Tucson Shooting: Theories Behind Jared Loughner's Behavior

Introduction

January 8, 2011, is a date that will remain ingrained in the hearts of the people of Arizona. On this day, Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old, attempted to kill Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords when he opened fire in a supermarket parking lot in Tucson, shooting and severely injuring 14 people — including Giffords herself — and killing six others. While the incident sparked outrage and condemnation across the country, it was far from an isolated event; there have been numerous other cases in which young American citizens have carried out mass shootings. According to Siegel (2012), such incidents have prompted criminologists to devote their careers to understanding both the good and bad sides of human nature in order to discover the motives that trigger people like Loughner to commit atrocities and to explain why they behave the way they do. Where exactly should blame be apportioned — in societal or individual factors?

In the aftermath of mass murders, a look into the childhood, family background, education, or criminal history of the perpetrators often reveals warning signs that were ignored, most of which point to their unstable and radicalized nature. It is therefore important to understand the biological, psychological, and sociological influences on such individuals in order to prevent future atrocities and to identify what changes — in laws or security procedures — need to be made. This paper examines the life of Jared Lee Loughner, summarizes the events surrounding the Tucson shooting, identifies the theories that best explain the incident, and reviews the subsequent legal and security changes that were made.

Background

Loughner was born on September 10, 1988, the only child of Amy and Randy Loughner. Neighbors often described the family as very private, and although he had friends in high school, in the years that followed he increasingly kept to himself. It was during his time at Mountain View High School that people began to notice a change in his personality. He became rebellious and introverted, and after breaking up with his girlfriend, he started abusing alcohol and other drugs (CNN, 2011). He had also been arrested on several occasions for possession of drug paraphernalia and marijuana.

Loughner attended Pima Community College for eight months, during which he was regularly confronted by campus police for disruptions in the library and classroom. CNN (2011) also reports that he attended Aztec Middle College in Arizona, where he frequently frightened classmates and teachers with unexpected outbursts. As one teacher described, he made inappropriate comments, asked incoherent questions, and would stare continuously into space. He also spoke out of turn and asked questions entirely unrelated to the subject being discussed, prompting his teacher to suspect he had Tourette syndrome. In one documented incident, when a female student was describing her abortion to the class, Loughner laughed and mocked her, then made a comment about attaching a bomb to a fetus to create a "baby bomb." He was eventually suspended from college and told he would only be readmitted once he obtained a clean bill of health from a doctor. After the Tucson shooting, many teachers and classmates confessed that they had long feared he might commit a school shooting.

According to CNN (2015), Loughner harbored a deep distrust of the government. A high school friend described how he hated politics and refused to watch the news. He believed that government officials were concealing a conspiracy and that they were using grammar to brainwash citizens. He also asserted that he could not use currency not backed by silver or gold. CNN further explains that he was obsessed with conspiracy theories and had a strong dislike for organized religion.

Events Surrounding the Crime

Prior to the Tucson shooting, Loughner had expressed his dislike for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. He had attended a previous similar event where he posed a question and was dissatisfied with her response (Siegel, 2012). His parents had grown alarmed by his behavior, and CNN (2015) reports that at one point they disabled his car to prevent him from leaving the house. Although his father took away his gun, Loughner purchased another firearm — the one he used in the Tucson shooting. On the night before the incident, he bought ammunition from a local Walmart. The following day, he took a taxi to the supermarket where Giffords' constituent meeting was underway and opened fire, shooting a total of 19 people.

Conclusion

The Tucson shooting was the result of both individual and societal factors. The circumstances that led to the tragedy were a combination of a violent ideology that coincided with broader sociological and psychological vulnerabilities. Loughner was of an unstable mind, had become radicalized, and had severed his connections to society. Freud's psychoanalytic theory helps explain his personality and troubled inner life, while the Anomie theory accounts for his hostility toward government and religion. The social control and Durkheim theories place partial blame on the individualistic society in which he lived, arguing that its failure to integrate him weakened his bonds to others and fueled his aggression. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that Loughner was in a state of emotional chaos, and that the Tucson shooting was simultaneously an expression of his unstable mind and an outlet for his profound anger toward society.

References

Cable News Network, CNN. (2011). Jared Loughner's background reveals series of warning signs. International Edition. Retrieved 24 April 2015 from http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/13/jared-loughners-background-reveals-series-of-warning-signs/

Fox, J. A., & Levin, J. (2012). Extreme killing: Understanding serial and mass murder. SAGE Publications.

Houser, A. (2012). Tragedy in Tucson: Arizona shooting rampage. ABDO Publishing Company.

Siegel, L. J. (2012). Criminology (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.