Jared Lee Loughner
After the fact, particularly when the fact is a mass shooting, it’s easy to say what should have been done. But as we have found over and over in our research, there are almost always indicators before the fact, if only they are recognized. And documents released yesterday in the case of Jared Lee Loughner, who killed six people – including nine-year-old Christina-Taylor Green – and wounded 11 others – including Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords – outside a Tucson supermarket in 2011, prove there were plenty of indicators.
His parents reported that the 24-year-old talked to himself in his room and wrote long indecipherable journal entries. He shaved his head and bought a gun. He was thrown out of college with the recommendation that he seek mental evaluation. He spoke to others cryptically about “the government.” He had images of a gun and bullets tattooed on his shoulder.
Now, only a tiny fraction of those who display such an array of mental aberrations is actually dangerous – and more often to themselves than others – but we believe in the medical model. That is: If you are having severe or ongoing chest pains, the chances are great that you are not having a heart attack. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking out those symptoms.
No one seemed to have checked out Loughner’s symptoms and as a result, many lives have been shattered. We can debate gun laws all we want – and there is plenty to be done there – but what we need to focus on is resources to predict violence and deal with the individual when it is suspected.
That’s what it’s really all about.
I have to ask: How do you propose to do this, i.e. get help to serious paranoids?
Being highly suspicious and avoiding help are part of the symptoms of paranoia. You can’t force someone with chest pain to go to a hospital and you can’t force someone who is acting weird to go a psychiatrist.