Jared Loughner's Parents: 'We Don't Understand Why This Happened'

Obama to attend Arizona memorial
President Barack Obama has arrived in Arizona to pay tribute to six people killed in a shooting and to honour US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was injured in the attack. The president is due to speak at a memorial service for Victims of the shooting in Tucson later on Wednesday. Suspected gunman Jared Loughner has been charged with several offences and could face the death penalty if guilty. Ms Giffords was shot in the head and remains in a critical condition. Thousands have gathered thr...

Obama arrives in Tucson for memorial
US President Barack Obama was Wednesday visiting injured congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Hospital shortly after arriving in Arizona to address a poignant memorial service. "The president wanted to begin this solemn trip by stopping first at the Hospital where congresswoman Giffords and others continue to recover," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. The president would also meet with the families of the Victims of Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, before leading the memori...

As portrait of Jared Loughner sharpens, 'vitriol' blame fades
The suggestion that the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Saturday might have been influenced by political 'vitriol' seems less likely as more becomes known about suspect Jared Loughner. Neighbors check out the media set up at the Loughner home in Tucson, Ariz., Tuesday. Jared Loughner is the alleged gunman in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others on Saturday, leaving six dead and more injured. The wave of national soul-searching about the level of political vitriol and how it mi...

House pays emotional tribute to Arizona victims
(01-12) 12:37 PST WASHINGTON, CA (AP) -- Grief-stricken members of Congress paid tribute Wednesday to the Victims of the Tucson shooting rampage amid consultations with security advisers on how they can protect themselves and their aides against such savage attacks. Still deeply shaken from Saturday's violence half a continent away, House Speaker John Boehner fought tears as he spoke of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' battle to recover from a gunshot wound to the head. "Our hearts are broken, but our...

Due To Arizona Conflicts, California Judge Takes Over Loughner Case
U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of California Larry A. Burns will handle the case against Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged gunman behind the Mass Shooting on Saturday, according to documents filed with the court on Wednesday. All Federal Judges in Arizona have been conflicted out because U.S. District Judge John M. Roll was one of the six Victims of the shooting. "Based upon the circumstances occurring on January 8, 2011 in Tucson and the initiation of proceedings in conjunc...

Liberals Seek Ban on Metaphors in Wake of Arizona Shooting
After the monstrous shooting in Arizona last week, surely we can all agree that we've got to pass Obama's agenda immediately and stop using metaphors. At least I think that's what the Mainstream Media are trying to tell me. Liberals instantly leapt on the sickening massacre at a Tucson political event over the weekend to accuse tea partiers, Sarah Palin and all Conservatives who talk out loud of being complicit in Murder by inspiring the shooter, Jared Loughner. You must login to comment. The Fo...

California federal judge appointed in Arizona shooting case
A Federal Judge from California has been appointed to preside over upcoming hearings in the case of Jared Lee Loughner, the accused gunman in Saturday's Killing Spree in Tucson, Arizona. Judge Larry Burns is a 2003 Bush Appointee serving in the U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego. The next federal hearing in the case is scheduled for January 24 in Phoenix. All federal judges in Arizona have recused themselves from hearing the case after Judge John Roll, the chief federa...

House pays emotional tribute to Arizona victims
WASHINGTON (AP) — Grief-stricken members of Congress paid tribute Wednesday to the Victims of the Tucson shooting rampage amid consultations with security advisers on how they can protect themselves and their aides against such savage attacks. Still deeply shaken from Saturday's violence half a continent away, House Speaker John A. Boehner fought tears as he spoke of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' battle to recover from a gunshot wound to the head. "Our hearts are broken, but our spirit is not,"...

Obama Arizona Speech: President To Be Nation's Consoler At Memorial Service
TUCSON, Ariz. — TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – President Barack Obama flew to Arizona Wednesday and headed straight to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' bedside to pay his respects to the wounded lawmaker as he sought to unify a mourning nation. Obama and his wife, Michelle, were visiting privately at University Medical Center with Giffords and other Victims of the weekend shootings that killed six people and wounded 13. He was then meeting with family members of those killed before speaking at a nig...

Obama arrives in Tucson for memorial
US President Barack Obama arrived here Wednesday to address a poignant memorial service for six people killed in a shooting tragedy, which left a lawmaker fighting for her life in Hospital. His party, including First Lady Michelle Obama and Democratic and Republican congressmen, was met at the airport by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. Obama was to lead Americans in mourning after Saturday's Assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords that has unleashed a debate about the violent r...

Arizona shooting suspect Jared Loughner: 5 of his strange ideas
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A U.S. marshal's first impressions of prisoner Jared Loughner
Liberals and Conservatives who were hoping that Jared Loughner would speak out from captivity confirming or refuting suspicions about his motives in Saturday's massacre are going to have to wait a little longer. So far Loughner has been a man of few words, according to U.S. Marshal David Gonzales, who was interviewed by The Daily Beast. "I was with him Tuesday," Gonzales said. "He doesn't say much, he just sits in his cell with a smirk on his face, nothing else." Not a smile, just a smirk. ...

Jared Loughner Didn't Watch TV, Listen to Political Radio, Says Friend
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. A High School friend of Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner says that when the two were in touch a couple of years ago, Loughner "did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right." In a discussion apparently started by Mr Loughner last July about currencies, a common theme in his online trail, a member using the name...

