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A young man storms into a political meet-and-greet hosted by a member of Congress outside a Safeway supermarket and opens fire on the group, killing six and injuring 14. The host and apparent main target, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, is shot point blank in the head.

As word of the tragedy in Tucson races across the Web and on radio and TV news broadcasts, the words "gunman" and "politician" trigger the impulse to think that angry political rhetoric in the media is the root cause of the apparent "assassination" attempt. But is it, and should that be our focus now?

The 40-year-old Giffords (right) remains in critical condition, battling for her life after brain surgery to close the bullet wound from a 9mm handgun. Her aide Gabe Zimmerman, Federal District Judge John Roll, and a 9-year-old aspiring politician were among the dead. As a spouse and parent, my stomach churns thinking of the pain their family members, friends, and colleagues must be feeling, including those of the alleged gunman.

Tucson native Jared Lee Loughner, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and attempting to assassinate a member of Congress. Loughner reportedly hasn't talked, invoking his right against self-incrimination. But police and journalists have uncovered a disturbing profile of him that may unveil the true root of the problem -- undiagnosed, untreated, serious mental illness.

In news reports, Loughner has been described as an out of work 22-year-old living with his parents. Though apparently bright, he was thrown out of the local Pima Community College because of weird and threatening behavior. In June, a former instructor said that he kicked Loughner out of an algebra course less than a month after it began. The instructor said that Loughner would blurt out inappropriate statements and appeared to be on drugs.

Friends from high school confirmed that they and Loughner did drugs and partied together, but that he gradually went from relatively normal to weird. The most telling account from a friend is an interview with Mother Jones where Bryce Tierney said Loughner apparently got even weirder after he said that he had stopped smoking pot.

Tierney, who had known Loughner since middle school, said he received an unusual 2 a.m. voice message on Saturday from him saying, "Hey man, it's Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later." Tierney said that he hadn't heard from Loughner for months, but when he learned of the shooting he suspected him. Tierney said Loughner had become angry with Giffords after attending one of her campaign rallies where he insisted she failed to answer an odd question that he posed. The question was, "What is government if words have no meaning?" Loughner was into conspiracy theories and believed that government aims to control people. Tierney said Loughner had also become obsessed with lucid dreaming -- the idea that a person can control and inhabit their dreams. He became obsessed with life within his dreams, where he could be and do what he wanted, Tierney said. He apparently kept a dream journal, which is where Tierney suggested the answers to Loughner's mindset could be found. In other words, Loughner was apparently slipping deeper and deeper into darkness.

Did political rhetoric push Loughner over the edge? Possibly. Should it be toned down? Absolutely, but ugly rhetoric has been forever present without necessarily triggering violence. Blaming politics is also a convenient knee-jerk assumption, especially for those who instinctively sense political gain in tragedies. Leaders and citizens from both sides of the political spectrum would do well not to add to the hysteria by heaping blame on their political opponents for what Loughner did. I believe that as more and more evidence unfolds the primary cause of the tragedy will likely be mental illness.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 44 million people in the United States have a diagnosable mental illness. There are 60 million new cases each year (two new cases every second). Around the world, 80 percent of cases go untreated in poor countries, while 35 to 40 percent go untreated in rich ones. Half of the people diagnosed showed signs of the disease by age 14 and three-quarters showed it by age 25.

There are millions of people walking around who are functionally mentally ill. The question and focus should be on what must be done to get people the help that they need, especially when they exhibit the signs of mental illness, as Loughner apparently did.

Add to this the fact that Arizona's gun laws are among the most lax in the country and you've got a volatile mix of factors that could only be exacerbated by a political environment that encourages outrageous rhetoric.

In a time like this, it's tempting to leap into our predictable, polarized positions. But, instead, America should put politics aside and use this moment to reflect on the real lessons from this tragedy and take steps to change our nation for the better.

What can we do? For starters, we can examine the things we personally do and say that might contribute to the poisonous political climate in our nation. We can reject violence as the answer to society's problems, and think more seriously about the implications of our nation's easy access to guns. We also can pay closer attention to needs of mentally ill individuals in our communities and nation.

But most of all, right now, we can pray for Congresswoman Giffords, her family and staff, and all the shooting victims and their loved ones.