An In-Depth Look At Jared Loughner (VIDEO)

In the wake of the Tucson shooting spree last Saturday, HuffPost's Senior Editor, Marcus Baram, examines how suspected-shooter, Jared Lee Loughner's violence may not simply be politically-motivated.

WATCH:

Comments

[snapshot1940]

12:14 PM on 01/16/2011

Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, sent her buget proposal to the AZ legislatur­e calling for huge cuts in spending, mostly in education and health care for Arizonans currently on AHCCCs, Arizona's version of Medicade. She also sent a letter to officials in the Federal Government requesting exemption from Federal requiremen­ts to provide Medicade. Under her buget proposal, approximat­ely 280,000 adults would be cut off from aid, including 7 to 8,000 in need of mental health aid such as counseling and medication­s. These are not the mildly or even moderately disturbed but those seriously afflicted to the extent medication is all that keeps them from committing acts similiar to those of Jared Loughner. Also included in the proposal is the ban on transplant­s that may well result in the deaths of 98 Arizonans now in need of such transplant­s.
BY INSTITUTIN­G THESE CUTS, SHE WILL BE ABLE TO ALLOW LARGE BUSINESSES TO KEEP THE SUBSTANTIA­L TAX BREAKS THEY WERE GRANTED EARLIER!

[steve sauthoff]

06:32 PM on 01/14/2011

I have questions that can't be answered here about the shooting,
have all the spent cartridges fired from the suspects gun been accounted for?
how many bullets hit victims, how many missed, do all the victims gunshot
wounds match up with suspects weapon? Was his weapon the only one fired
that morning? I'm just curious

[HyperInfluential]

12:03 PM on 01/14/2011

I loved the movie Inception. I think it's one of the best movies in the past 10 years. However, during the violent scenes when the heroes kill adversaries without conscience, because their victims are "just projections," or illusory mental images, I had to wonder if that idea would work its way into the fantasies of the criminally insane, just as some imagery from the Matrix has.

I recalled that with a chill when I saw Loughner's videos talking about "conscience dreaming," and his remorseless mug shot. I worried there would be a backlash against the lucid dreaming community, which is only recently becoming socially accepted after a history of superstitious prejudice against the practice, but now I'm a bit alarmed that it seems the lucid dreaming aspect of Loughner is being completely ignored even in "in depth" analyses of what made him tick. Watching his vids, I believe Loughner identifies himself in his own mind as first and foremost a lucid dreamer.

Lucid dreaming gives people the power to create and live in any world they can imagine, and it FEELS completely real. For a person suffering from a severe untreated mental health disorder, living in a frustrating, violent, partisan world, lucid dreaming could have been an overwhelming experience that was more than Loughner could handle. IMHO, the media should use this teachable moment to explain what lucid dreaming is, how intense it can be, and why it's probably not a good sport for schizophrenics.

[Marisa Hewitt]

12:00 PM on 01/14/2011

From what I've read, the majority of the killers friends have not been in contact with him for years. He lived with his parents and we don't know what they had blasting on their radios or t.v. and we'll probably never know. I would like to know where he got the money to buy the killing machine and if his parents were aware that he had it. Sorry, but we need more information.

[editor]

11:13 AM on 01/14/2011

You don't solve the serious gun issue by debating it for _another 35 years; and doing nothing. You enact emergency Tough; dangerous weapon legislation; and do the legislative experiment; then watch your safety stats improve. If the politicians can't solve the issue; then maybe new technologies can.

[bcantrll]

10:08 AM on 01/14/2011

I'm a proud progressive and I'd like to go on record and say this wasn't about guns.

[enlightenedgirl]

10:21 AM on 01/14/2011

when it comes down to it, it's all about guns and the availability of them.  Why can you buy guns at Wallmart?  The only place that should be able to sell guns are State run gun stores, period.  We have stronger liquor laws than gun laws for goodness sakes, stop this madness now...

