Could Loughner Have Been Committed?

After Jared Loughner’s attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, everyone wants to know what could have been done to prevent it. One possibility: Involuntary commitment. Arizona makes it easier than any other state to have a person involuntarily committed by allowing the state to commit someone if he or she is “persistently or acutely disabled.” Still, Loughner may not have qualified. “Bizarre behavior isn’t enough,” says one expert. Also, even if he had somehow been committed, he’d have likely been out within two days.