Story:
Conspiracy theorists claim that Sandy Hook School mass shooting is a 'government-sponsored' hoax.
Analysis:
The mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school, Newtown, USA on December 14th 2012 shocked the entire world, as one man accompanied with a gun and other arms went on a deadly rampage killing 20 small children along with 6 adults. However, as days passed many loopholes in the official version of the Sandy Hook massacre came into limelight, which made the conspiracy theorists doubt that the incident could be a 'government-sponsored' hoax. Although the conspiracy theorists have some incorrect information, they do have some valid points that are facts.
Official Version of Sandy Hook Massacre
A 20-year-old 'tech geek' and mentally challenged person named Adam Lanza masked himself and snapped early on December 14th 2012, shot dead his mother Nancy Lanza, loaded her car with her guns and ammo, driven it across town to his former school, the Sandy Hook Elementary School, and then shot dead 26 people in two classrooms and an adjoining hallway. Lanza did all this in about 3 minutes, and then shot himself in the head and died.
This is how the incident was reported and the world knew about this tragic incident. But with time, there came up many controversies. Mentioned below are certain loopholes that raise questions about the Sandy Hook Shooting incident.
- There are no videos of the firing incident or the casualties at the Sandy Hook school, not even those footages from the security cameras inside the 'secured' school.
- No pictures of the dead or wounded people were ever shown. Couple of people shown carried out of the school were fully covered. Also, but for one single picture, around 450 students inside the school were never shown to be evacuated in such an emergency situation.
- The videos shown around the Sandy Hook school while the massacre took place do not appear like an emergency situation.
There came up a YouTube video shown on right, titled 'The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed' which states the conspiracies behind the incident, and it went viral. Some of these claims of conspiracy theorists were successfully explained by blogs and media sites, however some still remain open and unanswered.
Conspiracy Claims that have Explanations
- Involvement of 2 or 3 shooters, as a video shows a man running into woods.
- Gun Inconsistencies in the reports.
Not Lone-Gunman
Considering the seriousness of the incident and a video footage showing a man running into woods as the police follow him, people thought that it could be 2 or more shooters involved in this incident, along with Adam Lanza. But Newtown Bee reported that a reliable local law enforcement source told them that the person running into woods was an off-duty tactical squad police officer from another town. He was suspected and later released by the police. You can read it here.
Gun Inconsistencies
The officials initially reported that Adam Lanza used two handguns and an assault rifle for firing inside the school. Later some media reports said that there were 4 hand guns found inside the school, and that the assault rifle was left in the car. People claimed that the news footage showed the police officials recovering an assault rifle from Adam Lanza's car, questioning how is it possible for the shooter to use it inside school. But this was made clear afterwards when officials said that Adam Lanza brought 3 weapons inside the school and left the 4th one in his car. The weapons brought inside were 2 hand guns and 1 assault rifle, while the one left in the car was a shotgun, not assault rifle.
In emergency and panic situations like these, media can get confused sometimes and convey incorrect information.
Conspiracy Claims that are Open and Unanswered:
- Why incomplete details about Adam Lanza and his Mother?
- Was Adam Lanza in an altercation at Sandy School on Dec. 13th?
- Why there was a Emilie Parker Fan Page for donations soon after the incident?
- How come there is a picture showing Emilie Parker with Obama and her family after the incident?
- Why there is a Sandy Hook's dead teacher, Victoria Soto's Facebook memoriam page 4 days before the shooting?
- Why there were some Sandy Hook school support fund websites created days before the incident?
- Why does Gene Rosen, the old man who saved 6 children look like a dramatic actor?
- Why does the massacre look like a Conspiracy of actors who staged the incident?
- Why does all this look like an Emergency Drill of the US forces?
Adam Lanza and his Mother
There were many inconsistencies and speculations around the identity and lack of complete information about the gunman Adam Lanza and his mother. The initial media reports said that the mother of Adam Lanza, Nancy Lanza was a teacher at the Sandy Hook School, but Lillian Bittman, who served on the local school board until 2011 said, “No one has heard of her”. Then there is a news footage that says a nurse at Sandy Hook School, an eye witness of the gunman, to have said that she knew Nancy Lanza very well and described her as a good hearted person and a "very experienced" kindergarten teacher. Watch the first video from timeline 6:49.
Adam Lanza in Altercation at Sandy School on Dec. 13th?
Some of the initial media reports said that the gunman Adam Lanza got into some kind of 'altercation' with four staff members at the school on the previous day, December 13, 2012. Three of those four members were shot the next day, the fourth member survived the fate perhaps because he was not in school on the fateful day. But the Connecticut state police stated that they did not know of any such reports about altercations at the school. Refer.
Some conspiracy theorists claim that Adam Lanza was used as a victim in this planned event.
Emilie Parker Fan Page
Emilie Parker was one of the first grader victim girls at the Sandy Hook school. Interestingly, there came a Facebook Fan Page in her name asking for donations; set up just 5 hours after the shooting incident took place, even before the victims names were released. You can find the complete details about it here.
Picture of Emilie Parker with Obama
President Obama met the family of Emilie Parker after she died in the Sandy Hook massacre. But surprisingly, couple of pictures from that meeting showed Emilie Parker with Obama, in one of her same old dress that previous official pictures showed. The series of pictures shown in the image section below will say that it was indeed Emilie Parker who is seen with Obama. How can a dead girl take picture with the President of US? However, it was later claimed that she was not Emilie Parker, but her sister Madeline Parker who is wearing Emilie's dress. This explanation seems unrealistic, because a close look at various pictures of both the sisters shows that there is very little possibility that it is Emilie's sister.