[nachocat]

02:13 AM on 01/14/2011

Here is my in depth-look of the situation...it lacks depth really, because there is none.

A mentally disturbed individual went off the deep end and murdered 6 innocent people are injured many more for explainable purpose or agenda. It was an unfortunate situation that for the most part was unavoidable and those that are now gone will be missed.

[Pod-gers]

01:36 AM on 01/14/2011

As I watched the video I had to wince several times.

1. We are talking about a young man, who has a mental impairment. He most likely is disabled as defined by the Civil Rights Act of 1990, Public Law ioi-336. Since he has never, as far as we know, been evaluated, we do not yet know what his diagnosis is.

2. Ironically, Giffords was saved and her recovery assured by immediate action and quality health care, which is exactly what jared did NOT recieve.

3. We live in an open society, and no one is perfect. Well over 40,000 die in traffic acidents every year. It;s not fair. Does anyone want to suggest we get rid of cars?

4. We discover that the Gov of Arizong cut health care for the mentally ill by 50%. Save money? The sad fact is we pay one way or another. Therefore, we need to make good decisions.

5. We know from studies that those with mental impairments are no more likely to kill than those without mental impairments, yet most folks do not seem to realize this. That is due to stereotyping. And even out "leaders" like Rahm Emanual and Jon Stewart love to use clinical terms that describe mental and cognitive impairments as slurs, to demean those they dislike, disagree with, or just want to put down. Thbis strenthens the stigma attached to a mental illness diagnosis, and prevents folks from seeking treatment.

Thanks for raising this issue, take care.

[JBoy]

01:13 AM on 01/14/2011

Why is it so easy for everyone to overlook the obvious? This guy was unemployed, rejected by the military, rejected by girls, and kicked out of college. With every avenue to improve himself or generate self-esteem shut off, and no faith in God to comfort him, he probably felt pretty hopeless. Kids with too much time on their hands usually have too much opportunity to get into trouble. Excessive video gaming and recreational drugs lead to a detachment from reality. His parents apparently little, if any, gudance or discipline. The kid was bound to get into trouble.

He apparently held a grudge against Giffords from 3 years ago when she gave a flippant answer to a bizarre question he asked of her. There is no substantial reason to politicize an incident that had no political root.

[aurora50]

12:54 AM on 01/14/2011

(Thank you for changing the title to this piece.)

[Weiwuwei]

09:13 PM on 01/13/2011

Please, HuffPost, stick with the written word. I'll take my video news pieces without "like" and "um". Plus, a video should convey some information or analysis you haven't already covered extensively on the site.

[imusintheevening]

04:03 AM on 01/14/2011

exactly - no transcript? I'm moving on.........

[massjim]

07:16 AM on 01/14/2011

Agree, no interest in sitting through this.

[RicoShay]

08:44 PM on 01/13/2011

Those who oppose gun control.......Are we supposed to just live with this crap?? I have to assume that those of you who are now scared that your guns are going to be taken away are ones who've never had a loved one's die mercilessly by a some lunatic with a gun. I'd imagine you'd think quite differently otherwise.

There is no justification for a 33 round clip.... I've asked several gun toters I know and none of them could come up with an answer but rather started in on the whole "yeah but if they ban those then where does it end?"

Sorry, but that isn't reason enough to not have stricter gun laws. You can't not do something for fear of what will happen if you do.

[JBoy]

12:45 AM on 01/14/2011

Gun control just removes guns from the free, law abiding citizens. Criminals will always find guns when they need them on the black market. A society where the criminals have access to guns, but law-abiding citizens don't is a society where the criminals don't have the fear of armed confrontation, hence greater crime rates.

[Rush 2112]

02:00 AM on 01/14/2011

Who said anything about taking them away ? We are talking about background checks to weed out the mentally ill.

