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Lock and Load and Lost in Tucson Today: What's the Matter with My Arizona?
TUCSON, Arizona--I was 8-years-old in Tucson when I first had a firearm pressed into my hands at a summer camp, and I locked and loaded and fired.
I thought about that strange first gun experience when I heard the initial confusing news reports of the shooting of US Rep. Gabby Giffords and 17 other Arizonans at a Safeway supermarket on the northwest side of town I have frequented often. I immediately headed for the university hospital.
On the drive over, I was reminded by a Tucson friend that it has been less than a year since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer made her state one of three in the nation to allow citizens to possess concealed weapons without a permit for those over the age of 21.
The alleged Tucson shooter is 22. According to the New York Times, "a witness to the shootings and a former emergency room doctor who now works at a hospice. 'I think it was a semiautomatic, and he must have got off 20 rounds.'"
A nine-year-old bystander has been listed among six confirmed dead; 12 others, including the beloved Rep. Giffords, are in critical condition.
One of the dead is federal Judge John Roll, who had received death threats over an immigrant rights case.
I don't believe this tragedy should be reduced to a debate over the disturbed shooter's motives.
But how on earth can we even have a discussion on decent gun control laws when guns and the gun lobby are woven into the fabric of life for those of us who grew up in Arizona?
I cut my political teeth as a 17-year-old intern with legendary Arizona US Rep. Mo Udall, who defied liberal Democrats with his opposition to gun control. Udall told a Harvard crowd during his presidential campaign 1976: "I don't claim total courage; I don't claim total wisdom."
In my 40-year relationship with this state, I have never witnessed such overt hatred on the level that has been spewed by politicians and talking heads over the past year or so. Earlier this spring, many of us warned of a tipping point of violence in Arizona--and around the nation.
When I first opened the New York Times this morning, I read about Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's obsessive and near witch-hunt of the Tucson Unified School District's Ethnic Studies Program.
What's the matter with my Arizona, where I grew up as a redneck transplant from the southern Illinois in 1970s, and have continued to visit my family?
"As I write," says long-time author and social critic Gregory McNamee in Tucson, "it is not clear whether Representative Gabrielle Giffords has been killed or has survived being shot, along with at least a dozen and perhaps as many as twenty other victims." McNamee adds:
"What is clear to me, at this chaotic moment, is that no one should be surprised by this turn of events. The bullets that were fired in Tucson this morning are the logical extension of every bit of partisan hatred that came spewing out during the last election, in which Gabrielle Giffords---a centrist, representing well and faithfully a centrist district---was vilified and demonized as a socialist, a communist, a fascist, a job-killer, a traitor, and more.Anyone who uttered such words or paid for them to be uttered has his or her name etched on those bullets.
With what we have seen today, the rest of us must declare that we will tolerate no more lies, no more hatred, no more violence---and that never again will we spend a single dollar on the wares sold by those who perpetrate them.
If not now, when?"
Now in Arizona--and the nation--do we have the courage and wisdom to deal with our gun laws? To stop the hatred from finding its all-too-easy expression through the barrel of the gun?
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90 Comments so far
Show AllEvery motel lobby with Fox News in its breakfast room; every doctor's waiting room with Fox News airing; every fast food and chain family restaurant showing Fox News; all those corporate sponsored polluters of our civic life need to be told to turn those TVs OFF or to any other channel. And may we never hear from Sarah Palin again. God willing.
Unless Attorney General Holder arrests Palin and other FOX personalities (who rake in tens of millions of dollars inciting the behavior witnessed in Tucson) they will be further empowered and financially enriched by their base and they will spread their evil influence ever further.
Until that day, when FOX nooze finally is turned off for the last time, I have my own solution to silence the talking heads spewing their hatred.
I carry one of these on my keychain. If I walk into a bar, restaurant or other venue where this aural pollution is invading the space, I immediately turn it off. It works wonders.
http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php
None of the news reports even hint that current gun laws are remotely responsible. Thanks for bringing Arizona's insane gun laws into the discussion.
And with what tools do "Sick people, hatred, and demented minds" carry out their "responsibility?" An agent requires an agency.
The only value an assault weapon has is to kill more people faster as we have once again witnessed in Tucson. As long as legal assault weapons can be purchased at less cost than a bicycle we will see more of this action.
