Loughners Are Not Someone Else's Business

Did our angry political culture help motivate Jared Lee Loughner on what authorities say was his mad shooting spree?

Maybe, but a more troubling question for me is why nobody stopped this often incoherent, irrational young man on his long path to the rampage in Tucson.

I don't just mean the people who sold Loughner his Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol last November, or the people at a Wal-Mart who allegedly sold him ammunition a few hours before the assault.

This was a young man who showed signs of mental illness, yet in our culture people couldn't or wouldn't stop him — even when they knew his behavior was bizarre.

We leave people alone in America, to a fault. We walk past rambling, dazed homeless people every day, if we live in big cities, avoiding their gaze rather than seeking to intervene.

And even when we try to stop people whose behavior seems to pose a danger to themselves or others, it's hard to do anything about it, as Loughner's professors at Pima Community College discovered.

Look at the moon-faced grin of the alleged shooter as he appeared in court for arraignment Monday.

Look at the moon-faced grin of the alleged shooter as he appeared in court for arraignment Monday.

Booking grin, more likely (the one I saw), but at this point what's he got to lose? He's toast and he knows it; why not mock the public?

Better would be pictures from before.

A couple years ago, we watched the mental break down of Brittany Spears. The media was eager to report on everything she did and showed us pictures of this young lady's break down. What did they do? Certainly not try to get her help. They simply made money selling the pictures.

Her parents had quite a time getting control of the situation and being able to help her.

I think that the media trying to insinuate that the mere acquaintance has any responsibility is just wrong in the Loughtner case is just strange.

He's totally wrong about deinstitutionalization having been the right thing to do. It was not. While the institutions had problems, we threw the baby out with the bath water, and left the mentally ill without the care that they need.

Halfway houses and the like are now largely "voluntary." Getting an individual committed for even a short time is extremely difficult.

Add to that the privacy laws we have in place now, and one of the worst positions to be in is to be the family of a mentally ill individual.

I don't know anything about this young man's parents and what they did or did not try to do in regards to getting him help. I have known other parents with young adult offspring with serious mental problems, and their hands are largely tied by the system. Until there is a "threat" commitment usually does not happen. Health care providers are constrained from talking to the parents without the adult child's consent. The mentally ill individual can't be forced to take the medications which might keep him or her at least marginally functional.

The mental health system is a nightmare.

Just as some individuals are of such a criminal bent that they cannot be allowed to live as free individuals out in the world with the rest of us, some individuals are mentally ill to the extent that they need to be cared for in a protected environment where they can live in some peace and not be victimized.

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