By Douglas V. Gibbs
As Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition after being shot in the head at point blank range by a lone wolf gunman, information on the shooter remains sketchy.
In addition to Congresswoman Giffords, 11 people were shot, and of the dead are a 9 year old girl, a federal judge, and a Giffords staffer.
The shooter has been identified as Jared Laughner, a 22 year old man that literally walked up to Gabrielle Giffords and shot her from only a few feet away. The bullet passed completely through her skull. The shooter fired at least twenty rounds before the rampage ended.
Laughner is in custody after being tackled by one of the event participants. No motive has been determined.
Giffords has been a proponent of the federal health care legislation, while opposing the liberal left as a member of the so-called "Blue Dog" coalition of Democrats who push for conservative budget and tax policies. Giffords also did not see eye to eye with many Democrats on issues such as gun control, proudly proclaiming herself as a long-time gun owner. On the immigration issue, though Giffords stance has been largely anti-illegal immigrant, and she has described the U.S. immigration system as "broken" and has advocated for tougher border security, she has also been in favor of a long-term path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Despite her feelings regarding the need for stronger border security, Giffords criticized Arizona's SB-1070 immigration law passed last year, indicating that she felt the state law would do nothing to secure the border or stop drug smuggling and gun running spilling over into her district.
As expected from leftists, Representative Steve Israel, D-NY, politicized the attack, making a connection between the shooting and the battle between the right and the left in the American political arena, saying, "This is both a personal tragedy and a tragic reminder that we cannot remain silent when political rhetoric turns violent."
The fact that Giffords policies are all over the map, not necessarily siding fully with any one ideology, leaves us with the fact that we know little about the shooter, or his motives, and that political rhetoric might have had little to do with his decision to act in such a violent manner. The clues are scarce on why this shooter did as he did, leading one to believe it was an independent act of violence by a single deranged individual who, whatever his warped reasons, will hopefully be put away for a long, long time.
UPDATE: My Facebook Readers say there is a lot of information out there on the shooter, commenting as follows:
Kristie Conn: Really, I'm hearing quite a bit about him, so far that one of his favorite books was Mein Kampf.....yea, tells me quite a bit! It's a sad day in America
James Blowers The Communist Manifesto is another and apparently he is all over youtube.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition after being shot, 9-year-old and Judge dead - New York Daily News
Giffords a leading voice in U.S. immigration debate - Reuters/Yahoo News
Breaking News: Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords Shot - Political Pistachio
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