Letters: Newtown shooting reverberates still
A photograph of Nancy Lanza, bottom left, one of the 27 people killed by Adam Lanza in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn., appears on a board at a makeshift memorial in Newtown, Conn. (Dec. 20, 2012) Credit: AP
Why is the shooter and the Newtown, Conn., school still in the news ["A troubled mind," News, Dec. 29]?
How will the families and the rest of us recover from this sadistic act when we are constantly reminded? Let the souls rest in peace, and the shooter be forgotten to rot in hell.
Paul Dezio, Levittown
The article gave insight into Adam Lanza's mental disintegration into a bizarre and violent fantasy world. Unfortunately, what was not included was the fact that the disaster of Newtown might have been prevented had Connecticut Senate Bill 452 been passed instead of defeated in March 2012.
This bill would have given the state the right to perform an involuntary psychiatric evaluation and potentially institutionalize a person deemed a possible danger to himself or the community.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the bill, saying it would infringe on patients' privacy rights by expanding who can medicate individuals without their consent. The bill was called "outrageously discriminatory" and was defeated.
Too bad; 27 people are dead, and Connecticut has not seen fit to bring the bill up again.
Richard H. Staudt, Mount Sinai
