Reaction to Arizona shooting
Yesterday in Arizona a 22-yr-old kid shot and killed six people including a federal judge and a 9-yr-old girl; critically injured at least five others including Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords; in total 18 were injured besides the deceased. The gun used in the attack was bought legally.
Conservative media figures have a history of violent rhetoric, the past two years being no exception. Republican and so-called Tea Party activists and other politicians have joined this fray, in some cases calling for armed revolt if the Democrat-majority government does not change its ways. Certain individuals have been singled out, for example Glenn Beck suggesting Nancy Pelosi’s wine should be poisoned or Sarah Palin putting gun cross-hairs over a map of congresswoman Giffords’ and 19 others’ congressional districts or Fox News contributors suggesting that President Obama should be assassinated.
I suspect these pundits don’t actually want their political opponents to die and, to the contrary, are employing violent imagery as a rhetorical device to get people psyched up to participate in the political process. However, while it’s true that within our political spectrum there are extremists on the right and the left, you only get this sort of vitriolic hyperbole coming from the right.
It’s in this charged environment that an unstable person legally obtains a weapon and acts. Giffords narrowly escaped an assassination attempt; at present she’s recovering from brain surgery — the bullet went straight through her brain and out the other side of her head, having been fired from a distance of a few feet. The slain 9-yr-old girl, as it happens, was born on September 11, 2001, and was attending congresswoman Giffords’ meet-and-greet in order to learn more about how the American political process works. Unfortunately, she learned firsthand.
