the news fuels me, one more letter to "it"

Oh hell, I have better things to do, so why not procrastinate doing them by writing one more letter to All Things Considered:  

So who’s responsible for Giffords’ shooting? 

For the past few days I’ve heard discussions about all kinds of factors that might or not have contributed to the tragedy in Arizona.  You’ve discussed heated political rhetoric, which probably had nothing to do with it since Jared Lee Loughner seems to be just one more deranged lonely young person acting out irrationally.  You’ve discussed lax gun laws as a possible contributing factor; and although I totally agree that we have used our 2^nd amendment rights to justify our buying and selling of weaponry the forefathers probably would never have dreamed of putting in the hands of your average citizen, there are many (and I paraphrase my husband’s reading of a blog he was perusing) angry conservatives out there who all own tons of guns, and how come they haven’t gone out and shot anybody yet?  I most definitely think easy access to guns is problematic; and yes, if Loughner had not been able to buy that gun so easily, maybe none of this would have happened.  But the fact is that guns in the hands of law abiding rational people was not the problem here either....  And lastly, I  have heard some media pussyfooting around the responsibilities of society with regards to deranged people; but as with guns, no serious discussion of that has been broached either...

My question (and I really do have a question) is: What about the parents?  What I never hear in these cases where dangerous and deranged kids go out and actually commit a heinous crime is discussion of the lack of parental oversight?  Where were these parents when their kid was obviously having serious issues of control in school; and how come they never had him committed, or, ok, given psychiatric care?  Ultimately, it is NOT, and can’t be the responsibility of schools to deal with the ultimate care of these individuals, it is that of the parents/family. Where were the Loughner parents?  Being sorry after the fact just doesn’t cut it.  I’m just curious about when it is that parents relinquish all responsibility of their children these days.

Sincerely,

Katya Cohen (a teacher in South Carolina)