Nancy Lanza stockpiling guns, food as part of ‘prepper’ movement, says sister-in-law

Nancy Lanza's sister-in-law, Marsha, said the mother of the Sandy Hook shooter was a gun-hoarding survivalist who had been stockpiling weapons in preparation for an economic collapse.

Nancy's son, Adam, 20 shot her four times in the head with her own gun before taking three of her weapons — a Bushmaster .223-caliber, and two handguns, a Glock 10 mm and a Sig Sauer 9mm — to Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and slaughtering 26 young pupils and teachers.

More from GlobalPost: Nancy Lanza, a gun enthusiast, taught her son how to shoot

The Belfast Telegraph cited her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza, as telling reporters at her Illinois home that Nancy was part of the "prepper" movement that fears an economic collapse will lead to a breakdown in society.

"She prepared for the worst. Last time we visited her in person, we talked about prepping — are you ready for what could happen down the line, when the economy collapses?"

Nancy Lanza, 52, was also reported to have been stockpiling food in the large home she shared with Adam in Newtown.

Lanza's former landscaper and occasional drinking buddy Dan Holmes has described her relationship with guns as that of "an enthusiast," so much so that she "wanted to pass it on to her kids."

The New York Post quoted him as saying:

"Whenever I finished work and went inside to chitchat, she spoke often about her fascination with firearms. Nancy had an extensive gun collection, and she was really quite proud of it."

The paper blamed Lanza for turning her son into "a killing machine."

NBC — which on Monday revealed new details about Nancy Lanza's 2009 divorce from husband Peter — cited friends as saying that Nancy Lanza was a former financial trader who had not been working in recent years.

Details of the settlement perhaps explain why: She received $240,000 in alimony and child support from her ex-husband, a vice president for taxes at GE Energy and Financial Services, in 2010, with that sum increasing each year after, topping off at $298,000 in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph wrote added that Adam — described as painfully shy and socially maladjusted, possibly suffering from the autism-related Asperger’s syndrome — was addicted to violent video games.