Congresswoman Murdered in Tuscon

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The reports are just coming in and the information is very rough, but it looks like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was killed along with several other people at a community event of some sort.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/08/132764367 ... in-arizona

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01 ... lic-event/

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-ge ... RESSWOMAN/

Very sad, no word on a motive or anything yet.

According to Yahoo News, she is alive and in surgery.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110108/us_nm/us_usa_shooting_congresswoman

ffs what is wrong with people?

hopefully this isn't spun for political gain

Yes, she is alive but was initially reported as dead. Several people in the crowd were also shot and in critical condition. A child is dead.

I heard she is still alive and in critical condition, but a federal judge was killed.

A judge and 9 year old were killed. Griffords is out of surgery and responding to commands.

Shooter is 22 year old Tuscon resident Jared Loughner. Appears to be a very bright but mentally ill man, possibly schizophrenic. People are already trying to make him a "right" and "left" winger but it appears he was neither, just very disturbed.

I will say this--while it may turn out Loughner had no political slant on our 2D American political spectrum, the tense political climate tinged with lots of "second amendment remedies" and other talk of violence against a "tyrannical" government drummed up by people like the Tea Party and Sarah Palin (who had Griffords on her "crossfires" map until they took it down from her PAC site earlier today) is very reasonably a factor here. Time to face reality. Words and attitudes have consequences. You elude endlessly about violence, someone will take that to mean violence is appropriate.

the jostling to label the shooter has already begun. I checked out his youtube channel, the guy seems pretty weird if not crazy to say the least. Anti-government but talks about mind-control, "conscious dreaming", wanting to create a new language, the end of BCE, sleepwalking, it doesn't make any sense. Someone that knew him from high school on twitter says he was pretty left wing when she knew him but became reclusive and obsessed with 2012 prophecies the last few years.

What do you mean by the "end of BCE"? Before Common Era is the only thing I can think of.

This is a terrible tragedy.
I worry about the backlash against those with mental disabilties that is coming.

This is going be like the Cho shootings at VA tech from a few years back.

It was rather disingenuous of Rep. Gifford's election opponent, Jesse Kelly, to say that he "didn't see any connection" between his fundraisers, in which he invited people to help him unseat Gifford by firing a fully-automatic M-16 rifle, and this wackjob attempting to kill Gifford (and a number of other people, including a federal judge whose ruling apparently annoyed him) by firing a semi-automatic handgun...

OTOH, it's pretty clear that Loughner was/is just plain deranged, apparently believing he could control others' minds, and being certain that his redesigned US currency would somehow solve all the world's problems. I join the chorus of voices pointing out that the man isn't "right-wing" or "left-wing" - in fact, he seems to be devoid of wings completely.