My One and Only Post on the Giffords Shooting

The New York Times Underpants Gnome Theory of the Giffords Shooting
I think my favorite metaphor for the logical disconnect in the blame-the-right Rhetoric over the Giffords/Roll shootings, is the Underpants Gnome theory.  As you might recall, the Underpants Gnomes were featured in an episode of South Park where they learned that these creatures stole people’s underwear.  The Gnomes were doing it, they explained, because it was part of their business plan, which looked like this:...

Why the Giffords shooting isn't likely to change nation's gun laws
In the aftermath of the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others over the weekend in Tuscon, Arizona, there is speculation that the tragedy might provide a spark to long-dormant attempts to tighten the nation's Gun Laws. Let's break down the numbers using poll data from Gallup, which has asked this basic gun-control question for the past two years: "In general, do you feel that the laws covering the sale of Firearms should be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are n...

Salon Posts Completely False Article About Giffords Shooting
Some guy named Justin Elliott is claiming that the Glock 19 and magazines used in the Giffords shooting yesterday would have been banned by the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. The only thing he got right in his article was the punctuation. The semiautomatic Handgun used in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and more than a dozen other people on Saturday would have been illegal to manufacture and difficult to purchase under the Clinton-era assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. According t...

What David Frum Needed To Say After The Giffords Shooting
David Frum takes Sarah Palin to task for not being more public in her reaction to the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, not being sufficiently empathetic, and not grasping the scope (no pun intended) of the accusations against her: "Palin failed to appreciate the question being posed to her. That question was not: “Are you culpable for the shooting?” The question was: “Having put this unfortunate image on the record, can you respond to the shooting in a way that demonstrates...

Another Thought On The Giffords Shooting
If the rise in violent Rhetoric isn't called out by responsible members of government and the media there will be a copy-cat killings. It's happened before. It'll happen again. ...

Tea Party Express Fundraises Off Giffords Shooting: 'Tea Party Won't Be Silenced'
In an apparent effort to distance themselves from the Mass Shootings in Arizona over the weekend, the Tea Party Express sent out an email to supporters proclaiming that they "won't be silenced" -- and asking for contributions. Earlier today, TPE leader Sal Russo went on Fox News and lamented how "revolting and disgusting the left is for trying to associate the tea party with violence like this." This latest email emphasizes how "horrified" the TPE was to hear about the shootings, which includ...

Schneiderman: Keep dangerous guns away from the mentally ill
AG Eric Schneiderman wrote in a just-zapped email missive to supporters that he plans to talk up ways to keep “dangerous weapons out of the hands of those with severe Mental Illness.” From the letter: … Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t pause to comment on the senseless tragedy in Arizona that took six lives this weekend, including those of a young girl and a Federal Judge, and injured even more, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. I send my deepest condole...

Brewer Discusses Tuscon Tragedy, Not Agenda, in State of State Address
Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, scheduled to give her State of the State address today, instead offered remarks on Saturday's shootings in Tucson. The tragedy has "caused me, caused all of us to reflect on many things, including how we respond to those terrible events," she said before her legislature. "Our response to this tragedy must be led by prayer and comfort the Victims and their families," she said, before leading the chamber in a moment of silence. Brewer recognized the six Arizon...

Glenn Reynolds: The Real Victims of the Arizona Mass Shooting are Conservatives
I can't believe the WSJ actually pays Putz to write this shit. ...

Did Dupnik miss the red flags on Loughner?
Any cop can tell you whodunnit but it takes a supercop to tell you What It All Means about our political culture. A nagging question: Should supercop maybe have figured out that Loughner was a menace before he gunned down six people outside a Safeway? Remember, this is a guy who was so palpably disturbed that more than one of his classmates told their Professor that they feared for their lives. He had five separate run-ins with the Campus Police at his community college, and as Moe Lane helpfu...

ARIZONA District Attorney PUTS ON THE BRAKES when it comes to accusations of prejudice and bigotry
"The tragic shootings in Tucson this past weekend have prompted understandable outrage and strong emotions. Nonetheless, it is a gross disservice to the citizens of Arizona for public officials to characterize our citizens as prejudiced, bigoted or in any way intolerant based on the violent actions of one individual whose motivations and state of mind are still under investigation. For my part, as an elected Law Enforcement official for the largest county in Arizona, I believe the heroic actions...

Gov. Brewer: Arizona 'Will Never Be Brought Down' (VIDEO)
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who was scheduled to deliver her state of the state address today, instead used the occasion to mourn the past weekend's shooting in Tucson, and to call on the nation to persevere. "I had intended to deliver a state of the state address today, remarks that outline an exciting and solid plan for Job Creation, education and Tax Reform," Brewer said. "And I will deliver that plan to you, but not now, not today." "Tragedy and terror sometimes comes from the shadows to...

Full recovery for 'miracle' Haiti quake survivor
Earthquake survivor Darlene Etienne is seen in Marchand Dessaline, Sunday Jan. 9, 2011. The seventeen-year-old was pulled from the rubble of her cousin's home near the ruins of the St. Gerard parish school by French Rescue Workers, more than two weeks after the Jan. 12 massive Earthquake. Almost one year has passed since the Jan. 12, 2010 magnitude-7.0 quake that killed more than 220,000 people and left millions Homeless. The smiling teen who pokes her head out of the doorway of her grandmother...

