Arizona Rep. Giffords shot, several wounded
POSTED BY: TheHappyTrader
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 24, 2024 14:52
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By TERRY TANG and AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Terry Tang And Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press – 20 mins ago
0 TUCSON, Ariz. – Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head Saturday, an aide was killed, and an unknown number of others were wounded when an assailant opened fire outside a grocery store as the Democratic lawmaker met with constituents, officials said.
C.J. Karamargin, a spokesman for Giffords, said the congresswoman was in surgery as of 1 p.m. local time and that an unspecified number of Giffords staff members were injured in the shooting. Karamargin said he had no other information on the conditions of the injured or on the circumstances of the shooting.
Congressional officials said an aide to the Democrat was killed, and unknown number of others were injured, including staffers to the lawmaker.
President Barack Obama called the shooting "an unspeakable tragedy" and that such "a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society.
U.S. Capitol police say the shooter is in custody as one official said he carried out the attack with an automatic weapon. The officials who described the events did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not permitted to comment publicly.
"I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff," newly elected House Speaker John Boehner said. "An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families. This is a sad day for our country."
Click image to see scenes from the Arizona shooting
AP Photo/Arizona Daily Star, Dean Knuth
Three hours after the shooting, the L-shaped shopping center in Tucson was blocked off by police and had fire trucks and other vehicles in its parking lot that blocked the view of the store's front door. No shell casing could be seen from the area 500 yards from the store where reporters and photographers were kept.
Giffords, 40, was re-elected to her third term last November. She was a member of the Arizona House and Senate before coming to Washington.
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Giffords tweeted shortly before the shooting, saying: "My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later."
Giffords is married to astronaut Mark E. Kelly, who has piloted space shuttles Endeavour and Discovery. The two met in China in 2003 while they were serving on a committee there, and were married in January 2007.
Giffords was first elected to Congress amid a wave of Democratic victories in the 2006 election, and she won a narrow victory against a tea party favorite in the 2010 election.
She has been mentioned as a possible Democratic nominee in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Jon Kyl, who has not said whether he'll run again, or for the governor's office in 2014.
The shooting comes amid a highly charged political environment that has seen several dangerous threats against lawmakers but nothing that reached the point of actual violence.
A San Francisco man upset with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's support of health care reform pleaded guilty to threatening the Democratic congresswoman and her family, calling her directly on March 25 and threatening to destroy her Northern California home if she voted for health care reform.
In July, a California man known for his anger over left-leaning politics engaged in a shootout with highway patrol officers after planning an attack on the ACLU and another nonprofit group. The man said he wanted to "start a revolution" by killing people at the ACLU and the Tides Foundation.
Giffords herself has drawn the ireNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Giffords is on Sarah Palin's target list.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/08/sarah-palin-statement-shootin
g_n_806224.html?fbwall
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler
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Hello,
This is a tragedy, and I expect it to have far-reaching impact.
I also hope those responsible are all brought to justice.
--Anthony
Assured by friends that the signal-to-noise ratio has improved on this forum, I have disabled web filtering.
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Ditto Anthony and Happy. It's awful, and to me at least, all the violence mentioned is an illustration of how the awful, divisive rhetoric, can escalate to actual violence. My own fear is that this may be the first (with the new situation), but not the last. I'm also not surprised it first happened in Arizona...
I hope she pulls through INTACT, not just that she pulls through, and my heart goes out to the families of those killed and injured.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off 
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"I'm also not surprised it first happened in Arizona..."
Hello,
This sentiment will be widespread, and will reverse many of the freedoms we have only recently come to enjoy here.
Every time some idiot with a gun decides to do something stupid, the whole population pays for it.
--Anthony
Assured by friends that the signal-to-noise ratio has improved on this forum, I have disabled web filtering.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
Ditto Anthony and Happy. It's awful, and to me at least, all the violence mentioned is an illustration of how the awful, divisive rhetoric, can escalate to actual violence. My own fear is that this may be the first (with the new situation), but not the last. I'm also not surprised it first happened in Arizona...
I hope she pulls through INTACT, not just that she pulls through, and my heart goes out to the families of those killed and injured.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
Agreed. This isn't democracy. I'm also not ready to blame Sarah Palin as half of facebook seems to have already... and I don't think this was a tea party conspiracy. I'd prefer to wait for more information and evidence before jumping too conclusions.
Things like this make me wonder what's happening to America, or if it's always been this way and I'm just growing up and realizing it.
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I don't think it was ANY kind of conspiracy, I just think when you inflame the masses, some will end up with "mob mentality" and act on what they've been encouraged to think. Palin's only one tiny part of it...actually, each person who's encouraged the "threat"...be it to our way of life, Obama's birth/religion, 2nd amendment rights, secession, rebellion...all those add to the higher numerical possibility some idiot will act violently.
Personally, I don't think it's always been this way. I think it's gotten increasingly this way for some time, and escalated enormously where politics is considered in recent times.
And yes, Anthony, it's a generalization and I shouldn't make it, but Arizona has become a hotbed of angry rhetoric, almost exclusively against the left, so that's what occurred to me.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
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This is apparently the alleged shooter's YouTube channel:
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This Space For Rent!
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Originally posted by TheHappyTrader:
I don't really know what to say right now, I really didn't expect something like this to happen (successfully, or perhaps almost successfully) in the United States.
I did, and warned repeatedly of the ever growing potential for it, and against stoking the fires that would eventually spark it...
Woulda rather been wrong, but I don't see conspiracy so much as an ever more desperate and mentally unbalanced populace becoming a danger to those they feel (rightly or wrongly) have done them ill - and under those circumstances, people do some pretty damn crazy and/or horrible things.
This does not absolve em of responsibility whatever, when one pulls a trigger they naturally assume responsibility for every bullet, and should be held accountable, no matter who they are.
Them that encouraged em to do so are a different problem, for without the circumstances for such incitements to gain traction they are irrelevant.
And I too am concerned about those who would use such an incident as a power grab or excuse to further infringe civil rights, especially as by design or ignorance that will simply accelerate the cycle of violence.
Hell, one COULD make the point here that discrete, affordable mental health care is conceivably a civil defense measure, could they not ?
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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The news from Arizona saddens me, but, frighteningly does not shock. The dangerous hyperbole of the far right, the calls to violence by those hand-fed hatred and conspiracy paranoia by Fox and Beck and Limbaugh. . . It was only a matter of time before the message reached the right kind of weak mind at the right moment. If we do not soon find some way of returning rationality to public discourse, then I weep for the republic
"She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true." -- Zoë Washburn
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