My Reaction to the Arizona Shooting

The recent shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords on January 8th saw 6 people dead and 13 others wounded. Ironically, one of the victims, a nine year old girl, was born on September 11, 2001. The day will be remembered as a tragic one in American history, but the events also raise a lot of questions for the future, such as how to treat the mentally ill before things get too late, and gun laws.

Jared Loughner, the murderer, had previously showed some signs worthy of suspicion, but not enough to be classified as psychotic behavior or mental illness. This puts into consideration how we can identify mentally ill and potentially dangerous people before things go too far. Loughner is a 22 year old man who has lived in the same with his parents since childhood, dropped out of high school, and then was not accepted to serve in the army because of drug use. As he started attending Pima Community College, he became openly discontent with the school and began posting videos on YouTube as well as messages on MySpace showing his unhappiness with school and the American government in general.

But nothing at this point was really worthy of being speculated for criminal intentions. This is why mental-health care should be more easily available to anyone who is of concern. Even though the signs were subtle, Loughner's family would probably have taken more of an effort to put him into therapy if they could afford it. Therefore, if public mental-health care was better across the nation, a few of these unexpected outbursts could possibly be avoided.

This also brings up the question of gun control in the US. It is very important that guns remain in the right hands so that no one with mental issues such as Loughner has the opportunity to lash out the way that he did.

Obama addressed the nation with a heartfelt speech a few days later and expressed that although nothing can compensate for the losses of the shootings, Americans should stand together and support the families of those who were killed to make it past this tragedy.