One wonders what we will learn from these senseless shootings

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 ...

Rush Limbaugh accuses Democrats of 'wishing for' Tucson shootings
Rush Limbaugh was in rare form this week , while he used his Radio Show to bash Democrats for the tragedy that happened Saturday morning in Tucson, which left 5 people dead and 14 people gravely wounded. Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot point-blank in the head by 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner, who was wrestled to the ground by several people at a public meet-and-greet in front of a Tucson Safeway. Evidently, Limbaugh feels that Democrats are glad about the horrific event, because the...

The Worst Sheriff in America
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 By Michelle Malkin There are many heroes who showed indomitable courage and grace under fire during this weekend's horrific Tucson massacre. Blowhard Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was not one of them. If the White House has any sense, President Obama will stay far away from the demagogic Dupnik and his media entourage when he visits Arizona on Wednesday to memorialize the Victims. Indeed, if the White House is truly committed to unifying the country, it wil...

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...

APNewsBreak: More warning signs on day of shooting
Source: AP By AMANDA LEE MYERS and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press – 28 mins ago TUCSON, Ariz. – Investigators revealed more disturbing details 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." And on the day of the shooting, a mumbling Jared Loughner ran into the desert near his home after his father asked him why he was removing a black bag from the trunk of ..

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 ...

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...

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...

Science Reason in action
Telic Thoughts presents an amusing chronicle of PZ Myers and his response to the Arizona shooting: Upon hearing that a democratic congresswoman had been shot, the scientist PZ Myers immediately discards science to make this rather unscientific hypothesis about a man who's name he didn't even know yet. "I'll take a wild guess here. The scumbag who committed this crime has been caught; I'll bet he'll turn out to be a Teabagger who listens to a lot of AM Talk Radio." PZ's only evidence comes in t...

The far left goes political with Arizona tragedy
Jared Loughner, the gunman charged with shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-AZ and the Murders of six people in Tucson on Saturday, wasn't new to the local authorities.  His bizarre beliefs about “conscious dreaming” and government mind control imposed through English grammar were well known as far back as 2007. In other words, before Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was known outside her own state and the Tea Party was ever organized.  Contrary to views of the Far Left persuasi...

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...

Sheriff in Giffords case lashes out about politics
(01-10) 15:25 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was thrust into the spotlight to face a nation demanding answers in the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. He didn't mince words. The rampage, he said, grew in part from extreme political Rhetoric, Bigotry and hatred, especially in his home state of Arizona. Dupnik said he was angry and heartbroken over the tragedy, and was simply speaking his mind as an American, not a Law Enforcement official. But ...

There Is No Evidence That Politics In Any Way Contributed To This Atrocity: Arizonas Biggest Newspaper Rips Leftist Political Op
Arizona Republic: On Saturday afternoon, with his friend Gabby Giffords in surgery fighting for her life, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik railed against the tense partisan politics - “the anger, the hatred, the Bigotry” - that prompted the mass Murders outside Tucson, in his view. And, jarring as such claims may be, we understood. Or tried to understand, despite the spectacle of a lawman - an official whose very job it is to dispassionately gather facts and to...

Joe Arpaio Defends Sarah Palin, Says Sheriff Dupnik Too Political (VIDEO)
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, not exactly known for his Bipartisanship, thinks that fellow Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County is getting too political in his Rhetoric in the wake of the Mass Shooting over the weekend that killed six people and gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). "Sheriffs are elected, like I am, thank God. I'm sure if he was a Police Chief he'd probably be fired tomorrow. I'm not trying to defend him, but he's the one that runs that sheriff's offi...

Police Say They Visited Tucson Suspects Home Even Before Rampage
Source: NY TIMES by Jo Becker, Kirk Johnson and Serge F. Kovaleski. TUCSON — The police were sent to the home where Jared L. Loughner lived with his family on more than one occasion before the attack here on Saturday that left a congresswoman fighting for her life and six others dead, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday. A spokesman, Jason Ogan, said the details of the calls were being reviewed by legal counsel and would be released as soon as the review was complete. He said he..

Police Visited Loughners House Before
The New York Times reports: TUCSON — The police were sent to the home where Jared L. Loughner lived with his family on more than one occasion before the attack here on Saturday that left a congresswoman fighting for her life and six others dead, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday. A spokesman, Jason Ogan, said the details of the calls were being reviewed by legal counsel and would be released as soon as the review was complete. He said he did not know what the calls were ...

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...

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...

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...

Its not about guns, and Tucson is not why hateful speech is bad
The “Second Amendment remedy” discourse of the last few years is a near-monopoly of the Far Right, “crosshairs map” and all.  And  Arizona does have extremely permissive Firearms laws, and it’s full of people who really, really, want to be able to play with guns and take them everywhere.  I would love to hang the Tucson massacre on both, the first because the hate/revolution/kill Speech is deeply execrable per se and the second because like everyone, ...

Arizona's extremism in the spotlight
In his Saturday news briefing, just hours after the shooting, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said: The anger, the hatred, the Bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous.... And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry. While a couple of Arizona Republicans, Rep. Trent Franks and Sen. Jon Kyl, took issue with Dupnik's remarks, a few Arizona Democrats have first hand knowledge to back up the Sheri...

Wheres Joe Friday When We Need Him?
The target of the most justified criticism this weekend is a tight contest between Paul Krugman and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. That said, it isn’t a difficult choice as to who most deserves the criticism. Paul Krugman once was a brilliant Economist. He’s now a political hack. In the grand scheme of things, he’s a nothing because he hasn’t contributed anything but noise to society in ages. Sheriff Dupnik, however, has a serious job, that of being a chief law enf...

6 killed in Tucson remembered at mass
TUCSON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Christina Green and those who died with her were remembered Tuesday in a memorial mass at the Tucson church where the 9-year-old had her first communion. Bishop Gerald Kicanas gave the homily at St. Odilia Roman Catholic Church, the Arizona Star reported. The service was called a Mass for the Healing of Our Community, and the church, which holds about 700, was packed -- with more people watching a TV feed in the parish hall. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, has been charged with ...

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...