The local newspaper had a pulse poll this morning and the predictable result is 27% want to reopen the gun control discussion, 70% don't. Its obvious that a significant majority of Americans are happy to see nine year old girls gunned down.
I'm with raydelcamino and find your 9/11 example silly.
Look at the result of 9/11, you can't carry a nail-clipper on any airline in America. But, thanks to lax gun laws, Americans are capable of buying as many machine guns as they want, and as many rounds of ammunition (and we all know how easy it is to turn a semi-auto assault gun into a fully-auto machine gun).
The gun owners need to wake up and recognize their abetting of this situation. Pick a path: if gun ownership is just about home defense, what's with the expanded clips and assault weapons? if gun ownership is about a well-regulated militia, then display the order and responsibility that attends such an organization. But you guys want it both ways, and you're killing innocent Americans because of it. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Interestingly in countries with tougher gun controls we see much less gun related violence. But I guess this is just a coincidence and has nothing to do with restricted access to fire arms...
I am effing tired of gun apologists making excuses for lax gun laws in states like AZ. An unstable demented jacka$$ can legally buy a semi-automatic glock with extra clips and that's OK? Jaysus, when do we get a brain in this gun saturated gun crazy gun-worshipping society. We love our guns, rah, rah USA, USA more guns please.
The gun nuts are forever saying that more guns in more hands makes for a safer environment. The gun nuts NRA types are forever telling us after the latest mass slaughter that if only other people in the crowd could have had guns then the shooter could have been stopped. Well, Arizona is a gun crazy state, awash in guns, where it's a lot easier to buy and own guns and carry them around and it was of no help. All Baloney. Two brave souls tackled the shooter to the ground and stopped him without guns which gives the lie to the NRA argument that we need more guns and that almost everyone should be armed. GARBAGE. This country is awash with guns and too many of those guns are capable of spraying out bullets in a short span. Too many unstable jerks with no criminal records can legally purchase guns as was the case with the latest shooter, Loughner. Wasn't it Sharron Angle who called for a 2nd amendment solution. After the Virginia Tech slaughter the gun nuts were screaming that if only all the students and faculty were carrying guns then they could have stopped that crazy shooter who legally bought a gun, too. Remember?
A friend of Cheney will always be given a gun.
Shucks you can spell oil G-U-N
orly? How easy is it to slaughter groups of people if you have to use a knife, or a sword?
And which sick people are you talking about? The nuts with guns, or the other nuts with guns who encourage the demented to go out and do 'battle' with the liberal enemies who want to take your guns away.
Sorry to disillusion you, but your gun laws are indeed partly - not totally, but partly - responsible for this massacre.
Bombs, Fertilizer/Deisel, Hydrogenperoxide etc., gas,gasoline, Trucks, Airoplanes,
where there is a will there is a way.
The will is the most pernacious(sp.?).
All of your examples do take effort, and a bit of skill. Even then they're not usually that effective when used by ordinary civilians who've not had any specific training. I couldn't mix up a fertilizer bomb, and don't want to learn how either...
At close range, a semiauto handgun is not the hardest weapon to use. Even for someone who wasn't trained for it.
A little more elaboration is required. Your short blurb is not enough for me to know what point you're trying to make.
Are you agreeing with me, or not? I think you're disagreeing, but you might want to say why you disagree.
"orly? How easy is it to slaughter groups of people if you have to use a knife, or a sword?
And which sick people are you talking about? The nuts with guns, or the other nuts with guns who encourage the demented to go out and do 'battle' with the liberal enemies who want to take your guns away.
Sorry to disillusion you, but your gun laws are indeed partly - not totally, but partly - responsible for this massacre."
machettes were the weapons used in the Rwanda genocide
machettes and radios
Seriously, this is a mental health issue.
The killer seems to have been suffering some kind of paranoia and teh themes paranoia are typically the 'stories' that are current in the media.
Why didn't this man have help? Why did people ignore the red flags?
Congrats to both of you for missing my point.
One person with a machete is not going to be able to slaughter a large number of people. More than five will certainly be able to slaughter lots.
As someone who has owned guns in the past, I don't now because I live in a city, I do not seek to 'take away your guns'. I don't really care if sane people own guns, or people who are not going to use them to carry out crimes.
