Psycho Gunman Wounds Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright January 9, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                

                 Killing six and critically injuring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) at a public event Jan. 8 in Tucson, Ariz., 22-year-old loner Jared Lee Loughner went postal, spraying a crowd with bullets from his 20-round-clip semiautomatic handgun.  Before Loughner finished, he killed six, including federal court Judge John Roll and a 9-year-old girl, injuring fourteen others.  While no one knows the exact motive yet, FBI Director Robert Mueller lamented that “hate speech and other incitement speech” were problems for today’s law enforcement as the government tries to preempt violence from “lone wolves.”  Mueller alluded to the kind of hateful rhetoric found on right wing TV and radio shows, but, more specifically, politicians like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, using metaphors like putting liberals in the “crosshairs.” Palin denied that she intended “crosshairs” to mean gun-sights.

            Loughner’s grandiose last stand shows strong parallels with other well-publicized mass killings, especially the Nov. 4, 2009 Fort Hood massacre, where 40-year-old army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan opened fire Nov. 4, 2009 at a military base killing 13 soldiers.  While there’s still questions whether Hasan was linked to Yemen-based al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, the same type of paranoid psychotic profile emerges.  Mass murder April 16, 2007 by Virginia Tech senior Seung Hui-Cho, who methodically gunned down 32 students and faculty before shooting himself, also shows similarities to Loughner.  Such murders also follow the April 20, 1999 Columbine massacre, where seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gunned down 12 students and one teacher, in the worst high school mass killing in U.S. history.   While all different, mass murderers share many things in common, especially mental illness.

            Pointing fingers at conservative talk radio doesn’t begin to deal with the real problems of undetected and disguised forms of mental illness, frequently falling through the cracks with health care system too often excluding mental health coverage.  Had early detection and treatment been more available, especially for young people, some tragedies might have been prevented.  “We are in a dark place in this country right no and the atmospheric condition is toxic,” said Rep. Emanuel Clever (D-Mo.) agreeing with Mueller that too much incendiary rhetoric drives marginal types to violence.  It’s no accident that Giffords’ Arizona office was ransacked last March following her Nov. 7, 2009 vote for President Barack Obama’s health care reform.  No one knows yet whether  Loughner’s attack was politically motivated.  It’s tempting to read too much into garden variety mass killings.

            While Giffords fights for her life in a Tucson’s University of Arizona Medical Center, the finger pointing continues.  “We really don’t know what motivated this young person, except to know he was very mentally unstable,” Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”  Expressing his shock and disgust over the incident, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dpunik echoed Mueller that too much hate speech incites poorly adjusted individuals to commit violence.  Giffords lies in a medically-induced coma while neurosurgeons attempt to reduce the dangerous swelling that could end her life.  “There are obvious areas of our brain that are less tolerant to intrusion,” said Dr. Michael Lemole, sounding a “cautiously optimistic” tone about Giffords’ survival, refusing to speculate about possible brain damage.  Saturday’s latest violent episode forces the nation to take inventory.

            No matter what one thinks about gun control, most experts agree that handguns in the wrong hands, especially the mentally ill, increase chances of violence.  Regardless of federal medical privacy laws, individuals seeking to buy guns must be properly vetted.  Better Dept. of Justice or FBI screenings could have saved the lives of countless people at the hands of mentally disordered gun buyers.  With the world observing Dec. 8, 2010 the 30th anniversary of former Beatles’ leader John Lennon’s death, it’s obvious that better mental health detection might have prevented Mark David Chapman’s assassination.  “The government is implying mind control and brainwashing on people by controlling grammar,” said Loughner on his My Space page.  “No I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in God,” said Loughner, showing his paranoid thinking.

            Searches of Loughner’s My Space page reveals some of his reading preferences, including, Hitler’s “Mein Kamph,” Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” and Ken Kesey’s “On Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest.  More searches might turn up his favorite film of Martin Scorsese’s 1976 “Taxi Driver,” where a misanthrope takes on New York’s prostitution underworld, eventually engaging in mass murder.  Whatever Loughner’s motives, there’s already enough evidence demonstrating his mental illness.  Instead of trying to kill Obama’s health care bill next week, Boehner would be better served looking into current gun laws to make sure they prohibit the mentally ill from buying handguns.  It’s already too late for Giffords and the other victims of Loughner’s ballistic episode.  Obama should work with Congress to assemble a blue ribbon commission to examine today’s intolerable violence.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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