i feel for those who know....

[bubinga5]

Im so so sorry for Gabby Gifford... i just watched it on news 24..my heart goes out to you guys who care.. xxxxx

[MIJ-VI]

Cops hunt 2nd suspect in deadly Ariz. rampage

The Pima County Sheriff's office listed the dead as:

* John M. Roll, 63, a federal district court judge.
* Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, Giffords' director of community outreach.
* Dorwin Stoddard, 76, a pastor at Mountain Ave. Church of Christ.
* Christina-Taylor Green, 9, a student at Mesa Verde Elementary.
* Dorthy Morris, 76.
* Phyllis Schneck, 79.

[champbassist]

In before the political discussions (that got the last thread on this topic closed)

[Stingray89]

It's a shame what happened. The actions some people do in this world I will never understand.

[jp58]

Such a shame. There is no way a disagreement over politics should be the reason all those people (many of which's main job is helping others) and a child should have died.

[SoonerMatt]

Originally Posted by jp58

Such a shame. There is no way a disagreement over politics should be the reason all those people (many of which's main job is helping others) and a child should have died.

Loughner (the shooter) was an extremely unstable kid who had a drug problem, was an anarchist and very paranoid of the government and media. It didn't matter what side of the aisle Rep. Giffords was on, she was a politician and therefor part of his problem. This wasn't a political problem in that "she's a democrat - she has to go," it's a personal problem confined to one troubled kid. I'm grateful he couldn't reload in time and was unable to end more lives.

Also, Rep. Giffords is able to react and communicate with the doctors, so they're "cautiously optimistic." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12147588

[drteeth]

I hope that this thread does not go political. One question: how was the gunman stopped?

This is a tragic event and my thoughts go out to all victims of the shooting. A dark day.

[GregC]

Originally Posted by drteeth

I hope that this thread does not go political. One question: how was the gunman stopped?

This is a tragic event and my thoughts go out to all victims of the shooting. A dark day.

There were some really brave people on the scene who kept this from being even worse. One woman who had already been shot (!) tore a second magazine away from the shooter before he could reload. As he tried to load another and the spring failed, two men wrestled the gun away from him.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12144405

[drteeth]

Originally Posted by GregC

There were some really brave people on the scene who kept this from being even worse. One woman who had already been shot (!) tore a second magazine away from the shooter before he could reload. As he tried to load another and the spring failed, two men wrestled the gun away from him.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12144405

Those people are heroes.

[MIJ-VI]

From the link in SoonerMatt's post:

...The attacker then fired some 20 shots indiscriminately before being overpowered by members of the crowd as he attempted to reload what one witness described as a semi-automatic Glock pistol...

Thank goodness he didn't have more firepower at the ready.

[jp58]

Originally Posted by SoonerMatt

Loughner (the shooter) was an extremely unstable kid who had a drug problem, was an anarchist and very paranoid of the government and media. It didn't matter what side of the aisle Rep. Giffords was on, she was a politician and therefor part of his problem. This wasn't a political problem in that "she's a democrat - she has to go," it's a personal problem confined to one troubled kid. I'm grateful he couldn't reload in time and was unable to end more lives.

Also, Rep. Giffords is able to react and communicate with the doctors, so they're "cautiously optimistic." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12147588

I never tried to turn this int red vs. blue. You did that.

Anarchism is a political viewpoint, and from what has been described, all who were there were shot at indiscriminately because they belonged to a political system the gunman didn't believe in.

And you are very right. Thank goodness he was brought down before he could reload and do more damage.

[SoonerMatt]

Originally Posted by jp58

I never tried to turn this int red vs. blue. You did that.

Wasn't directed at you, it was meant to be a general statement with the hope of preventing what happened in the last thread from happening in this one.

[bassrique]

The shooters motivation may stem from the resentment of a perceived "dis" at a town hall type of meeting a few years ago. The shooter fancies himself a philosopher, so he asked Ms. Giffords how she knows words mean anything. IIRC, she replied something in Spanish and quickly moved on [I'll bet there laughter in the crowd]. Later, the shooter commented to a friend that he thought this was a public slight. This was before he wrote that assassination note in 2007, of which the full text has not been released.