[Ambidextre]

02:39 AM on 01/14/2011

You are trying to portray this as a "hypothetical situation", _if x were to happen, then y would follow_. Unfortunately for you, there are several countries with strict gun control laws, like Germany, UK, Canada, Australia etc. so we can test your hypothesis with real data.
According to your hypothesis in those countries criminals would have easy access to guns and law abiding citizens would not, and therefore there would be much higher gun related crimes. Right? Well, in countries with stricter gun control laws crime rate, specifically gun related crime, is far far lower than that of the US. In fact the US has the highest gun related crime rate. Therefore your hypothesis is evidently wrong.
Strict gun control DOES NOT lead to higher crime rates.
Next.

[alpina]

01:51 AM on 01/14/2011

Gun toters? Why to remain objective. This is what gun control advocates never seem to comprehend, murdering people is also against the law. If you aren't goint to pay any attention to a capital crime, what in the world makes you think they are going to obey a gun law? The only people it will affect is the 25% of the U.S. population who currently own firearms and manage day after day, year after year not to actually murder anyone.

[dlo2]

08:04 PM on 01/13/2011

Perhaps it points to the need for more research and treatment funding for schizophrenia.
Please read: http://yalescientific.kthx.us/2010/12/recognizing-the-self-mechanisms-of-schizophrenia/

[bmike]

08:03 PM on 01/13/2011

This was suppose to make everybody with a Cross Hair nervous and afraid.Fear is one of their tools that have been working pretty well.Just because there is no clear trail don't mean there is not one.I give it a 2% chance this was just a nut with a gun.Gabby clearly didn't do anything to this person to deserve murder.Plus this was a message to her friends,that's why he tried to kill everybody there.Message to everybody-anybody put cross hairs on you they are trying to get you shot.They may tell you, you look good with cross hairs .Don't believe them or any other reason for putting cross hairs on anybody.

[oneyippie]

07:28 PM on 01/13/2011

Why do we allow the sale of such WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND DEATH in the USA? We go around the world to stop others from using weapons of mass destruction, yet we promote such commerce right here in the USA. What hypocrisy!

The whole argument that
"a psycho shot people, not the guns themselves"

completely contradicts the other gun supporter argument that
"if guns were illegal, only outlaws would have guns..."

That's completely WRONG folks! PSYCHOS CAN GET GUNS right now, but if they're illegal they WON'T be able to, got it? It's not about OUTLAWS.

It's about having a sane society where people feel safe without having to own guns...

Other countries manage this just fine. Instead we give free license to psychos to buy weapons of mass destruction.

Right wing gun nuts (left wing gun nuts too), are all insane and to blame for this massacre too.

How many "outlaws" are actually stopped by average citizens with guns drawn or fired each year in the US?

Note that a number of people had guns on them at that rally in Tucson, but none of them drew or fired to stop the psycho as far as I know.

Isn't that a big reason ppl supposedly carry guns, to stop something like this from happening?

Well it's all a LIE, isn't it now...

[JBoy]

12:54 AM on 01/14/2011

If guns were illegal, outlaws and Psychos would still be able to buy guns on the black market. Luckily, 99.9% of the gun owners in this country are sane enough to not shoot other people. There's always going to be a small percentage of the general public that defies sanity. Taking guns away doesn't take away crime. Even without guns criminals will find other weapons to threaten/inflict pain with.

...and guns are not weapons of MASS DESTRUCTION. WMD's refer to weapons that can kill THOUSANDS of people at a time.

[Pennsylvanianne]

01:26 AM on 01/14/2011

Actually, two people who had guns at the rally confronted each other, thinking the other was the shooter. They could have shot each other, but fortunately did not. The three unarmed people subdued the shooter. Yes, indeed, just another hole in the NRA believers' contention that other armed citizens prevent crime. In this case, more tragedy could have occurred.

[TParrish]

07:24 AM on 01/14/2011

Got a source for that? I am not questioning you, I just had not seen that anywhere and would like to read the story.