Sandy Hook's Dead Teacher Victoria Soto's Memoriam page
Another interesting aspect around Sandy Hook controversy is that there was a "RIP Victoria Soto" Facebook page started 4 days before the actual shooting massacre took place. The video on right is a proof of it. There were comments on the page asking why the page is created even before the incident took place, but later the page was deleted.
Sandy Hook School Support Fund Websites Created Days Before Incident
The first video above shows Google search snippet information of the Sandy Hook school support fund website created 3 days before the actual shooting took place. Watch the video from timeline 28:00. There was another Sandy Hook Elementary Victim's fund page created one day before the incident. It appears like all this is planned.
Some investigators believe that Google can show wrong dates in search results of webpages, which may not be correct. There is a possibility that the title or content of an old video or webpage could have been changed. For example, this article titled Mass Shootings in US History is dated Aug. 24, 2012 and has the latest update of Sandy Hook shootings, so the Google search results of this webpage can show snippet of Sandy Hook information with an old date.
It is possible to rename a Facebook page that is created some time back, it is also possible to change the date of a post. But there is some mix-up in case of Emilie's page, where they mentioned that Emilie died even before it was declared, and then took their word back. It is very unlikely that someone can think of collecting funds as soon as they know about a death/crisis moment. Also, this happened in two Facebook pages, Teacher's and Emilie's, even in the website for funds. It is also unlikely that all these page owners have changed the dates of posts.
Gene Rosen Actor
Gene Rosen is a 69 year old man who took in 6 children during the incident and cared for them before calling and handing them over to their frantic parents. Later he gave many interviews explaining how exactly the incident happened. His interviews created some element of doubt, especially for the inconsistent ways he explained about his experience with kids on that particular day. The first video on top talks about this, starting from timeline 11:34.
Considering the way he spoke in his interviews, conspiracy theorists say that Gene Rosen is an actor, while the media reported him as a retired psychologist. The video on right claims that Gene Rosen, or Eugene Rosen, as the media later corrected his name is indeed an actor. The video shows his public profile information that links to his pet service website "Gene's Trusty Pet Service, LLC " showing his picture. The information on 'About' page says that he was an actor. There is authentic verification for this claim. The website does belong to Gene Rosen, where from his picture has been removed; some of his public bio information also seems to be changed.
In the past, Gene has been involved in community theater and Public Access Television where he hosted a program that reported on the local theater scene.
Following these controversies, Gene Rosen has been facing lot of harassment through mails and threat calls. However, he tries to explain all about it here.
Conspiracy of actors to stage the incident?
Some of the witnesses, child victims' parents or school teachers do not appear to be saddened in their interviews to create doubts that they could actually be hired actors who have staged the whole incident.
One such example is Emilie Parker's father, Robbie Parker who is seen to have been smiling before an interview to media. Watch him in the first video at timeline 8:30. Then there is a chief medical officer explaining about this shooting at the spot who was strangely funny - something we cannot expect in such a tragic situation. The medical officer speaking from timeline 16:05.
Department of Emergency - Drills
This is a surprising factor. The Department of Emergency Services & Public Protection, as a part of their Emergency Management with the Homeland Security (DEMHS) in Connecticut was on a mock drill, planning for the needs of children in disasters - on the same day and nearly same time when the Sandy Hook shooting incident was reported to have taken place. The official website of the organization shows precisely the same schedule as shown below. Refer.
DEMHS and All Calendars - Events for 12/14/2012
12/14 9 AM - 4 PM FEMA L-366 Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters
The details of the emergency training course show the location to be 2800 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT, which is just about 20 minutes from the Sandy school, connected through the same road.
The Consequences of Sandy Hook Incident
Prior to the Sandy Hook incident, many countries including China wanted gun control in US. After the incident took place, in January 2013, as new congress began, nearly dozen gun control bills were filed. Even the New York senators were trying to push gun control proposal. New York introduced the first gun laws in the country after Sandy Hook incident. Then the US President Obama unveiled the gun control proposals which are aimed to be more stringent and reduce crime.
But what actually happened because of all this so called tragic consequences is that Obama declared that he wanted to ban guns. Then there was enormous discussion about security and necessity of guns among public on various platforms like the social media. Then came the gun laws. But most important of all, the gun sales went up after the incident. The National Rifle Association (NRA) of US has signed up more than 100,000 members since the Sandy Hook massacre.
There is something in the past that raises questions on credibility of American government agencies - Operation Northwoods. It is worth recollecting now. In 1962, the American top military leaders drafted plans to create scenes which looks like terrorist acts by Cuba, to generate public support for the war against Cuba. However, it was not approved by the then President John F. Kennedy. Details can be found in reference section.
Conclusion
Considering these available facts about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the missing details of the massacre, and the consequences after it suggest that the event could be staged by US emergency personnel with the help of some media persons. It could be a hoax, possibly sponsored by the US government.
References:
http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Crime/sandy-hook-school-mass-shooting-is-...
Sandy Hook massacre: Official story spins out of control
The Sandy Hook Massacre: Unanswered Questions
Guns used in Sandy Hook shooting
Provisions of new gun control law in New York
New York first gun laws after Sandy Hook incident
Obama unveils gun control proposals
Operation Northwoods