Gunman Commits Mass Murder In Tucson
By Wyatt Earp | January 8, 2011
Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head during one of her “Congress On Your Corner” community meetings. Thankfully, she is expected to recover.
Arizona law enforcement officials say a gunman in the crowd shot Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat, and a person in the crowd shot at the gunman. The Associated Press identified the gunman as Jared Loughner; authorities say the 22-year-old suspect is in custody.
Six others have been killed and 18 wounded following the shooting at a Safeway in northwest Tucson at Ina and Oracle roads, according to Bureau Chief Richard Kastigar of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office.
One of the murder victims is a 9-year old girl. Jesus.
I first heard about this from my friend Kevin, who lives in Tucson. From what he was telling me, Giffords is pretty well-liked and her fellow congressmen – on both sides of the aisle – say she’s a class act. I sincerely hope she survives.
Anytime something like this occurs, there are always hateful, disgusting people who try to link the shooter to a particular political ideology. The idiots over at Little Green Footballs immediately claimed the gunman must be one of those racist teabaggers. DailyKos blamed the shooting on Sarah Palin, as if she fired the shots herself. Kos then threw this post down the memory hole, because stories claiming Giffords is, “DEAD to me!” reflect badly upon them.
All this was theorized before any facts were in. Johnson and Kos were forwarding their Leftist agenda by using their Jump to Conclusion Mats. Ace, on the other hand, posted the facts at hand and took a wait-and-see approach as to the motivation involved.
My point here is this: The important part of this story is Congresswoman Giffords. The shooter and his motivation are a very distant second. It may very well be that this guy is some insane ultra-conservative. It may also be that the guy is a deranged Leftist that thought Giffords wasn’t liberal enough. Either way, does it really matter? Instead of trying to score political points, let’s place the blame on the shooter, who – conservative or liberal – is a scumbag that deserves the death penalty.
/soapbox
UPDATE: Comments are now closed because too many people either didn’t read this post or completely ignored its point.
Topics: The Job | 28 Comments »
January 8th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
I’ve been following the story since about 2 EST. Sounds like our shooter, one Jared Lee Loughner, is a Grade-A Certified Lunatic. Ultra political, that’s for sure, but based on his YouTube videos, I can’t tell whether he’s liberal or conservative.
The pundits are already ragging on Arizona and how you can buy and carry a gun without a permit, and many individals – members of the Raptor Clan included, I’m ashamed to admit – are crying for tougher gun control.
January 8th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
The link is to his YouTube channel, by the way.
January 8th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Raptor – And yet, a person in the crowd fired back at the shooter. Think that person deserves scorn, MSM? I sure don’t.
January 8th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Odd how the Arizona media screwed the pooch on that Baja Fresh standoff and then blamed
somebody who might have something more pressing than mollycoddling reporters at hadthe cops. I’m not exactly looking for them to redeem themselves this time around.AP isn’t exacly sticking to the ’48 hour rule’ in their supposedly unbiased article.
January 8th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Whoops…..
Wyatt….do you have a link confirming that somebody shot Laughner? I’ve only heard it mentioned in passing…….nobody seems too interested in the specifics on how Laughner was subdued other than that he was wrestled to the gound.
Of course, he it’s likely he would’ve been wrestled to the ground after being shot…..
January 8th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
Fenway – Not confirmed he was shot, but a lot of outlets are saying someone shot at Loughner. No confirmation if he was hit or not.
January 8th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Was looking at Laughner’s videos on youtube they are pretty much coherently..incoherent. Of course to him they probably make perfect sense. By the wording of the videos, he evidently took a logic course at one time which probably scrambled his brains. The logic is pretty simple union and intersection, thank Gawd he didn’t wander into Bayes Theorem.
January 8th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Yup Johnson is pretty much basking in his anti-right postings right now. I never go to Daily KOS anymore, I used to when they were bashing Bush to see how far the crazy went, but got sickened by all their calls for Bush’s death and that of the entire right wing.
January 8th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Jon – Either way, spouting off motivations or blaming politicians for this the second the story breaks is idiotic and irresponsible. For God’s sake, let the smoke clear first. It goes exactly to the post below – also from AZ – where the media ripped the police because they didn’t have the entire story the second the 911 call came out.
January 8th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
I’ve seen the youtube videos too, and my first impression is that the people who are saying this guy is “nuts” might be more right than they realize. Specifically schizophrenic in the clinical sense. Thought disturbance in both content and form, poverty of content of speech, etc. This isn’t an excuse, just an explanation. Now my degree ain’t doctoral (you’re not allowed to say “ain’t” at that level anyway) so please take this with a grain of salt, but if I had to guess I’d say this guy just latched on to some pseudo/kinda conservative ideas to wrap his existing insanity around.
P.S. I don’t know how religious the readers are (and it’s not really any of my business) but if you’re of a mind please pray for the soul of the child who lost her life in this. One of the reasons I could NEVER be a cop is I just couldn’t handle situations like that. She was just.too.young.
January 8th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Indiana Ed – And even though the MSM will gloss over it, the death of the 9-year old girl is the biggest tragedy here, in my opinion.
January 8th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
100% agreed Wyatt, but thats the sorry state of the world now. As for Charles Johnson he’s Jared Loughner on meds
LOL. “IF” I had a Jump to Conclusion mat ( I like that one)..I would say look at Jared’s favorite book list not exactly a right wing manifesto listing.
January 8th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Jawa report has put up a pretty good profile on the guy, including statements from his friends on twitter. While I agree that his views don’t matter, because they are the views of a sick mind, his Myspace listing of his favorite books are telling, Communist Manifesto, and Hitler’s little book that I have no idea how to spell. The only thing that matters to me is if he can separate reality from fantasy, and if so, can be injected with enough poisons into his veins to make him the devil’s problem.
