Arizona Rep. Giffords' shooter called very disturbed.
Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona congresswoman, shot in Tucson
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Democrat Gabrielle Giffords is in critical condition after a gunman opened fire at a meet-and-greet at a supermarket. Six are dead, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge, and at least 12 others are injured.
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Meanwhile, a federal source said a suspect was in custody and identified him as Jared L. Loughner, 22, a U.S. military veteran who served in Afghanistan. The gunman reportedly fired a pistol with an "extended magazine," the source said.
This is a horrible tragedy.
Didn't do him any good apparently.
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Originally Posted by
slapout9
Link to an article about what her former opponent did before the election.
I didn't even know Hamsters could write... :D
The Thread Topic is the Gifford shooting.
This is not a political discussion board. Let's keep it on topic, please.
I said shooting, that encompasses both murder and /or assassination.
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Originally Posted by
slapout9
Ken,I understand why you put that up but IMO it was an assassination not a murder so politics plays a part.
Not a problem with your link -- to which I responded with a feeble attempt at humor :rolleyes: -- but over the follow on post that displayed the graphic and asked who might be influenced by it. Your post introduced the political angle but it was in keeping with the thread; the other post IMO left the thread and asked a broad political question not particularly appropriate to this board.
As for politics playing a part, they may or may not and if they do the likelihood of particularly skewed variants of political beliefs would appear to be probable. Howsomeever, we can always make standing broad jumps at conclusions... ;) . Grand ol' American pastime...
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Including the fact that the victim was alarmed by the very poster that is displayed in the previous post along with all the violent rhetoric associated with it...
She apparently was or she mentioned that 'alarm' as a political tactic -- we cannot know. Her Father blames the "Tea Party" (LINK). While my assessment is that statement by him is rather a stretch, I certainly cannot know what is in his mind and I'm not about to second guess him...
Early days and not enough information to make much of an assessment IMO. Regardless, this is still not a political discussion board so only those political aspects directly appropriate to the topic at hand and based on fact rather than supposition or speculation should ideally be added to discussions.
Some semi-related comments from a Tucson resident
The media is making too big a deal of this. It was a tragedy, and I strongly hope that Congresswoman Giffords makes a full recovery and runs for Governor so that we can have some responsible leadership in this state. However, comparing Tucson to Dallas (Kennedy assassination) is ridiculous, and comments about the shooter's alleged politics as well as calls for gun control are, in my judgment, both misguided and unseemly. People will get over this trauma and the incident pales in comparison to what occurs in Iraq and Afghanistan on a weekly basis.
Where was the threat assessment? Why wasn't one of the Congresswoman's staffers armed? (As of five months ago, anyone can carry a concealed weapon in Arizona without a permit.) The Congresswoman was the target of multiple threats, just completed a nasty campaign, and had her local office vandalized because of her health care vote. The House of Representatives Sergeant-at-Arms Office should also be asking themselves some questions. They can't be expected to assess security threats in 435 separate districts but they should be providing personal security assessment briefings to incoming members.
It was a stroke of luck that the shooter used a 9mmP caliber pistol rather than a 40 S&W or a 45 ACP caliber pistol. I buy powder and primers from the store where he reporteldy purchased his handgun and he could have easily selected from the display shelf a Glock 23 (40 S&W) rather than the Glock 19 which he used to commit his crimes. The number of dead would have likely been greater if he had used a more powerful caliber. This should be another argument (as if anymore are needed) for the U.S. military to change its handgun caliber from 9mmP to 45ACP.
At the risk of being redundant, for the second time:
"And as I said earlier, the bottom line is that this is not a political discussion board -- so while a brief unbiased comment on political ramifications is acceptable, even desirable, we should save the leaning in either direction politics for elsewhere. That means NOT 'intending' to provoke politically biased responses.
Thanks."
I asked nicely. Opinions on either side of this argument certainly exist among people who frequent this Board, however, most know that purely political discussions do not belong here. Please move any further comments to a political board and let's drop it here. I'd hate to lock this thread due to ideologically based comments that belong elsewhere.
Judy Clarke appointed as defense counsel,
and according to USA Today, Loughner's lawyer is 'One-Woman Dream Team', with an interesting prior client list:
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HIGH-PROFILE CLIENT LIST
Criminal defense attorney Judy Clarke has been involved in several high-profile cases. Among them:
-- Zacarias Moussaoui. The 9/11 conspirator represented himself during his 2006 trial. Clarke served as an adviser to him. He is serving a life sentence.
-- Eric Rudolph. Known as "Olympic Park Bomber," he pleaded guilty in 2005 to a series of bombings, including the 1996 Olympics bombing in Atlanta that killed one person and injured 111 others. He is serving life in prison.
-- Theodore Kaczynski. Known as the "Unabomber," he pleaded guilty in 1998 to a mail-bombing campaign that spanned almost 20 years and killed three people and injured 23 others. He is serving a life sentence.
-- Susan Smith. She was convicted in 1995 of drowning her two toddler sons in a lake in Union, S.C., in 1994. She is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole in November 2024.
Regards
Mike
Notion of this crime being politically motivated
I notice many people in this thread still think that Jared Lee Loughner's crime was a politically motivated in some way, especially by the sometimes flaming rhetoric of present day American politics. However, not to be harsh or offensive to anyone but this notion has been soundly put to rest as the reason behind the shooting that take place about week ago, because Loughner according to both his friends and other reports didn't pay attention to the news or political talk of any persuasion as he only payed attention to oddball conspiracy websites. Not anything with obvious political motivations like mentioned in the media or throughout this particular thread.