Why did Loughner do it? Why did he kill Congresswoman Giffords? After looking at the video Loughner posted on his youtube channel on December 15th 2010, which all seems like nonsense babbling about nothing at all, but I came to one line that I thought stood out of all of them. After 47 seconds into the video, he writes “…If I have my civil rights, then this message wouldn’t have happen.” What I concluded from this sentence was that Loughner experienced oppression from someone or something and couldn’t speak out about it that is why he posted this video on youtube claiming that if he had the right to speak out according to his civil right to free speech then he wouldn’t have wrote these statements and made the video at all. Thus, inevitably, this led to him hating the government system and taking it out on Giffords.
The article I read on the Daily Beast website analyzed the books Loughner listed as some of his favorites and stated that “In examining Loughner’s list of favorite books, which includes Orwell and Mein Kampf, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Potok notes that an anti-government thread runs through all those works. In addition, Loughner’s obsession with currency not being backed by gold and silver “ ‘is a core idea of the militia, or Patriot, movement.’ ” This finding adds more to Loughner’s mindset that he had on getting his right of free speech back and getting back at the government system for oppressing his right.
From reading Milbank’s work about Beck talking violent on radio shows, I can see how this can influence a large number of audiences to act out on a government that they have been influenced to believe were corrupt and oppressive. Maybe Loughner were one of those who listened and acted out on what he believed. Look at his age; he looks like a young guy who is still in those rebellious stages of a teen who don’t want to listen to authority and don’t want to obey the law. Going back to what Loughner wrote on his youtube video, he stated that if he had his civil rights then this wouldn’t have happened, which is indicative of his belief that the government is oppressive and he went after a congress person to get back at the government that oppressed his rights.
I would argue that Loughner was not just a rebellious teen, but rather that he had some serious mental problems. Most rebellious teenagers may not want to listen to authority figure around them but would never even consider murdering a government official. The article, Behind Jared Lougher's Mug-Shot Grin on NYTimes.com talks about Loughner's descent into insanity and many of the strange actions that he took before he committed the shooting. It was reported that he would frequently smile strangely for no reason, that he would yell at and threaten professors at his community college and was eventually suspended until he received adequate psychiatric help, and that many people were afraid of him and perceived him to be dangerous or mentally unstable. Some rebellious teenagers may act out but it is hard to excuse Loughner as just "at that age" when faced with so much evidence of insanity.
ReplyDeleteI see the point that you're making with his actions framing him into a mental person, but sorry to say I just find it cliche to label every person who kills someone else to have a mental disability. I believe that he clearly knew what he was doing and it was not due to insanity. A person knows what they are doing at all times and I don't believe in "the devil made me do it." The result of Gifford's condition stemming from Loughner's actions was not I believe because he was insane or crazy. I encourage people to look beyond just getting the jail sentence to him by labeling him insane and looking towards his personal goal at what he wanted out of killing these people.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Loughner knew what he was doing, if he didn't he would not have succeeded in the way that he did. However, I do think he was slightly unstable. Not all killers have to be that way but in this case I believe that most of the evidence does point in that direction. Loughner said it himself that he lives in a dream world, and as someone else mentioned through hallucinations which is not something that sane people experience unless drugs are involved. I like the idea of looking beyond the jail sentence and looking at the killer's goal, because I think Loughner definitely had one. I believe he wanted to get be noticed, he wanted to spread his ideas to others and in an ironic way become the one controlling the minds of citizens.
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