The death of the 9 year-old and the story of the man that jumped in front of his wife to take a bullet really touched me.

[electracoyote]

Yeah, before this one gets closed, I want to say, when someone attacks our public servants, they attack all of us, I don't care what your party affiliation, political, or personal beliefs may be.

[hbarcat]

It's looking more like the shooter has some serious mental issues and isn't perceiving reality in the normal way.

This story is a hot topic on quite a lot of other forums and it's pretty sick that it's almost universally turning into a political opportunity to try to paint the shooter's actions as a product of hate mongering from a particular ideology - take your pick from among several.

I hope that doesn't happen here. This is a tragic incident but at this point in time it appears to have been motivated by mental illness.

[bassrique]

I hope the shooter gets sent to a penitentiary where child-killers get special attention from the inmates.

[MIJ-VI]

Originally Posted by hbarcat

It's looking more like the shooter has some serious mental issues and isn't perceiving reality in the normal way.

This story is a hot topic on quite a lot of other forums and it's pretty sick that it's almost universally turning into a political opportunity to try to paint the shooter's actions as a product of hate mongering from a particular ideology - take your pick from among several.

I hope that doesn't happen here. This is a tragic incident but at this point in time it appears to have been motivated by mental illness.

Yup. I'm seeing that too. This widespread, extreme, selfish, and opportunistic polarization of so many people's take on what is responsible for the murder of a nine year old child and a number of adults is deeply disturbing to me.

Such firmly entrenched, diametrically opposed, and blinkered attitudes are reminiscent of those to be found in the Middle East, the Balkans, and during the 1860's, the United States.

I'd have thought that this event would cause most folks to recoil in HORROR from the intolerant and even internecine mindset being fomented by ratings-generating, multimillionaire agitators of all stripes.

I'm glad I stopped watching TV nearly three years ago. I don't want a daily dose of for-profit bile in my life.

[Skitch it!]

Originally Posted by hbarcat

It's looking more like the shooter has some serious mental issues and isn't perceiving reality in the normal way.

+1 This, ticking timebomb. I wonder if he has a medically recognized history of mental illness on record, and did he manage to buy that gun legally?

[bassrique]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/...ior-recor.html

Posted at 4:03 PM ET, 01/ 9/2011
Jared Loughner's behavior recorded by college classmate in e-mails
By David A. Fahrenthold

In early June, Lynda Sorenson, 52, had gone back to community college in Tucson in hopes of getting back on the job market. One of her classes was a basic algebra class--and one of her classmates was Jared Loughner, now identified by authorities as the man who killed six people and critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in a shooting rampage Saturday. Sorenson's e-mails to friends from last summer, provided to the Washington Post, reveal her growing alarm at Loughner's strange and disruptive
behavior in class.


From June 1, the first day of class:
"One day down and nineteen to go. We do have one student in the class who was disruptive today, I'm not certain yet if he was on drugs (as one person surmised) or disturbed. He scares me a bit. The teacher tried to throw him out and he refused to go, so I talked to the teacher afterward. Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon."

From June 10:
"As for me, Thursday means the end to week two of algebra class. It seems to be going by quickly, but then I do have three weeks to go so we'll see how I feel by then. Class isn't dull as we have a seriously disturbed student in the class, and they are trying to figure out how to get rid of him before he does something bad, but on the other hand, until he does something bad, you can't do anything about him. Needless to say, I sit by
the door."

From June 14:
"We have a mentally unstable person in the class that scares the living crap out of me. He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon. Everyone interviewed would say, Yeah, he was in my math class and he was really weird. I sit by the door with my purse handy. If you see it on the news one night, know that I got out fast..."

The class's instructor, Ben McGahee, said in an interview Sunday that Loughner had been removed from class in its third or fourth week, because of repeated disruptions.

[Skitch it!]

The class's instructor, Ben McGahee, said in an interview Sunday that Loughner had been removed from class in its third or fourth week, because of repeated disruptions.

Removed from class, I think it's obvious enough that he should have been removed from society and put under physiological evaluation