Arizona Gunman’s Gaming Forum Postings Reveal A Troubled Mind» MTV Multiplayer

In the aftermath of the Saturday shooting in Tuscon, AZ, authorities and observers alike are still trying to grasp exactly what would lead Jared Lee Loughner, 22, to kill six people and wound 13 others during his attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Efforts to understand the troubled young man have now led to the gaming sphere.

The Wall Street Journalreportsthat Loughner was active in the forums of a"gaming site,"with 131 posts made between April and June 2010, many of which speak to his mental state of being. While there is nothing that directly suggests the crime he was to commit this past weekend, the postings in general paint the picture of a depressed man, frustrated by his inability to land a job and find a girlfriend.

These are relatively normal concerns for your average 22-year-old, and not particularly surprising. More troubling are those posts which speak directly to Loughner's skewed outlook."Does anyone have aggression 24/7?"he wrote on May 9 of last year. And later that month:"I bet your hungry...Because i know how to cut a body open and eat you for more then a week. ;-)"

The range of responses he received from his fellow forum users sounds pretty typical. Some offered job hunting tips or simply commiserated, while others responded with mocking and scorn.

It is important to state here that nothing from the gaming forum --"Earth Empires"is the game -- could or should be used to build an explanation for Loughner doing what he did. They help paint a picture for sure, particularly his darker comments, but if there was some catalyzing moment that led him to his current situation, it is not obviously stated in the message board postings that have been revealed.

Really, this is all about trying to make sense of a senseless situation. It is no surprise at all that Lougher, a 22-year-old male, was an active gamer, but the WSJ report doesn't in any way suggest that his actions had anything to do with his choice of leisure activities. What this really amounts to is an inside look into Loughner's psyche, disseminating what he had to say in a space that he seemed to perceive as"safe."

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