Arizona congresswoman among 18 shot at Tuscon grocery

[futurebeachbum]

Sounds like the guy was an anti-semite, and the attack may have been anti-religious in nature. He also had a youttube channel. The videos are cryptic and make little sense.

Breaking: Congresswoman, five others shot in Tucson, AZ; Update: NPR reports six dead; Update: Federal judge dead; Update: Gunman identified; Update: Giffords expected to pull through; Update: Second suspect arrested? Update: Gunman may have left vid

Its going to be interesting to see if he ends up classified as a right-wing nut; a left-wing nut or just a nut.

Most right left-wing nuts don't rail about the gold standard and most right-wing nuts don't list the Communist Manifesto as their favorite book.

He sounds pretty mixed up in this NYT article called Arizona Suspect?s Recent Acts Offer Hints of Alienation.

he had started to act oddly during his classes at Pima Community College, causing unease among other students.

That behavior, along with a disturbing video, prompted school administrators to call in Mr. Loughner?s parents and tell them that their son had been suspended and would have to get a mental health evaluation to return to college.
...
The evidence and reports about Mr. Loughner?s unusual conduct suggest an increasing alienation from society, confusion, anger as well as foreboding that his life could soon come to an end.
...
After another student read a poem about getting an abortion, Mr. Loughner compared the young woman to a ?terrorist for killing the baby.?
...
?No one in that class would even sit next to him,? Mr. Coorough said.
...
?As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy,? the former classmate, Caitie Parker, wrote in a series of Twitter feeds Saturday

Sounds like someone should have seriously intervened and gotten him help well before this.

 

[GoodWitch58]

I hope it causes all elected officials to rethink their "talking points", especially about how "the government" is the cause of all the problems we have in this country; ..and everyday, regular people have an obligation to speak up when violent talk is put forth so that it does not become acceptable behavior. Our children deserve a better example.

 

[futurebeachbum]

I'll tell you why - the 4th poster in a breaking news thread about someone shooting 12 innocent people including a Congresswoman, a federal judge, and a 9 year old kid was worried that "they" would use this incident to "take away rights." :roll:

Absolutely. And that reference wasn't necessarily related to gun rights. After 9/11 the government seriously reduced our rights to travel freely with the expensive, ineffective, and heavy-handed TSA (an agency that has never actually intercepted a bomb or a terrorist.)

Rather than make the punitive results of a crime significant enough to deter it, we could easily now end up with yet another government agency providing secret service like protection to members of Congress. That would cost billions of dollars and serve to further separate the politicians from the public that they serve. This would be the same typical overreaction that gave us the Patriot Act (I &II) and the TSA.

Of course I suppose some see the growing increase of government control and the slow erosion of personal rights as a good thing. :roll:

 

[Kurt]

The fact that you want to classify him as left or right speaks volumes. He is insane. We have created a a society that promotes violence. That's what we should be talking about.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Disgusting.

Yet another idiot with a gun egged on to violence by more idiots.

Let me guess -- the shooter is white male, over 60, watches a lot of Fox News, and is a member of the Tea Party and the NRA.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Thank you.

I will never understand why there are not a kajillion rules around acquiring something that is used intentionally to kill.

Do you think that someone who is willing to shoot someone else is really going to follow the rules? It would be easy enough to kill people with homemade devices, so outlawing guns wouldn't help prevent the mentally disturbed from committing acts of violence. They would just go to the hardware store and make some pipe bombs.

Thankfully, some bystander tackled the shooter. That is what we need more of -- brave people, willing to "put down their fears, sometimes times to their death, but always to victory." (the motto of the King's Guard in ancient Greece)

 

[Jdarg]

Do you think that someone who is willing to shoot someone else is really going to follow the rules? It would be easy enough to kill people with homemade devices, so outlawing guns wouldn't help prevent the mentally disturbed from committing acts of violence. They would just go to the hardware store and make some pipe bombs.

Thankfully, some bystander tackled the shooter. That is what we need more of -- brave people, willing to "put down their fears, sometimes times to their death, but always to victory." (the motto of the King's Guard in ancient Greece)

I am not talking about outlawing guns. I do not understand why there are not more laws and controls for the ownership, sale, and registration of guns. Even if it took one gun out of one bad person's hands, it would be worth the effort. Guess I am not one of those people that consider packing some heat as one of my really important rights.;-)

 

[Smiling JOe]

The fact that you want to classify him as left or right speaks volumes. He is insane. We have created a a society that promotes violence. That's what we should be talking about.

futurebeachbum didn't say anything about wanting to classify him. He noted that it would be interested to see how he is classified. I can only deduce that he means how the gov't, people, or news classifies the guy. Many other people on this thread are suggesting that Sarah Palin made the guy shoot all these people.

As you said, he must be off his rocker to go postal like he did.

 

[30ashopper]

I am not talking about outlawing guns. I do not understand why there are not more laws and controls for the ownership, sale, and registration of guns. Even if it took one gun out of one bad person's hands, it would be worth the effort. Guess I am not one of those people that consider packing some heat as one of my really important rights.;-)

We have to wait and see how he procured the weapon. He may have had it legally, or he may have just stolen it, or he may have used some loop hole in Arizona or Federal law. Depending on the outcome of that, new laws might be put in place to prevent such things in the future. But we shouldn't jump to any conclusions since we don't have the information.

 

[30ashopper]

We have to wait and see how he procured the weapon. He may have had it legally, or he may have just stolen it, or he may have used some loop hole in Arizona or Federal law. Depending on the outcome of that, new laws might be put in place to prevent such things in the future. But we shouldn't jump to any conclusions since we don't have the information.

Loughner: I can't trust this government - U.S. news - Crime & courts - msnbc.com


Well, if this msnbc story is right, he purchased a glock 19 legally in Arizona. He was carrying multiple clips, plus a knife. Thank goodness somebody jumped on him.