Fortunately, the disease is fairly rare, but if you've ever encountered someone with a serious case of paranoid schizophrenia, you've got a lasting memory. And when one of them acts out and causes some damage to person or property, it tends to get a lot of attention. The shooter at Virginia Tech a few years ago may have had it. And from what we are learning about the shooter in Tucson, there's a good chance he has it, too.
Jared Loughner blasted away at a political event at a mall in Tucson the other day killing six people and injuring 14 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The reports that are coming out about Mr. Loughner, while not exactly proof, provide plenty of anecdotal evidence that he has some serious mental problems, and it sure sounds like paranoid schizophrenia.
This event has provoked a lot of heated rhetoric from people in politics, and unsurprisingly, anti-gun people are calling for more gun control. While some are trying to advance their political agendas with this tragedy, a more worthwhile objective might be to figure out a way to treat schizophrenics so that this sort of thing wouldn't happen.
The old drugs were said to dull the patient so much that it was difficult to get the patient to take them. But there are some new drugs available which are supposed to have far fewer side effects than the old drugs. But there's still the problem of getting an unwilling patient to take them.
Not too many decades ago mentally ill persons were forcibly institutionalized, and while there were probably some abuses of the right to lock up someone who appeared to be crazy, there were probably fewer crimes committed by them. But if the condition is treatable, then there should be a legal remedy in place to compel someone who has been diagnosed to either take the drug or face institutionalization.
Then maybe nutcases wouldn't be out there shooting up the place.