Mother Jones and CNN reporting
Exclusive: Loughner Friend Explains Alleged Gunman's Grudge Against Giffords
In a Mother Jones interview, the friend shares a message sent hours before the massacre.
Mon Jan. 10, 2011 12:01 AM PST
By Nick Baumann
At 2:00 a.m. on Saturday-about eight hours before he allegedly killed six people and wounded 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), in Tucson-Jared Lee Loughner phoned an old and close friend with whom he had gone to high school and college. The friend, Bryce Tierney, was up late watching TV, but he didn't answer the call. When he later checked his voice mail, he heard a simple message from Loughner: "Hey man, it's Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later."
That was it. But later in the day, when Tierney first heard about the Tucson massacre, he had a sickening feeling: "They hadn't released the name, but I said, 'Holy shit, I think it's Jared that did it.'" Tierney tells Mother Jones in an exclusive interview that Loughner held a years-long grudge against Giffords and had repeatedly derided her as a "fake." Loughner's animus toward Giffords intensified after he attended one of her campaign events and she did not, in his view, sufficiently answer a question he had posed, Tierney says. He also describes Loughner as being obsessed with "lucid dreaming"-that is, the idea that conscious dreams are an alternative reality that a person can inhabit and control-and says Loughner became "more interested in this world than our reality." Tierney adds, "I saw his dream journal once. That's the golden piece of evidence. You want to know what goes on in Jared Loughner's mind, there's a dream journal that will tell you everything."
Excellent, in-depth article. Highly recommended. A whole lot more, at the source.
In addition, CNN's breaking news:
Accused gunman had no party affiliation
Accused Arizona gunman Jared Lee Loughner was not registered to any political party, and in fact hand wrote "independent" on two separate voter forms, county officials said Monday.
This is good news. However, this doesn't mean our nation's violent political rhetoric didn't affect Loughner's mindset. While he did live in a self-imposed vacuum after getting kicked out of college, I doubt the country's vitriolic dailogue had absolutely no affect on him. He was violently anti-government and in 2007, aware enough of local politics to attend a "Congress in Your Corner" event with Gifford. More than likely, it affected him quite deeply.
My question is, how did he get his hands on a Glock 19 legally without a mental health evaluation? He couldn't continue college without undergoing this kind of evaluation, but he could purchase a semi-automatic?
In a Mother Jones interview, the friend shares a message sent hours before the massacre.
Mon Jan. 10, 2011 12:01 AM PST
By Nick Baumann
At 2:00 a.m. on Saturday-about eight hours before he allegedly killed six people and wounded 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), in Tucson-Jared Lee Loughner phoned an old and close friend with whom he had gone to high school and college. The friend, Bryce Tierney, was up late watching TV, but he didn't answer the call. When he later checked his voice mail, he heard a simple message from Loughner: "Hey man, it's Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later."
That was it. But later in the day, when Tierney first heard about the Tucson massacre, he had a sickening feeling: "They hadn't released the name, but I said, 'Holy shit, I think it's Jared that did it.'" Tierney tells Mother Jones in an exclusive interview that Loughner held a years-long grudge against Giffords and had repeatedly derided her as a "fake." Loughner's animus toward Giffords intensified after he attended one of her campaign events and she did not, in his view, sufficiently answer a question he had posed, Tierney says. He also describes Loughner as being obsessed with "lucid dreaming"-that is, the idea that conscious dreams are an alternative reality that a person can inhabit and control-and says Loughner became "more interested in this world than our reality." Tierney adds, "I saw his dream journal once. That's the golden piece of evidence. You want to know what goes on in Jared Loughner's mind, there's a dream journal that will tell you everything."
Excellent, in-depth article. Highly recommended. A whole lot more, at the source.
In addition, CNN's breaking news:
Accused gunman had no party affiliation
Accused Arizona gunman Jared Lee Loughner was not registered to any political party, and in fact hand wrote "independent" on two separate voter forms, county officials said Monday.
This is good news. However, this doesn't mean our nation's violent political rhetoric didn't affect Loughner's mindset. While he did live in a self-imposed vacuum after getting kicked out of college, I doubt the country's vitriolic dailogue had absolutely no affect on him. He was violently anti-government and in 2007, aware enough of local politics to attend a "Congress in Your Corner" event with Gifford. More than likely, it affected him quite deeply.
My question is, how did he get his hands on a Glock 19 legally without a mental health evaluation? He couldn't continue college without undergoing this kind of evaluation, but he could purchase a semi-automatic?