I would urge you to rethink the idea that those hunting rifles are going to be able to 'stop tyranny'. That is a pernicious myth. If you take up arms against your government, no matter which government that is, you are going to die. If not by the guns of the police, than the army will gun you down with no remorse whatsoever. You'll be labeled as 'terrorists', no matter how 'noble' your 'cause', and they'll use any weapon they think necessary to obliterate you. Your popguns aren't going to do much against them.
Did your guns stop the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan? Or Vietnam?
Did they prevent Bush the Lesser from using your constitution as toilet paper?
No. No they did not.
You don't have freedom because of guns. You have freedom because of laws. If the laws are not respected, you are not free.
The mentally ill are housed in prisons now much to the delight of the PIC, Prison Industrial Complex, and the politicians whom reap from the corruption of the PIC, through "campaign",legalized bribery,contributions.We can thank Reagan for throwing the mentally ill onto the streets and the only saving grace is that with his Alzheimer's the only difference between him and the mentally ill is that Reagan would have someone change his diaper.
[Tell your anti gun rhetoric to the Zapitistas.]
you are quite some fool aren't you? I'm ex military, I've owned guns, I've always been in favour of good gun control (not just being able to hit the fucking target), and you think I'm anti gun?
Put down the bong, dude.
BTW, the mentally ill are not always willing to accept treatment. Some of them think they're fine, it's us with the problem. A great example of those who think others have the problems are those who argue that without laws we'd be free. Yes, I am calling you nuts.
[Did your guns stop the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan? Or Vietnam?
Did they prevent Bush the Lesser from using your constitution as toilet paper?]
I'll ask those questions again, as you seem to have missed them.
Oh, I'll add one more. Did the guns held and used by David Koresh defeat the government forces arrayed against him and his cult?
The guns that the Vietnamese had sure helped them defeat the US. The guns that Castro had sure helped defeat Batista. The guns that the FMLN had protected their communities against US sponsored and trained death squads. The guns that the Sandinistas had helped them defeat Somoza.
Just because your ex-military doesn't really mean that much to me. No one here is arguing against common sense gun control, but to suggest it would prevent a psychopath from getting guns on the black market is absurd.
[Did your guns stop the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan? Or Vietnam? ]
"The guns that the Vietnamese had sure helped them defeat the US."
The US actually defeated the Vietnamese forces in every engagement; not that it mattered as victory in that war was not something that was critical for the USA. Note; your nation still exists after they were defeated by the Vietnamese.
[Did they prevent Bush the Lesser from using your constitution as toilet paper?]
So the answer is no. They didn't help you keep any liberties at all. You are still spied upon, searched unreasonably, detained for years without trials... and now your president claims the right to execute you after you've been declared a 'terrorist'.
"No one here is arguing against common sense gun control"
You may not be, but the people in the NRA certainly are. You can be sure that the republicans will continue to argue against 'common sense gun control' too.
10 thousand yanks a year dying from gun violence isn't enough for you?
kk
Thanks for playing.
bye bye
Karl Dubhe
Bravo! Your comments were intelligently and persuasively well stated.
The guns follow. In civilised countries people rarely behave like this, but USans find it common. If it is easy to buy and carry guns, and nobody tries to compromise or help anyone else, any argumant or disagreement can lead to lethal violence. When any dissent is "terrorism", any Muslim or Latino or black person is presumed dangerous, how can harmony be established?
"Now in Arizona--and the nation--do we have the courage and wisdom to deal with our gun laws? To stop the hatred from finding its all-too-easy expression through the barrel of the gun?"
Dream on. This is America. The gullible populace will NEVER vote for gun controls because the Right has drummed it into their soft little brains, over and over and over, that they have a RIGHT to own as many guns, tanks, howitzers, assault weapons, IEDs, etc. as they want. Anybody can get a semi-automatic weapon on any street corner these days. America has been solving its problems and serving up Democracy with the barrel of a gun for over 200 years....and you can't expect them to stop now.
Yeah, guns aren't responsible......how many people do you think that lunatic could have taken out with a knife?
Guns don't kill people. Bullets kill people. (/sarcasm)
Article: "Jan Brewer made her state one of three.. to allow citizens to possess concealed weapons without a permit for those over the age of 21. The.. shooter is 22." The author should also have noted that the shooter used an expanded magazine, capable of holding 30+ bullets (3 times more than normal). These magazines were illegal under the Assault Weapons ban which Bush overturned. I think its safe to say 2/3rds of the people who were shot wouldn't have been shot under the assault weapons ban.
