New Details About Sandy Hook Shooting Suspect Adam Lanza. The mother of the gunman who killed 20 children and seven adults in America’s worst school massacre, was a gun-proud “survivalist” preparing for economic collapse, it has emerged.

Nancy Lanza, whose gun collection was raided by her son Adam for Friday’s massacre at Sandy Hook school, was part of the “prepper” movement, which urges readiness for social chaos by hoarding supplies and training with weapons.

“She prepared for the worst,” her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza told reporters. “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?”

It also emerged that Mrs Lanza had spoken of her fears less than a week before the attack that she was “losing” her son. “She said it was getting worse. She was having trouble reaching him,” said a friend of Mrs Lanza who did not want to be named.

Police disclosed that the 52-year-old had five legally registered guns – at least three of which her 20-year-old son carried with him. Most victims were shot with an assault rifle, while Lanza also carried two handguns and left a shotgun in his car.

New details are emerging about the troubling circumstances surrounding Adam Lanza, who allegedly shot and killed his mother Nancy at their home in Newtown, Conn. Friday morning before going to Sandy Hook Elementary school and killing 20 children, six adults and himself.

• Former high school classmates told The New York Times that Adam had Asperger’s syndrome. People with Asperger’s "have problems with social, emotional, and communication skills, as well as unusual behaviors and interests," according to The Center for Disease Control.

• "[Nancy Lanza] would often talk about her son having social issues," former landscaper and occasional drinking buddy Dan Holmes told The New York Post. "She told me he was a brilliant kid and very book smart but that he was very awkward around people and wanted to be by himself."“

• "We knew it was Adam, because we knew his condition,” Mark Tambascio, whose mother was a friend of Nancy Lanza’s for more than 12 years, told Bloomberg. Adam “couldn’t deal with regular people,” he said. “He was kind of a sociopath in a way.”

• Nancy — to whom the two semiautomatic pistols and semi-automatic rifle found next to Adam's body were registered — was a gun enthusiast who "took her two sons to the gun ranges quite a bit to practice their aim," Holmes told the Post.