January 8th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
A leftist turd
January 8th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Jon – I just don’t want to see this scrote claiming insanity, because he deserves to rot – or be put down like the scum that he is.
Mr. M – Agreed. Forget prison, Loughner needs to be put to death.
Rick – Well, he’s definitely a turd. I’ll let the ideaology discussion to others. Still too early for me.
January 8th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
The reports that the shooter was shot have been dismissed recently. He was at least tackled. People on the scene made sure he didn’t leave. That’s huge. Unfortunately there may still be someone else involved on the loose.
January 8th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
I hope the shooter was in fact shot. I hope it hurt like hell, and I hope he fries.
Shame on the MSM for using this tragedy to forward their political agenda. And shame on me for not being surprised that they did it.
January 8th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
I would like to see the Liberal, Leftist trolls in here say this is what it is; a travesty and that their prayers go out to the victims.
What you will see next is political ideology promotion from the reprehensible act of a psychopath. Gun control will be the next push by the Left, mark my words.
January 8th, 2011 at 10:53 pm
Just so sad. The person arrested is obviously disturbed. I wish he had died, frankly.
My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to those directly affected by this madness.
However, all I can keep thinking about is that poor nine-year-old girl who went with her neighbor to see how our politics works.
So sad.
January 8th, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Ferrell, Gun control has always been pushed by the elitist, leftist media. And I doubt if the trolls here pray to any higher being, since they consider themselves superior to all.
I am praying for a speedy, full recovery to the wounded, regardless of their politics, the souls of the victims, and ultimate justice for the criminal.
January 8th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Found out about the shootings a short while ago; what I have to say about the whole thing I wrote here.
I’m too shocked and angry to repeat what I wrote in this comment.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:09 am
Code Monkey – And those with ideology issues should consider this: The gunman was tackled by Americans – not Republicans or Democrats, but Americans. (Actually, they were probably Democrats, so let’s adjourn from the rhetoric for a while, mmm-kay, kids?)
Lou – The only agenda that should be pushed here is that people who see the warning signs in psychopaths like this need to come forward – sooner rather than later.
Ferrell – And we can have that fight – but not today. Also, for the record, Giffords is reportedly gun-friendly.
RT – And she was killed for it, because some scumbag wanted to make a “point.” About what, I have no idea.
Robert B. – Not to repeat myself, but Giffords was reportedly gun-friendly and a conservative Democrat.
Morgan – It is my sincere hope that Loughner meets a very painful end.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:13 am
Sad, and sad that people are not even worrying about he Congresswoman or the others killed, but are MORE concerned about making political hay out of this…
January 9th, 2011 at 11:51 am
I really hate to say this, under the circumstances, but:
Well, that’s the Democrats for you.
The shooting of Rep. Giffords is just the latest tragedy or atrocity that they and their media allies immediately rushed to blame the Tea Party or conservative commentary for, without waiting for the facts or even having the decency to wait until the bodies cooled. Even the Pima County sheriff – a bigtime Democrat himself – lobbed a few rhetorical hand grenades at “talk radio” in his press conference after the shooting.
Remember all the media hacks saying that we shouldn’t rush to conclusions about the Fort Hood jihadi just because the putz was yelling “Allahu Akbar!” as he gunned down his fellow soldiers? And here we have Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann, Wolf Blitzer and the rest of the usual suspects rushing to somehow pin, falsely, the Giffords shooting on Sarah Palin, Rush and Glenn Beck.
Just like – off the top of my head – they did the Discovery Channel shooter, too. And the Times Square bomber. And loony professor Amy Bishop. And the suicidal Kentucky census worker. And the Beltway snipers (albeit that was before the Tea Party). And the Austin IRS kamikaze. And the arson attack on Russ Carnahan’s campaign office in St. Louis (actually done by a disgruntled staffer).
And on and on and on, clear back to the Oklahoma City bombing.
(And you actually have Democrat strategists like Mark Halperin openly saying that what President Obama really needs to jump-start his Presidency is an Oklahoma City bombing-type incident of his own. How sick is that?)
Practically the very first action taken by the current administration was to release DHS “intelligence reports” under its own letterhead and that of several state police agencies warning of the “rise” of “right-wing extremism,” and they’ve been beating the drums since.
How bankrupt is your political ideology when your arguments depend entirely on falsely accusing your opponents of being extremists, bigots and terrorists?
Well, if they want to use the occasion to point fingers, we can always start with a despicable sitting President who is known to exhort his followers to “get into people’s faces,” “bring a gun to a fight,” “punch back twice as hard” against his opponents, and punish their racial and class enemies.
January 9th, 2011 at 11:53 am
Stay classy Wes.
January 9th, 2011 at 11:58 am
The 9-yr old girl was Dallas Green’s granddaughter.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Old NFO – It’s pretty disgusting.
Wes S. – Dude, you missed the entire point of the article.
Randal – Too soon for that.
PhillyExpat – Didn’t know that. Damn.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
To add to Wes’s novella don’t forget while speaking to hispanics just before the november election obambi extolled them to defeat and fight his “ENEMIES” refering to fellow Americans on the right.
Everyone here has shown great heart and class in the concern for the victims and the recovery of those wounded
as do I, but I also realize there is a full court press by the left…off the bat mind you…against the right that just adds to the tragedy by its politization. We must mourn those of good spirit who were killed but we must still be cognizant and keep our powder dry. Can I still say ..keep our powder dry..and not be on a list now?