Its one thing to need a gun for home defense. Assault weapons and expanded magazines are about killing people efficiently, which is something different.
"An "assault weapon" ban would *not* apply to a 9 mm pistol under the legal definition of "assault weapon." The expanded clip is more controversial but that's a separate issue."
Let me say this more forcefully: the expanded clip this guy used was BANNED under the Assault weapon's ban in place before Bush killed it. As with assault weapons in general, expanded clips have no place under the rubric of 'home defense'. They are just a more efficient way of killing people, NOT defending one's home.
So, its not a separate issue. It's the same issue. As you well know.
I agree, except for one thing-I want to hear from Sarah, et al, as they arrive, heads hung in shame and demoralized, at the place of this shooting. Then she should be forced to her knees and then should beg God for forgiveness for inciting this action with her ignorant, stupid mindless drivel and her encouraging of this behavior. She is a pariah to this country and an insult to real intelligent, adult discourse. After she does that, she should be sent not to "Sarah Palins Alaska", but to Russia/Siberia, which she knows well since she can see it from her front porch.
This event will energize Palin's base and further accelerate her already rapidly accelerating career. Palin is laughing all the way to the bank.
"But how on earth can we even have a discussion on decent gun control laws when guns and the gun lobby are woven into the fabric of life for those of us who grew up in Arizona?"
Ok, lets debate. But, lets start with the big gun control issue-USA government.
It has the biggest, most expensive military in the world; it is garrisoned in almost every country; it murders millions without punishment. Should I go on?
The weak, supplicants immediately want to disarm themselves and remain prostrate before the biggest criminal machine-the US Government.
This is all I need to know.
You're right, the USG/MIC, Mafia Industrial Complex,creates a climate of hate and forces contributions, withholding taxes, to pay for the Pentagon's protection racket based on the Mafia scheme of, 'pay US protection[funded by the national debt]to protect from threats to national security, whether real, imagined and or created by the USG/MIC or you, your family will be killed and your property destroyed', classic Mafia and Al Capone is smiling in syphilis hell as the USG/MIC has adopted the same criminal behavior that he, Capone, used.The USG/MIC has created a climate of hate to KEEP FEAR ALIVE. As for gun control just as in Florida guns should be allowed for the general public when visiting its respective legislature, local and Federal.
I do not know if it is McNamee or Biggers who is missing the Bigger picture but this shooting is but a flash in the pan of the larger picture of relentless wars where 1 million deaths are of little note or concern and over 30,000 deaths in Mexico mostly with illegal USA arms.
As one poster says Vermont has one of the highest gun ownership and lowest homicide.
It is the prevailing callous,cavalier, even praiseworthy attitude towards institutional Murder, a beloved President who claims the right to Murder anyone anytime anywhere;
This heinous attitude does in fact trickle down.
If murder is acceptable then something as simple as fertilizer and diesel will be used even if every gun has been melted down.
To deprive law abiding citizens of guns when the nation is in a collapse engineered by fascists is the height of folly.
Even though I myself am a militant Pacifist.
The Dalai Lama has said if a crazed gunman came into a room shooting his Holiness himself " would shoot him in the leg"
Bad mouthing Arizona is a distraction from the main problem in Washington and Corporate Boardrooms that control Washington.
Where is "John Ellis"?
God forbid gun possession be outlawed in this country. Imagine the searches; imagine the retaliations; imagine the bloodshed. And imagine the slide into a more powerful police state than we have now.
Nobody is advocating outlawing possession of guns and the Vermont statistic is misleading. In a homogenous rural state overrun with deer, with no cities of any size, you expect Vermont to have many traditional hunting rifles per capita.
There is a big difference between the assault weapons that are used in these mass killings and hunting rifles.
It was a glock hand gun as carried by most police and security personel.
It had an extra large clip of thirty rounds.
But incremental gun laws are irrelevant to the overall Culture of Violence.
Trickle Down Violence
In the USA Death is Sex
Corporate promoting of Hyper-death joy stick video games can not be divorced from Hyber-death joy stick (How Freudian) video reality drone mass murder.
