[livius]

it's as much of a mistake to blame the parents for something like this as it is to blame conservatives.

I agree. Parents don't "create" schizophrenics, and the contemporary mental health system and laws relating to mental illness make it almost impossible for them to get help for their children, particularly once the children are of legal age.

I do think the sheriff should have been notified by the community college when they suspended Loughner and required him to seek treatment because of his threatening behavior. Or possibly the sheriff was notified and didn't do anything, although by this time it was obvious even to outsiders that there was something seriously wrong with Loughner.

The sheriff is an older man who is clearly a flaming liberal and hence would be weak on the issue of dealing with mental illness, since it was the liberal loonies who decided that the mentally ill were just expressing their dissatisfaction with capitalism...I'm not kidding, that's what Lang taught. He was all the rage back in the 60s and 70s.

[Wolfstar]

...it was the liberal loonies who decided that the mentally ill were just expressing their dissatisfaction with capitalism...I'm not kidding, that's what Lang taught. He was all the rage back in the 60s and 70s.

True, and it led to countless individual and, occasionally as in Arizona, mass tragedies. Estimates are that about 1% of babies born each year will develop schizophrenia. In the United States there are about 4 million babies born each year. Approximately 40,000 will become schizophrenic. Most of them do not harm anyone except themselves. About half smoke pot and become addicted to other drugs, including alcohol. Also about half wind up committing suicide. Large numbers are homeless. Some, perhaps those with less severe cases, do get treatment and are able to lead reasonably normal lives as long as they take their meds. The greatest tragedy of all is that some wind up like Loughner, severely delusional and trying to commit suicide by cop while taking as many innocent people with them as possible.

One serious misconception about schizophrenics is that they are incapable of doing seemingly normal things like make plans, and that planning indicates they know right from wrong. Schizophrenics can make very elaborate plans, but they are motivated by genuine delusions, and their plans, while seemingly coherent, really are nonsensical.