Reminder: It's Too Soon To "Politicize" Colorado Springs Shooting

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by: Colorado Pols

Screen shot courtesy KKTV.

As the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Tom Roeder reports:

The man who neighbors say shot three people in Colorado Springs on Saturday made a rambling post to a brand-new blog two days earlier that railed against his father, religion and government.

Noah Harpham, whose blog begins with the address where Saturday’s shooting started, rages against a California mega-church pastor…

Saturday morning, neighbors say they watched Harpham go into the square-framed building with a military-style rifle and a can of gasoline.

Harpham came back out with a rifle and a pistol, neighbor Matt Abshire said. He gunned down the first person he encountered, Abshire said: a bicyclist on Prospect Street who died on a curb where flowers now lay.

Noah Harpham killed a total of three people in downtown Colorado Springs Saturday morning before being shot to death by responding CSPD officers. The two other victims were reportedly shot outside a home owned by a substance abuse recovery group that the shooter was familiar with. Despite the shooter’s reporter history of substance abuse treatment, we’ve heard nothing about how he obtained the “military style” rifle used in the shooting, or what extant or proposed laws might have prevented the crime.

Besides, you’re not supposed to talk about any of that–because that would be “politicizing a tragedy.” Two years ago, the Senator representing this area, then-Senate President John Morse, was recalled from office for helping pass 2013’s gun safety reforms–in response to, among other incidents, the Aurora theater shooting in 2012.

We’re probably not supposed to mention that either.

13 thoughts on “Reminder: It’s Too Soon To “Politicize” Colorado Springs Shooting”

ohwilleke says:

November 2, 2015 at 11:01 am

More sacrifices on the shrine of the Second Amendment.

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Gilpin Guy says:

November 2, 2015 at 11:02 am

The mainstream media comments were inundated with gun worshippers railing against 'politicizing' this tragedy.

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  November 2, 2015 at 11:52 am
  
  Can't we, please, all just get back to Benghazi?
  
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BlueCat says:

November 2, 2015 at 12:29 pm

But it would be fine to immediately point out that if all the victims were carrying this would never have happened. Never mind they were caught completely by surprise. And it's fine to politicize Benghazi all you want as soon as you want for as long as you want no matter how many hearings result in reports that find your accusations baseless. Also to politicize any time a good cop doing his job gets killed, using it as proof that cops never are guity of wrong doing. Ditto with politicizing any violent crime committed by anyone here illegally despite the fact that citizens have a higher violent crime rate. Also peachy to politicize video of a miscarriage as proof of something that took place at a Planned Parenthood clinic during an abortion. And always OK to politicize your own disabled son in the context of a manufactured story to make your opponents look bad.

All of these things are OK but only if you're a wacko rightie or……. IOKIYAWR.

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1. exlurker19 says:
  
  November 2, 2015 at 1:22 pm
  
  I prefer the term RWNJ–right wing nutjob. So IOKIYARWNJ. (Hmm, that might be getting a bit cumbersome.)
  
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  1. JeffcoBlue says:
    
    November 2, 2015 at 2:16 pm
    
    It's a useful point though, not all Republicans are RWNJs. There's a difference and this issue is one place where the difference comes out.
    
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    1. Davie says:
      
      November 2, 2015 at 3:32 pm
      
      And thanks to Tanc, not all RWNJs are Republicans… Now if more would follow him into political oblivion, there might yet be hope for the Republican Party to right their ship (pun, I suppose, intended)
      
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      1. notaskinnycook says:
        
        November 2, 2015 at 4:54 pm
        
        I think that ship has sailed, Davie. If the RWNJs get clobbered next year, as I think they just might, we may actually see that split we've talked about for a long time. Either the Wall Street Republicans will leave and take the name with them or the Religious and Tea Party nuts will break off in disgust at the “compromisers” and start calling themselves something other than Republicans.A girl can dream.
        
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  2. BlueCat says:
    
    November 2, 2015 at 4:57 pm
    
    Like hyphenateds getting married. Then do you need four hyphenateds?
    
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ohwilleke says:

November 2, 2015 at 5:27 pm

Open carry delayed the police response:

http://washparkprophet.blogspot.com/2015/11/open-carry-law-delayed-response-in.html

The initial call to 9-1-1 was ignored because he was allowed to open carry his rifle until he started shooting people. If the caller had lied and said he was aiming his rifle at people (which is illegal menacing), quicker police response might have saved lives.

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  November 2, 2015 at 6:27 pm
  
  Certainly the NRA will probably want to award that dispatcher who never over-reacted, and who so calmly and eloquently explained Colorado's open-carry law to the caller, some kind of "Defender of the Second Amendment" medal, or something …
  
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2. BlueCat says:
  
  November 2, 2015 at 11:29 pm
  
  The caller should have said it was a black guy. Open carry doesn't work quite the same for black guys.
  
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  1. Gray in Mountains says:
    
    November 4, 2015 at 7:44 am
    
    Or even black children in open carry Ohio
    
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