There’s a lot of buzz about the parents of Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter in the attack Saturday that critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six people in an attack in Tucson.
More precisely, there’s a lot of buzz about who these parents are — we’ve heard about Loughner’s allegedly untoward behavior at a community college, what high school acquaintances have said — but the New York Times, for instance, shunts until the very end of its profile today what it knows about Randy and Amy Loughner: Randy Loughner was an unpleasant neighbor.
There’s not much more, beyond their silence.
Now we get this from Mother Jones. Nick Baumann interviews Bryce Tierney, a friend of Jared’s who recalls the alleged shooter’s first encounter with Giffords, in 2007 — and then explains why Jared might have listed Mein Kampf as a "favorite book":
Tierney believes that Loughner was very interested in pushing people’s buttons—and that may have been why he listed Hitler’s Mein Kampf as one of his favorite books on his YouTube page. (Loughner’s mom is Jewish, according to Tierney.)
UPDATE: Amy Joanne Totman and Randy Loughner were married on April 24, 1986 in Pima County — or perhaps that’s the day they got their license, Arizona state records show. No judge is listed — perhaps suggesting they were married by clergy? I’m not so well versed in these matters.
In any case, Totman is an old English name, and seems fairly common. I’m not seeing any connection, except for what Tierney thinks he remembers — and even if he remembers correctly, his informant was likely Jared, who may be less than reliable.
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