National Journal cover story, features, include violent rhetoric!
When will National Journal's call to violence ever stop?! From Major Garrett's front-page story: "Seeing Red: John Boehner's Troops are spoiling for a fight, but the speaker wants to aim before he shoots." And another heading on the cover: "Coming salvos against the Fed." Meanwhile in the table of contents are the following headlines: "The lesser evil," "Two-front war," and "Hostile takeover." (I exclude "The War of Law" just because it's a story about an actual war.) The issue, which was likely...

Beck Issues Pledge Against Political Opportunism
On his website, Glenn Beck has published a “challenge” for pundits, politicians, and people in general. Decrying political opportunism of all stripes, Beck writes of the Giffords shooting, “Atheists are not to blame. Those who hate George W. Bush are not to blame. Those who don’t believe in space travel are not to blame. Jared Lee Loughner is to blame. Period.” Later, Beck unveils his challenge. He asks all Americans to agree to the following points: I denounce viol...

If Jared Lee Loughner Were Abdul Mohammed
Peter Beinart imagines: The Giffords shooting doesn’t prove that Sarah Palin has blood on her hands. What it does prove is that when it comes to Terrorism, people like Sarah Palin have a serious blind spot. On the political right, and at times even the political center, there is a casual assumption—so taken for granted that it is rarely even spoken—that the only Terrorist Threat America faces is from Jihadist Islam. There was a lot of talk a couple of weeks back, you’ll remember, a

Barbara Walters Feels Sorry For Palin
During a View discussion on the Giffords shooting, Barbara Walters said that she feels sorry for Sarah Palin, who she feels is being unfairly singled-out in the wake of the Arizona shooting. All four members of the panel had strongly denounced Palin's crosshairs map when it was first published. Labels: Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Gabrielle Giffords, The View, Whoopi Goldberg New! Share this on Facebook: Share ...

McConnell, in KY, speaks about AZ shooting
During a event near Louisville, KY this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell commented on the Giffords shooting in Tucson on Saturday. McConnell was giving a talk to High School Students, an event that had been scheduled long before the weekend's tragedy. McConnell said Congress would take a look at "the way security is provided." McConnell cautioned, "We don't want to get into a situation where elected representatives don't feel comfortable interacting -- what we're doing this morni...

TAP vs. National Review on Bloggingheads.
Executive Editor Mark Schmitt faces off with National Review's Daniel Foster on bloggingheads.tv about the Giffords shooting and the state of political discourse. Posted by Gabe Arana on January 10, 2011 5:24 PM | Permalink | Post a comment Archives January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 ...

Rhetoric Does Not Kill People, But Guns Do
Good piece from Gail Collins: Today, the amazing thing about the reaction to the Giffords shooting is that virtually all the discussion about how to prevent a recurrence has been focusing on improving the tone of our political discourse. That would certainly be great. But you do not hear much about the fact that Jared Loughner came to Giffords’s sweet gathering with a semiautomatic weapon that he was able to buy legally because the law restricting their sale expired in 2004 and Congress did no...

NRA spokesman offers prayers for victims
In the aftermath of the Giffords shooting, the Brady Campaign and others have been arguing that the Glock used by Jared Loughner would have been banned under the Brady Bill, which expired in 2004. Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign, told the New York Times that the weapon was only good for "killing and injuring a lot of people quickly.” When asked about the role that the Brady Bill Repeal had played in the shooting. the National Rifle Association's spokesman Andrew Aru...

Heya Sully, There Needs To Be An Award For This
Showing the complete lack of self-awareness and lack of a clue that only a professionally-kept glibertarian can possess, the Fonzi of Freedom decries the “instant politicization” of the Giffords shooting by linking to the most cynically political thing I’ve read about it to date, that disgusting partisan piece by the Instapundit in the WSJ, and then diving into his own political diatribe: The problem isn’t with the current moment’s Rhetoric, it’s with the go...

TPM Guide to the Perplexed
In the aftermath of the Giffords shooting there's been a lot of talk about political Speech, politicians and whether there's a climate of violent political Rhetoric. And it's been clear that a lot of politicians weren't clear that certain phrases and statements -- like calling for armed revolution or target practice at Fundraisers -- might lead to misunderstandings. So in the spirit of ettiquette manuals, I thought I'd start putting together a list of things it's probably best not to say simpl...

alicublog
NEW VOICE COLUMN UP, about the Giffords shooting. The fallout has in some ways been what I'd expected: as with Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell, Conservatives have been quick to label Jared Loughner a liberal even though his actual politics as expressed in his ravings could best be described as aphasic. The thing that took me aback was the vehemence of some of the more prominent rightbloggers on the subject. Ole Perfesser Instapundit, for example, did several posts with more manic intensity...

uggabugga
Thoughts on the Giffords shooting: In politics (and much of human relations) it's practically impossible to prove that "A caused B". In the Palin/Giffords case, you are left with assessing whether or not you approve of a particular style of argumentation. And events matter. If the assailant had gone after Giffords with a knife, the Palin issue would be significantly muted. But for those of us who don't like shoot-to-kill metaphors, when an actual shoot-to-kill event occurs, it reinforces our d...