From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Mental illness and the threat of violence.

Hello again, I'm Marvin Alley, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

The daily look at the issues, Americans care about most.

Virginia Tech, Ford Hood, the Holocaust Museum, now Tucson, the locations of mass killings

that have rocked the nation. Were there warning signs that disturbed people might commit

mayhem? Could early intervention prevent such tragedies? Today we'll look at the record of

Jarrett Loeffner's ouster from Pima College.

Were there signs that should have provoked action?

Do laws about mental illness and privacy require that we wait too long?

Or are they needed to protect sick people from misunderstanding and overreaction?

On reporter's notebook later on, the first anniversary of the devastation in Haiti.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John

D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation and its campaign for American workers.

More at rockfound.org. Hello again, Mormon-Aulney. Back with To the Point. Mentally ill people may

threaten violence. Most never come through. But should laws protecting their privacy and their

freedom be changed just in case? Would that mean treating sick people like criminals before they've done

anything wrong? On reporter's notebook, it's a holiday in Porta Prince, but it's hardly a celebration

on the first anniversary of the quake that all but destroyed that city. First, this news update.

On Capitol Hill today, members of Congress honored the dead and wounded from Saturday shooting in

Tucson. Minority leader Nancy Pelosi said her colleague, Gabrielle Giffords, provided a model for appropriate behavior.

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