Congresswoman shot in head at public event
Mood: angry
Posted on 2011-01-08 14:45:00
Tags: politics
Words: 156

I'm just going to quote from John Gruber:

Sarah Palin’s political action committee placed ads which put a gunshot target over Giffords.

Her opponent in last year’s election held a campaign event at a gun range, to “get on target” to “remove Gabrielle Giffords from office”.

To be clear, I don't think Sarah Palin or her opponent really wanted someone to kill her, but when you repeatedly use this kind of rhetoric you are partially responsible for people who read what they want into it.

Edit: I should add that I don't want to jump to conclusions too much here, and nothing's been released about the identity of the shooter (who was captured). But the fact that she was shot at a public event makes me feel that it's pretty likely the shooter was politically motivated.

Edit 2: Andrew Sullivan's been liveblogging - the shooter appears to be mentally disturbed but definitely influenced by the far right.

4 comments

Comment from flamingophoenix:
2011-01-08T23:24:55+00:00
(Reposting from elsewhere, but this sums up my opinion well.) So, I think the deal is this:

1. A bad thing happened.
2. Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, etc. have encouraged this precise bad thing to happen.
3. Even if #1 turns out to be unrelated to #2, I think that criticism of #2 is warranted.
4. It is good that discussion of this subject (inciting people to violence with our political rhetoric) is happening.
5. It is bad that it took a tragedy before the violent rhetoric got MSM attention.

Comment from omega697:
2011-01-08T23:58:20+00:00
My friend from High School, Gabe Zimmerman, was among the six who were killed. There was also a 9-year-old girl amongst the dead.

What is wrong with people? :o(

Comment from gregstoll:
2011-01-09T00:12:46+00:00
Wow, my condolences.

Comment from spamchang:
2011-01-09T17:49:47+00:00
Call it what it is: domestic terrorism. The plane crash in Austin killed one person; this shooter killed six people. I can't believe people didn't take him down sooner when he pulled out his gun.

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