Tucson Shooting Update

When the FBI raided Arizona gunman Jared Loughner’s parent’s home, they found an envelope in a safe that had the words “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and “Giffords” written on it. That evidence bostered the case against Loughner, who was charged on Sunday with five federal counts, including attempted assassination after the disturbed 22-year-old went on a shooting spree on Saturday morning outside an Arizona Safeway, killing six and wounding 14. Investigators uncovered other evidence of Loughner’s plot…

A local law enforcement officer for more than 50 years, Dupnik turns 76 tomorrow and, it seems, no longer feels a need to mince his words. On Saturday he condemned “the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country”. The next day he called Arizona the “Tombstone of the United States” because of its lax gun laws, and berated those who “try to inflame the public 24 hours a day” with “rhetoric about hatred, mistrust, paranoia of how government operates”. On Fox News and ABC today he again claimed “vitriolic rhetoric” had contributed to the tragedy.

It was just over one year ago, at a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, that Sarah Palin, bemoaned the “BS” from the media “about us inciting violence”.

“We know violence isn’t the answer,” Ms Palin said at an event for her former running mate, Senator John McCain. “When we take up our arms, we’re talking about our vote.”…

…But on a national level, Ms Palin is under particular pressure to enunciate her views about whether heated political rhetoric is fuelling violence in the community.

There is no evidence that Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old who has been charged with the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman, was influenced by Ms Palin or ultraconservative Tea Party activists.

But the former Alaska governor has come under intense scrutiny for her frequent use of political language with violent undertones, including a posting on her fundraising website last year that displayed Ms Giffords’ congressional district as a target in the crosshairs of a gun. A spokeswoman for Ms Palin said the icons were never intended to be gun sights.

I am not a Sarah Palin apologist, but casting any blame on her or the Tea Party for the terrible events that happened Saturday in Arizona is foolish. Jared Lee Loughner is a troubled soul and he alone is responsible for the Tucson massacre. The insistence by left-leaning politicians and pundits that “heightened” political rhetoric caused this catastrophe is dishonest, opportunistic, and shallow…

…What is absent from the portrait of Loughner is a man swept up in vitriolic political rhetoric. Regardless of what you think of Sara Palin and the Tea Party, it is highly unlikely that the “reload” and war-laden tone of their political message penetrated the bubble of isolation Loughner created for himself.

Also coming to light is the fact that Loughner had an obsession of Rep. Giffords that predates Sarah Palin’s silly cross hairs map, Sharon Angle’s “second amendment remedies”, and the rest of the “violent” rhetoric used by the Tea Party. It cannot be clearer that rhetoric has nothing to do with this tragedy.

Violent rhetoric had nothing to do with this shooting? Violent rhetoric from the likes of Palin and John Boehner are certainly not the sole cause of this shooting, but to say that they had “nothing” to do with it is naive. But even if that proposition were true — that this violent rhetoric is not to blame — that still doesn’t mean that anyone should be defending this kind of hateful speech. It’s not okay for politicians to say things like “we need to take up arms” against another political party or ideology, and last weekend’s tragic shooting should at least teach us that much.