Nihilism or Sarah Palin: What motivated Arizona shooting suspect? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Arizona shooting: The claim that more guns means less crime is just silly
I walked into a drugstore in Phoenix the night after the Tucson shooting and saw toy guns for sale. They were a garish red plastic, with bright orange tips, and bore the notice that it’s strictly illegal to paint the guns in any way to resemble real ones. Yet here, as Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik declared after the shooting, just about anyone can buy and carry a gun almost anywhere at any time. So why bother with toys? Sheriff Dupnik is the one politician (sheriffs are elected) who...

Arizona officials reveal disturbing details about suspect in massacre
Doctor: No change in Rep. Giffords condition Ariz. survivor: 'It was like a bad crime drama' TUCSON — Investigators revealed more disturbing details Tuesday about the events leading up to the Assassination attempt against U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, including a menacing handwritten note in the suspect's home with the words "Die, bitch." Just before Saturday's shooting, a mumbling Jared Loughner ran into the desert near his home after his father asked him why he was removing a black bag ...

Monica Yant Kinney: Arizona tragedy becomes grist for political mills
Hours after a troubled 22-year-old massacred six people and wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 13 others in a Tucson, Ariz., Parking Lot, my in box began filling up with unsolicited missives from officials and interest groups miles from the crime scene. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wanted to make sure I knew that "we have too few laws to protect our families and communities from this kind of bloodshed, and the laws we do have are riddled with too many Loopholes." Ce...

Palin finds some defenders in the mainstream media she often derides
Despite her frequent claims that the “lamestream media” hunt for “gotcha” moments at her expense, Sarah Palin has been defended by a variety of Mainstream Media figures and liberal Journalists in the wake of the Arizona shootings. Her ostensible link to the incident is a map Palin produced during the 2010 election for her “Take Back the 20” campaign. The map marked 20 vulnerable Democrats’ districts with crosshairs — one of which centered on the district of

What Did Influence Jared Loughner?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 By Terence P. Jeffrey Hardly an hour had passed after the first sketchy news broke on Saturday that there had been a horrific shooting attack in Tucson, Ariz., at a public event held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, when the liberal media began reporting the incident in a way that suggested it was somehow linked to modern American politics -- as practiced by Conservatives. At 1:53 p.m. Tucson time on Saturday, The Associated Press released a story reporting the identi...

Rush Limbaugh: Democrats Seek "to Profit Out of Murder"
Rush Limbaugh (Credit: AP) Rush Limbaugh is not exactly dialing down the Rhetoric in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson on Saturday. In his first comments on the tragedy, Limbaugh lashed out at the Democratic Party as one that "seeks to profit out of Murder," Roll Call reports, citing Limbaugh's comments as aired on a Tucson station. The Roll Call report also quotes Limbaugh saying that the political left "openly wishes for such disaster in order to prof...

NYT: Cops Previously Visited Loughner Home
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. As new details are released of Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner's alleged behavioral issues, Dean Reynolds reports on the latest Mental Health laws in Arizona. Jared Loughner, 22, is charged in the shooting that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded and killed six people in Tucson, Ariz. (CBS) In thi...

A Fool With a Badge is Still a Fool
Michael Reagan, FloydReports.com When a would-be assassin shot my Dad, President Ronald Reagan, nobody questioned the fact that the shooter was certifiably nuts. Authorities recognized that fact and put him in a mental institution as his obvious disturbed mental state demanded. Now we have another attempted killing of a public official, Arizona’s widely admired Rep. Gabby Giffords, and just about everybody recognizes the fact that the shooter, one Jared Loughner, is crazy as a loon. Moreover...

The Media Has Declared... WAR!
Newsrooms and Hospitals have one major thing in common: the "hush" is the loudest thing anyone ever hears. The "hush" is the moment when normal activity stops cold for an announcement of major events that will entirely reshape any usual activity. While both newsrooms and Hospitals stop on that kind of news -- and then, following it, race into a whirlwind of overdrive -- the similarities end there. Hospitals gird for the incoming and the flood of bad news to follow; most news...

Loughner Parents: Sorry About Those Murders (ignore that skull in the back yard??)
These parents have a LOT of explaining to do.    “Sorry” isn’t going to be enough. The family of Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner handed out a written statement to reporters standing in front of their home late Tuesday afternoon. 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 there were, so we could make you feel better. We don’t understand why this ...

Nations eyes turn to Obama as mourner in chief in Tucson
President Obama will try to make sense of the senseless on Wednesday as he travels to a memorial service for six people killed in the Assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).  Obama will speak at the University of Arizona Wednesday evening in front of a crowd expected to include Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whom Obama defeated for president in 2008.  The address could be a key moment in Obama’s presidency, as the nation stops to hear what the president has to say about a

Somber mood envelops Capitol
For as long as anyone can remember, Congress has honored, commemorated and mourned countless citizens, institutions and events, both famous and faceless, with after-hours floor speeches and voice-vote approval. But on Wednesday, the House will undertake such a ritual for one of its own under the intense spotlight of national attention — a moment that will bring lawmakers’ own mortality into sharp relief as they honor Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who is recovering ...

