Sarah Palin has advanced her political career by appealing to a culture of gun glorification. Attempting to get in her gun bona fides, she has even appeared on a reality TV show firing bullet after bullet at wild animals in her adopted home state of Alaska.
Last year, however, Palin took the gun metaphor to a new level. She drew crosshairs on a map of the United States where vulnerable Democratic members of the House of Representatives were based. The visual suggestion was clear: Shoot them down.
Sarah Palin’s aides took this image offline this afternoon. Why? Today, one of the members of Congress that Sarah Palin put in the crosshairs was literally shot down. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head.
Will other members of Congress that Sarah Palin identified as targets become the victims of gunfire?
Sarah Palin isn’t the only person contributing to the culture of gun glorification, of course. For those who wonder how anyone could have shot a member of Congress in the head, there’s this screenshot to consider, from one of the most popular videos today. It’s entitled, 2010: A Symphony Of Violence.
Is there a gun lover out there today who wants to tell me about how the weapon that put a bullet in the brain of Representative Gabrielle Giffords was necessary to defend liberty?
So there isn’t any evidence to the contrary yet, but is there any evidence that this was a political act?
The shooting happened at a publicly event announced beforehand, an event at which Giffords was scheduled to appear to respond to constituents.
This, and that the assailant carried an assault weapon, indicates at least that the attack wasn’t something like a domestic violence incident.
The particulars are being held close by law enforcement officials right now, and I don’t think that we’re going to know all the details of this for several days. My sense of it —- and this is just my sense —- is that the police are working fast right now to determine if there was a larger conspiracy. They want to hunt down hot leads before they grow cold, and they’re not going to share information that could let additional people associated with this crime know that they’re identified as suspects.
Update: A suspect is in custody. Identified as Jared Laughner. YouTube account ClassItUp10 – possibly Jared Lee Loughner?
As part of the investigation Palin needs to be picked up by the U.S. Marshalls, held, and questioned. Course the little jr high instigators never take responsibility for anything. Just the same -RUIN HER before more lives are taken.
Sarah Palin and those who have attempted to incite acts murder by appealing to the fanatic lunatic nut fringe need to be held personally responsible for this act of domestic terrorism. I hope they bring her up on charges for inciting acts of violence and murder. This irresponsible rhetoric does have deadly consequences as has just been proven by the shooting of Giffords and 14 others. How come Palin decided to take the bullseye map down today? Does she realize she did something WRONG and she’s now trying to hide her own culpability in this matter?
I disagree with your suggestion that Sarah Palin be brought up on charges. Unless the uncovered videos are a pose designed to create a defense, it looks like Jared Lee Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic. Someone who’s suffering from psychosis can pick up on anything and use it to create a justification for crazy acts.
That doesn’t take away from Sarah Palin’s use of targets to describe taking people out who she doesn’t like, but it doesn’t make her the one who’s culpable for the act.
My guess is less that conservative conspiratorial militia chatter like Sarah Palin’s causes people like Jared Lee Loughner to go kill people, and more that people like Jared Lee Loughner are attracted to conservative conspiratorial militia chatter for its paranoid aspect.
How much different this from Bin Laden? (I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out). Was this guy in Arizona insane? Sure no doubt. Was he acting on direct orders from Palin? Absolutely not. But is there anyone, other than the terrorists, that thinks that the actions of a terrorist are “normal healthy” behavior? Also Bin Laden isn’t in a hut somewhere masterminding EVERY action against the USA. This is the point of sleeper cells, each is fairly autonomous. He like Palin is delivering a message; both are forms of hate speech. Then those who listen and agree with this rhetoric go out and take action.
I’m not saying that Palin directly called for or asked for the actions, I’m stating that she has placed herself and portrays herself as a martyr. It is irresponsible of her to NOT understand that martyrdom creates an environment where the supporters are driven to action and often the action takes the form of the most extreme nature, in an attempt to either insight fear or to bring attention to their cause.
