It’s a tragic day.
Gabrielle Giffords and Astronaut Husband Mark Kelly
Jared Loughner is apparently mentally ill, undoubtedly suffering from Dunning-Kruger syndrome, among other things. He was taught in American public schools. Therefore, a series of teachers and administrators failed to spot the problem, to address the problem or to solve the problem.
Not blaming them, they’re swamped.
Here’s my proposed solution: Massive investment in education (it’s a jobs program), hire about double the number of teachers we have now, thus halving classroom size and giving all teachers a bit of psychological training in “spot the future psychopath” (Cruelty to animals, bullying or being bullied, psychopathic parents, isolation, I’m sure there are many more telltale signs) Next, give the teachers the backup they need in terms of Social Services being able to remove these kids from there dysfunctional homes and/or get them the psychological help they need. (again, it’s a jobs program)
Also, perhaps, teach kids the difference between conscious and conscience.
www.gurukalehuru.com 
I don’t think you can absolutely know that his teachers failed to deal with him. For one thing, all reports show him as “normal” until Grade Ten and then “normal” in a different way: bad attitude, heavy metal music, video gaming. I read and saw an interview with two of his college professors. Both reported him repeatedly to the administration and it took some time before people took them seriously and dealt with the issue. Loughner was frightening people in both his Biology and Math classes with his erratic, random behaviour. Listen to the interviews. Those teachers tried to have him removed and ran up against a stagnant administration.
I am a teacher in Canada and had a frightening student like that in one of my classes about twenty years ago. I had to repeatedly go to the Administration and finally to the Union and the School Board. They laughed at the situation, calling him my stalker. It was frightening and frustrating. Finally, the student showed up outside my apartment on a Saturday morning and followed me down the street. When I went into an antiques store, he followed me in. We don’t have easy accessibility to guns in Canada. It’s not the norm here. What finally got through to the School Board was the student finding a gun on the shelf in the antique store and bringing it over to me to “show it to me.” THEN they believed that my students were scared.
Ironically, I was then forced to teach him individually, in a tutoring situation. Eventually, he dropped the class and I don’t know what happened to him. That was also after he contacted the Civil Liberties people to say we were denying his rights and threatened the School District. It was hell on wheels and I never forgot it.
So please don’t assume you understand about what the teachers did or did not do. You are assuming teachers have more power and influence than they do. Listen to the interviews of Jared Loughner’s professors again.
Well, the central point of my suggestion was that more teachers be hired and classroom size halved, to make it easier for teachers to deal with this situation. You are right, of course, that school administrators need to be more responsive as well.
I am not in any way accusing any specific teacher of not doing their job.
Thanks for sharing your story.