Lanza was nuts.
Lanza is the reason for his parents divorce.
Lanza was jealous of the time his mother spent at SH school.
Lanza's mother was in the process of having him committed.
Lanza smashed his hard drive destroying plan information.
Lanza shot up the class his mother spent time with.
He was nuts and his mother could not have him immediately committed. I believe the following information came from trap:
ETA: Yes,
this is the
the to it:
http://www.aclu.org/organization-news-and-highlights/aclu-history-mental-institutionsThe ACLU's most important Supreme Court case involving the rights of people with mental illness was filed on behalf of Kenneth Donaldson, who had been involuntarily confined in a Florida State Hospital for 15 years. He was not dangerous and had received no medical treatment. In a landmark decision for mental health law in 1975, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that states cannot confine a non-dangerous individual who can survive on his own, or with help from family and friends.
Commentary:
Sounds good until you realize that "non-dangerous" must be litigated every single time so the default action is to let everyone go.
Which they did in 1980. A lot of mental institutions marched their unclaimed "non-violent" patients down to the local Greyhound bus terminal, picked a destination at random and away they went on a fantastic journey.
Coincidentally, this is the time that the "homeless" problem turned up.