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Four Corners: May 13

Four Corners turns its attention once again to America's tragic school shooting with a PBS Frontline documentary.

2013-05-11_0048Monday’s Four Corners turns its attention once again to America’s tragic school shooting with a PBS Frontline documentary, “Raising Adam Lanza.”

This looks at the way a disturbed young man came to become a killer in Newtown, Connecticut.

Next Monday on Four Corners, an unflinching profile of the young man responsible for one of America’s worst school massacres. Who was he, how was he allowed to slip away into an isolated world, entertaining himself with violent video games? What part did his mother play in his development and his access to the weapons that he would use to kill 27 people?

On December 14th last year, in the early hours of the morning, a 20-year-old loner by the name of Adam Lanza took a gun and shot his mother four times in the head as she slept. Then, gathering a cache of high powered weapons, he went to the Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he shot six adults and twenty children.

In the weeks and months that followed this horrific attack, the United States engaged in a bitter debate about gun control. President Barack Obama vowed action, only to find himself humiliated by federal Congress, when the modest gun control legislation he’d backed was voted down.

By contrast in Connecticut, the state where Lanza committed his crimes, the legislature has passed America’s toughest ever anti-gun laws. In an attempt to understand the lessons behind the Newtown killings, Four Corners broadcasts a remarkable PBS Frontline documentary that examines the life of Adam Lanza and the path that led him to the shocking action he took last December. The story raises many questions, not least amongst them: how could a disturbed young man get access to such dangerous weapons and could the Newtown massacre have been prevented?

To try and answer those questions Kerry O’Brien will speak to State Senator, Donald Williams, who led the push for greater gun control in Connecticut. Why did his state go it alone on reform and does he think the legislation will protect the people from another potential massacre?

Monday 13th May at 8.30 pm on ABC1.

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