Historian Richard Slotkin on Adam Lanza's Influences

Cultural historian Richard Slotkin talks about Newtown shooter Adam Lanza in a rather lengthy interview with journalist Bill Moyers. The interview touches upon some other topics as well, but a fair bit of it is spent discussing Adam Lanza's behavior, his fascination with guns and violent video games, and his deep study of school shootings dating back to the late 1800's. At one point Slotkin says that Lanza used video games as "training films," where he used the knowledge in them on how to act while accomplishing a "mission." According to Slotkin an example of this "training" would be how Lanza loaded his guns during the shooting.

The interview can't be boiled down into sound bytes, because it's pretty complex and delves into a number of topics like the cultural influence of war, media, gun ownership, etc. You can check the video out to your left or you can visit Thruth Out for a transcript of the conversation. Here is one choice morsel that stood out:...