The Parents Of Jared Loughner Had More Than A Hunch

 Parents Admitted They Were Aware 
Of Their Sons Mental Illness

To quote from a New York Times article published on 3/27/13 (emphasis added):

“The parents of Jared L. Loughner, the man who killed six people and wounded 13 others during a … event hosted by former [US] Representative Gabrielle Giffords in 2011, told the authorities after the mass shooting that they had become so concerned about their son’s strange behavior in the previous months that they had taken away his shotgun, insisted he get psychological counseling and had even begun to disable his car so that he could not go out at night … The documents, released by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department after Freedom of Information requests from news organizations, reveal the depth of the worries that Mr. Loughner’s parents had about their son’s rapidly deteriorating psychological stability.”

Other Example

The murderer of John Lennon, i.e. Mark David Chapman, confessed to his wife he was obsessed with John Lennon and he had planned to kill him. His wife did not report him.

Take Away

I don’t have the time at the moment to research this further, but I have an inkling that mentally ill persons more often than not confide to loved ones or other people close to them what they are up to. Or loved ones or close ones often sense that something terrible is going to happen.

Thus, it would be a great and long overdue idea to overcome the stigma and taboo that still surrounds mental illness in our society. As far as mental illness is concerned we are not much better off than the medieval ages. Yes, we do not subject mentally to harsh treatments anymore; yes, we do not keep mentally ill in lunatic asylums anymore; yes, we released involuntarily committed mentally ill to live among us.

However, seriously mentally ill people need treatment and care not incarceration in prison or a life as a homeless. Did the parents of Mr. Loughner have the knowledge how to provide treatment and care? If not, why?

I would also suggest that parents or other close individuals should be held liable for acts of mentally ill people, if they neglected to act. Like parents, who leave their baby to starve of food.