Evidence mounts that Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old disturbed individual accused of the attempted assassination of blue dog, conservative Democrat, U.S Representative Gabrielle Giffords; the cold-blooded killing of five other citizens, including an innocent 9-year-old student and a conservative judge; and the wounding of fourteen people — should have been under psychiatric treatment.

It is obvious that many in the liberal mainstream media and their Democrat allies are attempting to make political gains at the expense of a horrible tragedy. This tragedy should not be transmogrified for political advantage or liberal vs. conservative politics, but ascribed to a very disturbed individual "doing the unthinkable."

Yet, two members of the U.S. Congress known for their long-term bias against private ownership of firearms for self- and family- protection — namely, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) — are already calling for more gun control laws in the wake of the shooting. The most ridiculous of the proposals actually came from Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, who wants to create a gun-free zone 1,000 feet from federal officials. This was correctly and categorically rejected by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

The night of the shooting, Pima county sheriff Clarence Dupnik in Arizona opined that the "vitriolic rhetoric" of political speech risked pushing "unbalanced people" over the edge, and some members of the media took the cue to point fingers at conservative radio talk show hosts — and even Sarah Palin, for "inciting" people to commit violence. 

Although very little has been released since the Saturday, January 8 shooting spree, and Loughner is not cooperating with authorities, it has been variously reported in the Associated Press:

1) "Comments from friends and former classmates bolstered by Loughner's own Internet postings have painted a picture of a social outcast with almost indecipherable beliefs steeped in mistrust and paranoia."

2) "A military official in Washington only declared that the Army rejected Loughner in 2008 because he failed a [unspecified] drug test" and cited privacy for his terse statement.

Mr Loughner should be held accountable for his infamous crime, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and if convicted should receive the maximum penalty. But it is obvious that there were plenty of warning signs that this young man should have been identified by family, as well as authorities in Arizona, as mentally unstable and requiring evaluation. Mental health examination could have determined that he was a potential threat to others and that he should have been hospitalized, treated, and if necessary, confined — for as long as deemed medically necessary.

In fact, the Huffington Post reported that during the past year alone, Pima County, Arizona curtailed mental health services to more than 45 percent of their patients. Some authorities warned that these reductions  “could result in a spike in suicide attempts, public disturbances, hospitalizations, and law enforcement encounters.”

For years, flawed gun control “research” tried to link high rates of suicide, gun violence and homicide to easy gun availability. However, the overwhelming evidence compiled from the medical and criminological literature determined that untreated or poorly managed depression was and remains the real culprit behind high rates of suicide.

I believe that we will also find in time that in many cases of gun violence and mass shootings, unrecognized and untreated mental illness plays a major and tragic role. More work needs to be done, but, in the meantime, let us not play politics with tragedy!

Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. is a resident of Macon, GA

This commentary was published in The Macon Telegraph on January 19, 2011. Copyright ©2011 Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D.