Former Classmate of Jared Loughner: "He Was Definitely Off...He Didn’t Have the Same Stability Apparent in Most People" Accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner made his first court appearance yesterday since the January 8 shooting rampage that left six people dead and wounded 14 others, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona. We speak with a former classmate of Loughner who sat behind him in poetry class.
Jared Loughner, Mental Illness and How Budget Cuts Have Slashed Behavioral Health Services in Arizona While federal investigators and the news media try to uncover the motivation behind Saturday’s shooting rampage in Tucson, the picture emerging of the accused gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, is of a severely disturbed 22-year-old. Loughner’s apparent mental health problems have shone a spotlight on issues surrounding mental health treatment in Arizona, which made drastic budget cuts to behavioral health services in 2010. We speak with H. Clarke Romans of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Southern Arizona.
In Wake of Giffords Shooting, Will the Arizona Legislature Continue to Relax Gun Control Laws? Jared Lee Loughner’s first court appearance on Monday happened to coincide with the opening of the new session of the Arizona State Legislature. Among the proposals up for debate in the new legislative session are two measures to loosen Arizona’s already lax gun laws. We speak with Dr. Matt Heinz, a Tucson-based doctor and a member of the Arizona House of Representatives.
Dr. Richard Carmona: Nonpartisan Solutions Needed in Wake of Tucson Tragedy To place the Tucson shooting in a broader context, we speak to Dr. Richard Carmona, a public health professor at the University of Arizona. He served more than 20 years at the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and was the U.S. Surgeon General under George W. Bush. Carmona addresses the issues of mental health, gun laws, and how the nation should cope in the face of fear and tragedy. “We need to stop the partisan bickering, blaming each side of the aisle,” Carmona says. “Thoughtful people, in an adult manner, need to sit down and tackle these very difficult problems. And after all, that’s what these elected officials have been elected for: to make good decisions on behalf of the citizens.”