The Conspiracy Theory: The Sandy Hook Elementary Shootings

Conspiracy theories are widely known in the society that we live in today. Webster’s definition of a conspiracy theory is a theory that explains an event or situation as the result of a secret plan by usually powerful people or groups. Conspiracy theories are accepted by many people in the world that we live in today. A recent conspiracy theory involves the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed twenty students. Americans were devastated by this tragedy. People were shocked that such a tragic event could take place and immediately had to find a place to push the blame. This blame got placed on the United States Government. Society buys into the Sandy Hook conspiracy theory because of the mindset on

People believe that the government causes certain events in order to make more strict regulations in the country. During the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, President Obama was fighting for more strict gun control within the country. Many people believe that because of this fight the Sandy Hook shooting took place. Society would rather put the blame on the government, rather than accepting the fact that some people just have issues that cause them to perform unthinkable acts. For example, Adam Lanza, the shooter of Sandy Hook elementary. Lanza was 20 years old and had Asperger’s. Asperger’s, a form of autism, is not believed to have played a major role in what caused Lanza to do the shooting a Sandy Hook. Lauren Elder, a clinical psychologist with Autism Speaks says, “Often, their violent acts are self-injurious and spontaneous, the result of frustrated attempts to communicate and not getting their pain or desires heard or addressed.” (Time). Lauren Elder states that in most cases Asperger’s causes one to hurt themselves. This is not likely to be the same for every individual with the disease. Asperger’s could have caused Adam Lanza to become angry and react in harsh ways, resulting in the shooting of Sandy Hook

As stated prior, during the time of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, President Barack Obama was also fighting to make more strict gun control in America. President Obama wanted it to be more difficult to possess such lethal weapons, in hopes that it would lower the risk of crimes such as the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Because of these two events happening at the same time, many people believed that the Sandy Hook shooting was an inside job. People believed that President Obama set up the shooting in order to demonstrate why we needed more strict gun control. Society believed that the Sandy Hook shooting gave Obama evidence as to why we needed gun control. However, that appears to be highly unlikely. Believing that the President of the United States would kill innocent elementary school students in order to gain support for more strict gun control seems absurd. This serves as an example of how American’s can not accept what is going on and there is chaos in our country. Society must always blame a more powerful source for tragic events. This particular event happened to fall on the shoulders of President Barack Obama. Another red flag to conspiracy theory enthusiasts, was the fact that the Department of Homeland Security had a training exercise only a few miles from Sandy Hook Elementary. This caused many people to