Who's to blame for a 22-year-old opening fire on a crowd of people, killing six and severely injuring others, including a member of Congress?

We have no opinion on that, mainly because we have so few facts upon which to base an opinion.

That hasn’t stopped a host of people, particularly TV commentators and fellow politicians, from loudly reaching for what’s not there — an easy answer based upon tenuous connections that suit their political ends.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ office was vandalized after she voted in favor of the Health Care Reform Act, so that may have been what touched off the violence.

She had voted in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, so maybe it was that.

Giffords was “targeted” by former Gov. Sarah Palin’s campaign to unseat Democratic members of Congress, so maybe it was the tea party's fault.

Perhaps the gunman was set off by the hostility of right-wing politics in America or, conversely, by similar vitriol from the left.

And, of course, there is the inevitable anti-firearm question: How does a young man recently thrown out of college for mental instability walk into a gun store and obtain a 9 mm handgun with an extended clip for holding extra rounds?

Which is quickly followed by the opposite argument: If more people in the crowd had guns, they could have shot the killer in the few seconds it took to unleash his deadly attack.

At this point, it could have been all of those things and, of course, none of them.

People who do things like this are most often simply suffering from some delusional mental illness such as schizophrenia, which is often “characterized by a disintegration of the process of thinking and of emotional responsiveness.”

Schizophrenics, while rarely violent, suffer from hallucinations, paranoia, delusions and disorganized speech and thinking.

What’s more, these conditions are often worsened by recreational drugs, including marijuana.

Jared Loughner, the gunman in Tucson, has been described as a “pot-smoking loner” who disrupted his college classes and frightened his fellow students with his hostility and incoherent ideas.

Which, if true, would mean he could just have easily focused his hatred on any number of targets: police, blacks, Hispanics, Christians, Muslims, his own family or his last girlfriend.

A paranoid schizophrenic needs enemies, and they can range from his co-workers to aliens from outer space.

At some point it seems likely we will know what was wrong with Jared Loughner. He was captured alive and will no doubt be analyzed by experts.

But it will clearly take weeks and months to unravel the delusions he held in his head or what finally prompted him to act.

In the meantime, the real-time nature of 24/7 news and commentary should allow us time to do the obvious — admit our confusion and sadness, and show compassion for those killed and injured.

editorialboard@sunjournal.com