WASHINGTON — Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, was gravely wounded during a shooting rampage Saturday that left at least five others dead during a public meeting in Tucson.
Giffords was shot in the head by an assailant who opened fire with a handgun on a crowd gathered at a local Safeway supermarket for the lawmaker’s “Congress on Your Corner” town hall meeting.
As many as 18 people were shot in the shooting spree, according to local law-enforcement officials. John Roll, a U.S. federal judge, and a nine-year-old child were among the dead.
I want to make a point about this - people who shoot public figures, it doesn't matter what their ideology is. It doesn't matter who they listen to, what they read. They are crazy. If they didn't have access to any pundits at all, they would be just as likely to kill someone. Therefore it follows that rhetoric, no matter how dark or violent the words are, should not be blamed when something like this happens. I sincerely believe this.
But.
It really doesn't look good when there is violent rhetoric followed by violent action. People are pattern-seeking. They want there to be a connection. There are many people who are attempting to blame this shooting on Sarah Palin, which is nonsense. But she brought it on herself. When she published this ad and refused to apologize for it, she was begging to be linked to any violence that crazies might perpetrate over it. And there are a LOT of crosshairs on that map.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Congresswoman Shot In Arizona
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4 comments:
Jaust can't keep Palin out of it, can you.
You started with good intentions, but just couldn't help yourself.
How sad.
Please explain to me how Palin was "begging to be linked" to a guy that is about as anti-Tea Party as one can be? The violent action has no connection to Palin's platform. You have read about the shooters favorite books, right? And about his political leanings? About as diameterically opposed to Palin as one can get. Unless you can point me to a few Tea Party guys that enjoy Mein Kampf and the Communist Mannifesto.
And the "reload" ad?
Did you feel the same when President Barack Obama said "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun"? How about when the President suggested that his supporters "get in the face" of the opposition, and "punch back, twice as hard"?
Public figures use hyperbole all the time.
Do we have to eliminate words like "bulls eye", "gunning for", and others in the same vein from our speech now?
Saying she brought this on is disgusting and ridiculous. You seemed to understand that in the first part of your comment, but then lost your mind just as quickly.
You are essentially saying that the person responsible is the person that pulled the triiger, but Palin did some things that might cause someone to pull a trigger.
You should have hit the "post" button right before you typed the word "But."
I actually explicitly said Palin DIDN'T bring this on. A couple of times.
In fact, my bringing up Palin's rhetoric is exactly in the same light as you bringing up Obama's gun and knife comment - to point out that post facto, people can use it to blame the shooting on you.
And by the way, who are the non-tea-partiers who enjoy Mein Kampf? I noticed you brought that up earlier.
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