Why?

Try as I might, I haven’t been able to come up with a clear-cut reason why I think Loughner did what he did. It is clear to me that he is very mentally unstable and ill. Beyond that, Loughner seems to have some vague political ideals and rationales. His YouTube video, “How To: Mind Controller” ends with the sentence “I’m able to control every belief and religion by being the mind controller!” He seemed to think that the government was controlling people though grammar, and he wanted that to end. His vendetta against Giffords began when, in 2007, he asked her a question, “What is government if words have no meaning?” that she declined to answer. He later told a friend that “politicians don’t get it,” and seemed to be very upset that Giffords wouldn’t answer his question (ABC Nightline). On an ABC Nightline video, “Inside Jared Lee Loughner’s Mind,” a high school friend says that they used to talk politics, and that they wanted to change the government. But I think that his mental instability is more of the issue. Neighbors, friends, and teachers have come out and said that they noticed that he was an outsider, strange, and mentally unstable. But in Arizona, witness testimony of behavior is all that the government needs to force someone into a mental institution for observation (CBS video). So why didn’t any of these people speak up? Clarke, Loughner’s lawyer, is first going to try and say that Loughner is mentally unfit to stand trial, and if that does not work, go for the insanity plea, which could decrease his sentence from death to life in prison (CBS video “Tucson Suspect Loughner Insanity Plea?”). In the Milbank reading, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly says that “Nobody, even if their frustrated, is going to hurt another human being unless they’re mentally ill.” But that would mean that all murderers should go free on the insanity plea, which obviously is not the solution. So how do you tell if someone is really insane? And how do you know if they’re mentally unstable enough not to be held accountable for their actions? Loughner certainly seems to be mentally ill, but the solution is most definitely not that simple, and his reasons much more complicated.