The Loose Screw

The Lone Gunman by Alan Caruba

Here's what you need to keep in mind. It's not about gun laws. It's not about Tucson. It's not about Arizona. It's not about political analysis and dialogue, so you can ignore the hypocritical ravings of MSNBC’s Keith Olberman and others eager to blame Rush Limbaugh or the Fox News Channel.

Loughner is Hinkley redux. Described by all who know him as "a loner" and rejected for military service, invited to leave the campus of a local college, more than a few people understood that Jared had a screw loose.

The shooting was about mental illness. It was about paranoia. It was about schizophrenia. It was about all the other killings where innocent people were gunned down by someone hearing voices in his head.

I hate what happened in Arizona and my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims. And I hate when people try to use a tragedy like this for political advantage. The guy was just plain crazy. How do you protect society from someone like that? Hopefully someone will be there to put a stop to it when it happens, but I don't think you can stop it 100%, certainly not by disarming the sane, law-abiding citizens. There is a level of danger in being alive that can never be removed.