing doubts as to whether or not the incident happened at all. He was later investigated by his University and was on tenure at the time. The professor taught a class on conspiracy theories.
The professor, James Tracy, has since withdrawn his allegation about the shooting. Republican candidate Tom Ready even questioned whether or not it happened during a debate, and later apologized for his remarks.
A week after the massacre a Youtube video emerged titled “The Sandy Hook Shooting – Fully Exposed”, asking questions which implied that the shooting was a fake. State officials received phone calls asking questions about the shooting, and even the families of victims have been practically harassed, told that their children never existed and that it was all a government conspiracy. Online accounts of the parents of the murdered children were targeted in comments shortly after the incident. While most American’s actually do believe in conspiracy theories in one form of another, it is rare to see them unified on a single issue with such little evidence. Alex Jones, the producer of Conspiracy hub infowars.com, claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was “synthetic” and “manufactured”. He did temper it by stating;
“So I don’t know what the truth is. All I know is the official story of Sandy Hook has more holes in it than Swiss cheese.”
Jones lost some credibility after stating multiple times that the Sandy Hook Shooting was a hoax and then retracting his statement by saying his statements were taken out of context and that he never actually called the shooting a hoax.
The father of a child murdered in the massacre set up an organization which takes legal action against theorists who claim that the incident never occurred or who needlessly harass victims of the tragedy. Two people have received jail sentences for harassment of Sandy Hook victims.
It was the Jews
Another theory holds that the attack came about as a result of Israeli Death Squads. This was a perceived act of revenge due to Obama’s nomination of an Israeli critic to the position of US Secretary of Defense. Max Fisher debunked this as weak rhetoric with obvious logical fallacies, noting that the same author who initially proposed this theory also believed that Israel had been accountable for the 2011 Norway attacks. James H Fetzer also said that the attack was conducted by agents of Israel. The same individual also denies the Holocaust. Most theories which suggest Israeli or Jewish involvement contain significant elements of antisemitism.
Other Theories
A number of conspiracy theories hold that Lanza did not act alone. Fox News anchor Ben Swann suggested that another shooter accompanied Lanza. He said the same about the Aurora shooting and the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting. Some allege that there were as many as four shooters.
Connecticut crime statistics shows that no murders occurred in 2012. Infowars.com/Alex Jones took this as an admission by the FBI that no murders took place in the area at the time in thew town of Newtown, where the Sandy Hook incident took place. They are accounted for under “State Police misc” as opposed for Newtown murders, as the State Police were the primary investigators.
References are made to the fact that Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games, lives in Sandy Hook and in her novel 22 children are killed. The theorists refer to this as predictive programming.
Other theories include:
- The school was closed years before the shooting
- There is footage of the kids leaving the building before the shooting
- There is footage leaving the building after the shooting
- No emergency helicopters were launched in response to the shooting
Sandy Hook Conclusion
There can be no doubt that the massacre took place. There is no evidence whatsoever that there was any element of foul play in Sandy Hook. Much more dangerous than any government conspiracy is a group of individuals frustrated in other areas of their lives and channeling it into poorly constructed, semi-coherent and outright ridiculous Conspiracy theories.
Documentaries
There are numerous professional and amateur documentaries about Sandy Hook out there. Below is a short one you might find interesting.
The Sandy Hook Shooting – Fully Exposed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx9GxXYKx_8&bpctr=1491563686