Here is the cold and hard essence of the matter...

(WaPo) When Jared Lee Loughner went to the Sportsman's Warehouse outlet on Nov. 30, he faced few obstacles to walking away with a Glock 19 semiautomatic handgun. Loughner was making the purchase in Arizona, a state with an Old West culture where gun laws are among the most lenient in the United States.

This, and only this, is the dark core of the present galaxy of violence, mayhem, and loss. Not Jared's politics or the state of his mind, but the state/society that provided him with terrifically easy access to weapons of destruction. "The store's manager said he passed the federally required background check..." Jared bought the gun only a month ago.