Details on the Killer

On January 8th, 2011, there was a tragic shooting that was aimed at Representative, Gabrielle Giffords. But would we ever know the reason of the shooting, done by Jared Loughner that day? Well some psychiatrists say it may take them months and maybe even years to figure it out.

Jared Loughner has been a normal boy who had grown into a man, but steadly, he was actually growing serious mental illness. "A partisan, highly non-scientific debate has erupted over whether extreme right-wing rhetoric could have inflamed whatever illness he may have and caused him to target Democtratic Representative, Gabrielle Giffords." Says Times Magazine, " We don't know the answer, but psychological research suggests that political rhetoric could never be the single cause that leads a person with complex mental problems to commit violance."


As a teenager, Loughner dropped out of Mountain View High school in Tucson before his senior year. After, he started drinking a lot, and even by then he had been using lots of drugs, not just pot, "but also halluciogens like acid" said Kylie Smith, who had known him since preschool. After traveling to the military processing station in Phoenix, which he trained for during the span of several months, he was told he could never be accepted because of his extreme use of marijuana in the past years.

After the army incident, friends said that he would occasionally speak in random strings of words, and started having run-ins with police over vandalization of street signs and drugs. They had also mentioned that he was becoming paranoid that the government was trying to control him and everyone else, he could no longer follow instructions, which was also the cause for his job loss at Quiznos and an animal shelter.

He started taking classes at Pima Community College (which began last year), his math professor, Benjamin McGahee stated that "He had this hysteria kind of laugh, laughing to himself." The police also found a camouflage tent behind the Lughner home, with a tableu, complete with a replica human skull.

People started saying that, "Still, one imagines that someone at Pima Community College should have responded more directly to Loughner's warning signs: the paranoia, the jumbled speech, the scary outbursts..." says attorney Charles Arnold.

Scientists are now saying that many signs point to one of the many psychotic disorders which is delusional disorder, or schizophrenia (for which the average age is around 20, which was about when Loughner started showing symptoms). Times Magazine also says "By several accounts, Loughner had become fascinated with lucid dreaming, a dream state you can enter when you're half asleep. You are aware while you are in that state that you're dreaming. Loughner's interest in in his lucid dreams are significant, because last year European Science Foundation reported that lucid dreaming 'creates distinct patterns of electrical activity in the brain that have similarties to the patterns made by psychotic conditions.' " The fact that he has been taking drugs, must have encouraged lucid dreaming, and kept him from falling into deep sleep. But even with all that information, nobody knows the reason for his shooting at Representative Gabrielle Giffords, and all the others.

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