How Can We Know?

Let's assume Tucson shooter Jared Loughner is indeed mentally ill. That seems a pretty good assumption, don't you think? And let me suggest, for the sake of discussion, that his illness is different from being psychopathic or 'merely' sociopathic.

What's the difference? And how might we know which he is? A rhetorical question: might not a psychopath (perhaps a sterotypical 'evil genius') bent on mayhem hide his discontent and plans until he was finally ready to take action, while a mentally ill person might not have the capacity to hide his inner turmoil? I don't know, but maybe some mental health professionals do. Or maybe not.

Furthermore, how different might these disturbed individuals be from, say, your garden-variety 'angry' political activist? There are a lot of them these days, and undoubtedly the vast majority are neither mentally ill nor sociopaths, although undeniably some have carried guns to public forums.

Hey, I'm a gun owner. And I get angry. But I never carry guns when I'm angry, and certainly not to 'make my statement' about the right to bear arms. And I'd never dream of calling on a neighbor, gun in hand (or slung over my shoulder), to discuss politics.

I ask all this because I don't know how I would be able to distinguish the mentally ill, the sociopath, or an armed political activist at a public event like Gifford's meet-the-constituents forum. Should we even have to wonder if we could?

I'm a liberal. (Sorry, but I think there are good reasons for being steadfast in that perspective.) But I have lots of very conservative friends, some with concealed carry permits. (Which would have been of little value in Tucson. Go ahead, admit it!) I invite everyone, aging leftist agitator or present-day tea partiers, to leave your weapons at home, except when you're at a bona fide practice range -- or you're out to kill Bambi's mother.

Just joking, folks! About Bambi, that is. Not about guns in public. Can't we be serious here?

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