Sara needs to look at herself in the mirror and start thinking about the image she portrays and the statements she makes. I have no doubt that she is passionate about her beliefs but the imagery and verbiage she uses to get her statement across is capable of inciting harm and irresponsible at best. If nothing else her negligence and lack of foresight in this matter proves her lack of leadership and self control, these are two things that are not just desirable in a leader but ultimately a requirement.
if i did it I would have the fbi knocking on my door in a minute
J. Clifford, you ask if there a gun lover out there today who wants to tell me about how the weapon that put a bullet in the brain of Representative Gabrielle Giffords was necessary to defend liberty. Well, first of all, neither you or I have any idea at this point what kind of weapon the shooter used. Second of all, what if one of the law abiding citizens next to her had a gun? He or she maybe could have shot the gunman before he had a chance to shoot Giffords. At the very least, he/she could have shot the gunman before he had a chance to shoot 12 more people. So that is how a gun is necessary to defend life and liberty. Unfortunately, it appears there was no one next to her that had a gun. And the one person in the crowd who did try to shoot at the gunman apparently missed.
If an armed law abiding citizen had been near by, lives would have been saved.
Not sure lives would have been saved. In fact, you might have been viewed as part of the attack. I am a strong advocate of the right to bare arms…I am just not convinced that another gun would have helped this situation.
You’re right, Dal. There’s no evidence that short sleeves would have prevented any injuries from occurring.
Clifford–let’s outlaw airplanes & jets! The terrorists of 9/11 couldn’t have done what they did if only we’d have outlawed air travel. If man were meant to fly, we’d have been given wings.
did not someone tell the terrorists to fly the planes? Kind of like putting up crosshairs and names of were they live? shame on sara
Sarah Palin practically instructed her followers to fire: “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD”, she wrote to them on Twitter.
She parades around with guns as political props. That’s legal, sure, but it has consequences – consequences like what we saw today.
Dear Pantheraleo. This in response to your comments in defense of hand gun ownership. Specifically you stated:
“what if one of the law abiding citizens next to her had a gun? He or she maybe could have shot the gunman before he had a chance to shoot Giffords. At the very least, he/she could have shot the gunman before he had a chance to shoot 12 more people. So that is how a gun is necessary to defend life and liberty. Unfortunately, it appears there was no one next to her that had a gun. And the one person in the crowd who did try to shoot at the gunman apparently missed.
If an armed law abiding citizen had been near by, lives would have been saved.”
Well if you are correct, one person did have a gun and he missed. How unfortunate it will be if it turns out that one of the injured or dead was shot by this “law abiding citizen! You believe that if a whole bunch of hand gun totters had opened fire in a crowd of people that fewer would have been shot! C’mon, hand guns are not exactly the most accurate weapons and few hand gun users put into a stressful situation such as existed at that supermarket could be counted on to fire accurately enough to hit the shooter. If what you suggested had actually taken place I bet there would been many more gun casualties!
What did appear to happen is that some brave individuals knocked the shooter down and subdued him before he could reload. Your gun happy bystander did nothing but endanger the lives of the other innocent people in that crowd!
Rifles (which literally is a fire arm) have legitimate uses other than killing human beings, but hand guns, especially semi-automatic hand guns, are almost exclusively used to intimidate, assault and kill other humans. Protect the right to own rifles, fine, but let’s get hand guns out of the hands of the general public! Rather than purport that hand gun ownership reduces violent hand gun use against humans, which is statistically totally untrue, lets drastically reduce the access to hand guns,the bullets used in them and the ability to produce these bullets at home. That’s the only way to reduce the incredibly frequent and tragic use of these weapons against us true “law abiding citizens”!
If you recall that during McCain campaign, Sarah Palin was inciting
racists slurs and made remarks about Obama that McCain had to shut her up.
Sarah Palin, Beck, Rush, the rest of the loud mouth get paid big dollars to say what ever they feel to incite ratings for Fox, Murdock better get the muzzle on them.
The longer Sarah Palin is making her little maps of hit marks, there will be more to come. If Sarah Palin is so wonderful, why would she scrub her FB and sites. She knows exactly what she is doing, that is to incite and anger to direct volience towards government, she is nothing but a Terrorits, getting paid big dollars to light the fuse. Check search , google and put Sarah Palin add any word you will get thousands of hits.
Stop feeding Sarah Palin family the money, even Bristol, Willow are following the same rotten posts on FB and Twitter, Money Money well stop feeding them.
Sarah, Beck, Rush and others who take advantage of air time are no better then a terrorits. Wake up there are no solutions with them, just more idiots ready to shoot you.