Jared Loughner is just "a lone nut"?

[JCL]

Originally Posted by PersonaNonGrata

So long as there are mentally ill and mentally unstable people there will be these sorts of events. Whether it's blamed on what Glenn Beck said or whether it's a person's black lab telling him to kill or the just voices in his head, there can be triggers that affect mentally ill people. Loughner is clearly very mentally ill. The guy believes the government was trying to control his mind through grammar for goodness sake!

I agree with that. I do think that the level of rhetoric is far too high in general though, and both sides have used gun sights in their advertising, 'targeting' candidates and using phrases like 'take them out'. I think that probably is part of a negative atmosphere in politics, but it is hard to say which is the cause and which is the effect.

How about the discussion over the size of the clip in his weapon, and whether that should be controlled or banned? I read some suggestions that he would still have been shooting, but if his gun only held 1/3 as many bullets then 2/3 of the casualties may have been avoided. I gather that bystanders tackled him when he went to reload.