What If Jared Loughner Was Muslim?
What if Jared Loughner had been a Muslim? Shamefully and sadly, the media would have covered his horrific Assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz) and slaying and maiming of innocent Arizonans in a more responsible manner. They would have called for restraint and not violated the journalistic tenet of not assuming anything, a tenet they purportedly (and often facetiously sanctimoniously) claim to hold dear. But because Loughner was not a member of one of the Mainstream Media&rs...;

Shooting suspect fell through mental health cracks
(01-12) 13:11 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- Jared Loughner had never been in major trouble with the law or overtly violent, but his behavior at his community college was so disturbing that Campus Police gave him and his parents an ultimatum: Get a Mental Health evaluation or don't come back. Loughner went away but his deteriorating mental condition didn't. Just more than three months later, he is charged in a horrific Mass Shooting that killed six people and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords clinging t...

Louie Gohmert hits the trifecta: violent rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and guns
While it would be impossible to top the self-centered offensiveness of today's Sarah Palin video -- where she used the attempted Assassination of Gabrielle Giffords to peddle her message of victimhood -- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) gave it his best shot, but could only manage a trifecta of stupidity. First, his thoughts on the public comments by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik on today's political climate: I hope the sheriff tones his Rhetoric down. Well, sure. Sheriff Dupnik needs to tone d...

Loughner Case Will Be Heard By California Judge
What is this? "All Federal Judges in Arizona have recused themselves from the case against the man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a federal judge and three other federal employees," the AP reports. In an order issued today, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver says that the impartiality of the judges could be affected by the fact that U.S. District Judge John Roll was killed when, police say, Jared Loughner went on a shooting rampage outside an Arizona Supermarket. NPR ...

Hillary: Tucson shootings "a form of extremism"
SecState Hillary Clinton, who has been traveling in the Middle East this week, has reiterated her comments that the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the deaths of six others were carried out by an "Extremist." In an interview with CNN while in Oman (full transcript available here), Clinton said that "when you cross the line from expressing opinions that are of conflicting differences in our political environment into taking action that’s violent action,...

Sheriff Releases Loughner's Arrest Records
Like this Story? Share it: Doctors at Tucson's University Medical Center are increasingly optimistic about Ariz. Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's chance of survival from a bullet wound to her brain. John Blackstone reports. With all the evidence against the suspected Tucson shooter Jared Loughner, a Guilty verdict could still prove very difficult. Jan Crawford reports on the latest details of the case. Though Jared Lee Loughner's parents were "completely surprised" by the news of the Tucson s...

Misinformed? MSNBC viewers blame political rhetoric for Tucson shooting (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller NJ Governor Chris Christie surges in statewide poll Assange claims to have dirt on NewsCorp in 'Insurance' file Misinformed? MSNBC viewers blame 'political Rhetoric' for Tucson shooting Friend: Loughner steered clear of politics, news Anti-Defamation League overall supportive, yet disappointed in Palin's use of 'blood Libel' term Despite overwhelming evidence that accused Tucson shooter Jared Loughner was not motivated by either Left Wing or Right Wing p...

If guns are protected by the Bill of Rights, surely pictures of "crosshairs" are too
Ban Ban by digby Uhm, this is dumb: Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pennsylvania, said he will introduce Legislation making it a federal crime for a person to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a Member of Congress or federal official. Brady's decision to offer the Legislation comes less than 24 hours after a gunman attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, in a shooting that claimed the lives of a Federal Judge, and a nine yea...

Westboro Baptist Church Agrees to Be Slightly Less Obnoxious
Photo: Monika Graff/Getty Images Faced with an expedited Arizona law forbidding demonstrations within 300 feet of a Funeral, and with the threat of being physically shrouded by counterprotesters wearing enormous angel wings, the monsters of the Westboro Baptist Church have decided not to picket the funeral of 9-year-old Tucson massacre Victim Christina Taylor Green. It's not because they've looked deep within their hearts and discovered the error of their ways though, since their hearts long a...

Jared Loughner's Family Issues Statement: 'We Don't Understand Why This Happened'
The family of accused gunman Jared Loughner issued a statement Tuesday, asking for Privacy and expressing condolences to those who lost loved ones in Saturday's massacre in Tucson. It's the first public comments by the family since the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords during a rampage that left six people dead and 14 injured. "This is a very difficult time for us. We ask the media to respect our privacy. There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that th...

Right now: President Obama headed to hospital where Rep Giffords is in the ICU
Here is the White House pool report (from Arizona). Note also there is the list of people who met President Obama on the tarmac in Arizona. News: We are heading to University Medical Center to see Rep Giffords, husband and several other Victims still in the Hospital . Pool will hold outside. Flotus and potus walked down steps and each spoke for a few moments with each of several greeters (names below). Flotus was first, followed by potus, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, Justice Kennedy, Nancy Pel...

In wake of shooting Gillibrand travels to Tuscon; visits injured Congresswoman
New York’s junior senator, along with President Barack Obama just arrived in Arizona to visit their long-time friend, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in Saturday’s shootings in Tuscon. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D - New York) along with the president and Congressional leaders are heading to the University of Arizona Medical Center to visit with Giffords, her husband, staff, and other Victims of last week’s massacre.  Afterwards Gillibra...