Arizona suspect's troubles didn't prevent him from buying gun
Tucson, Ariz. — Jared Loughner had trouble with the law, was rejected by The Army after flunking a Drug Test and was considered so mentally unstable that he was banned from his college campus, where officials considered him a threat to other Students and faculty. But the 22-year-old had no trouble buying the Glock semiautomatic pistol that authorities say he used in the Tucson rampage Saturday that left six dead and 14 injured, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In the Crosshairs
Commentary by Julie: Sharron Angle: "I feel that the Second Amendment is the right to keep and Bear Arms for our citizenry. This not for someone who's in the Military. This not for Law Enforcement. This is for us. And in fact when you read that Constitution and the Founding Fathers, they intended this to stop tyranny. This is for us when our government becomes tyrannical . . . Well it's to defend ourselves. And you know, I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the ...

FBI Launches 'Bureau Special' to Probe Shooting
Hundreds of FBI agents are working on an investigation aimed at understanding why a former community College Student, with no history of violence, went on a shooting rampage outside a Tucson, Ariz., Supermarket last weekend. The suspect, Jared Loughner, 22, allegedly killed six people, gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and injured 13 others as he opened fire during a political event at a local shopping center on Saturday morning. Inside the FBI, the investigation is known as a "Bure...

Sheriff Dupnick and the malice of the accusatory left
It is definitely tragic that a young man, born of politically connected parents, who had a history of arrests for acting out, without developing a record, showed up at a public meeting set by a recently re-elected Congresswoman and with malice in his heart started pouring bullets into those that had gathered to share thoughts about their community. What has nearly the same level of malice is the initial and continuing statements of those in our country who are politically left, liberal, progress...

Forget civility. How about more truth in politics?
In the wake of last weekend’s horrific shooting, many observers have weighed in with both trenchant and idiotic takes on what the incident means and doesn’t mean. There has been some wonderful stuff — George Will, the National Journal’s Kathy Kiely and Josh Kraushaar, to name a few — along with gigabytes of left and right Jabberwocky. But as I have reflected on the tragedy, while marveling at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ resilience, my reaction has gradually metamorphosed fro

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: What Motivated Arizona Shooting Suspect? The investigation of the inc
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: What Motivated Arizona Shooting Suspect? The investigation of the incident has clearly not finished, and new revelations are sure to come. But at this early stage, no clear links have emerged between Loughner and the current political climate. Rather, acquaintences and criminologists point to a convoluted worldview that appears largely incoherent - ranging from a fascination with dreams to an apparent penchant for nihilism. His writings merge everything from the Co...

OReillys Audaciously Hypocritical Stand On Sheriff Dupniks Politicization Of Arizona Shooting
Fox News is on a witch hunt against Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for having the gall to speak out against right-wing Rhetoric and suggest that it played a role in the Arizona shooting massacre. The righties on Fox pretend that their pique is over Dupnik’s “politicization” of the massacre. I suspect that in reality they couldn’t be happier. Pointing the finger at Dupnik allows them to avoid looking at that same right-wing Rhetoric and - as what I’m sure can b...

First Comes Fear
By ROBERT WRIGHT NYT People on the left and right have been wrestling over the legacy of Jared Loughner, arguing about whether his Shooting Spree proves that the Sarah Palins and Glenn Becks of the world are fomenting violence. But it’s not as if this is the only data point we have. Here’s another one: Six months ago, police in California pulled over a truck that turned out to contain a rifle, a Handgun, a shotgun and Body Armor. Police learned from the driver — sometime after he opened

Angle: Media 'inappropriately attributing blame' for Tucson shooting
Former Nevada Senate Candidate Sharron Angle denied her campaign Rhetoric helped motivate the Tucson gunman and accused the media of "finger-pointing towards political figures" to boost Ratings. Angle's suggestion during the midterm campaign that voters could pursue "Second Amendment remedies" to settle political differences with Congress has been widely criticized in the wake of the attack that left six people dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in critical condition. "I have consiste...

Jared Loughners parents break silence
Breaking their silence, the parents of Arizona suspect Jared Loughner said they “wish they could change the heinous events of Saturday.” Claire Martin and Masada Siegel talk to their neighbors. Plus, full coverage of the Arizona shooting. Randy and Amy Loughner have always been something of a mystery to their neighbors. Odd, reclusive, and, in Randy’s case, occasionally antagonistic, they live in a single-story, white-brick house that’s almost entirely obscured by overgr...

Loughners Father Chased Son Hours Before Tucson Shooting
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 By Amanda Lee Myers and Justin Pritchard, Associated Press This Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011 photo released by the Pima County Sheriff's Office shows shooting suspect Jared Loughner. (AP Photo/Pima County Sheriff's Dept. via The Arizona Republic) Tucson, Ariz. (AP) - Mysterious black bag in hand, Jared Loughner ran into the desert, his angry father stopping pursuit in his truck. Hours after Randy Loughner's futile confrontation with his 22-year-old son Saturd...

Bill Maher is a loon
In case you had any doubt, allow this to remove it once and for all: Anderson Cooper took a very different tack last night in trying to make sense of the Arizona shooting tragedy from the weekend. While many on Cable News were turning down the partisan Rhetoric, AC360 producers booked comedian Bill Maher, who was unafraid to compare the imagined mindset of alleged assailant Jared Loughner with Fox News host Glenn Beck, while at the same time calling for responsibility in the media. Huh? Cooper...

Arizona suspect wrote 'die bitch' on Giffords note
Jared Loughner, accused of shooting US politician Gabrielle Giffords in an attack that killed six people and wounded 14, wrote "die bitch" and "die cops" on a letter he received from the lawmaker in 2007, officials said. The note was found by FBI investigators searching the Tucson home of Loughner and his parents, Captain Chris Nanos of the Pima County Sheriff's Department said. Ms Giffords, who authorities have said was the target of the Shooting Spree in Tucson, Arizona, at the weekend remains...