It's working out just fine in NJ. Not for the gun lovers who want conceal & carry laws for NJ. How are the lax gun laws working out in AZ? A freaking mentally unstable crackpot can legally buy a semi-automatic glock with extra magazines or clips and that's OK? Oh wait, it's the price we pay for that effing precious 2nd amendment which was really about a well regulated militia until the supreme court decided otherwise.
It never, ever fails. After every horrific gun slaughter, the gun apologists come out of the woodwork to extol their love of guns and to nit pick on terms and semantics rather than address the issue of a gun flooded society and the availability of guns legally to a horde of crazy people who have no criminal backgrounds.
Your missing the point. Even if guns were *banned* in Arizona, someone like this kid could have easily found one on the black market.
Just think about it for a second. Has any drug law actually worked? The more profitable they are, the more they proliferate. The same thing would happen with guns.
This issue is NOT about guns. This issue is about a diseased and sick culture that perpetuates, glorifies and sells sado-masochistic violence in almost every form.
Do you remember Moore's movie? Gun ownership in Canada is almost as high or higher per capita than in the U.S., yet we kill more people here with guns by thousands to one.
That is a good question.
I suspect a lot of good people are disgusted by this sick culture, it's obsession with violent and vengeful fantasies about retribution, that they focus on what appears to be the issue: gun availability.
But of course that is not the issue. The core of this problem is a psychology of fear that is peddled by Hollywood and politicians for profit from the day we were born.
This is a 'blame the victim' society now, that has lost its radical and revolutionary heroes that correctly placed the blame on a ruling class that has now decimated any ability for us to affect change through their system (not that there was that much opportunity).
Political assassinations certainly have their place in history (Hitler, Mussolini, etc), but what we have clearly lost is a class conscious mass movement that works together to challenge those in power.
(And to be clear to others, I am not advocating political assassination at all, as it is a non-systemic method that will change nothing. we need a mass movement)
Gun laws are meaningless because violent people with half a brain will always come up with a gun in a nation that produces more armanents then any other nation.
Especially well connected assassins.
Just Christmas some kid near here relieved the sheriff of his assualt rifle.
And the 30,000 dead Mexicans were killed mostly with illegal USA guns.
And I believe fertilizer/diesel and hydrogen peroxide etc. bombs are quite simple.
Likewise gun ownership is legal in Canada, France, and Germany. But they legislate responsible gun ownership, and we don't, and hence their death by gun rate is about one-third what ours is.
Ironically, this shooter was using an expanded magazine, which holds 3 times as many bullets as a regular magazine. Under Canadian, French, or German laws, he would have been legislated to kill one-third as many people as he did (before having to switch magazines), so the math works out. But Bush overturned the Assault Weapons ban, and so 2/3rds more people have to die in America just to appease the gun nuts.
I remember reading a few weeks ago, on the anniversary of John Lennon's shooting, that since his death about one million Americans have died of gun violence. That's a heavy toll to satisfy paranoia.
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/12/07-5
Sorry about the slow response. Some of us have a life. Unlike 6 Arizonan's from 36 hrs ago.
Ray, please, the weapon was a semi-auto 9mm pistol with an oversized clip holding 20 rounds.
Sister Sarah is only a manifestation of what's possible in this country.
To hold her singly responsible is missing the point.
The US is a mean spirited bullying country that wages wars against weak countries...believes in the death penalty and has the largest population behind bars of any "civilized" country in the world.
" As above so below"...our government sets the tone for the lunatic fringe..they just carry it out!
US is "the matter."
US is ruled by a brutal imperialist tyranny. The oligarchic scumbags in charge of the US murder thousands of people in the world every year.
US is a death cult of evil enabled by pseudo-progressives.
And if this was a Rovian operation, do not think he would have not been provided a gun?
Actually this incident is exactly what concealed weapons advocates point to as an argument in favor.
Kids around here, even in rural areas, rob guns from the sheriffs.
out of this somewhat incoherent rant I gather that you are opposed to giving up liberty for security. That is a good thing.
But-what violence are you referring to in the bit about tax dollars funding-activities of our government do tend towards supporting violence and terror-acts of terror in the world go on with our support daily -were you thinking of the wars in the Middle East?
Just wish you were a bit more clear.
Also, keeping guns away from demented folks would be a good thing, would it not?
How am I giving up a liberty if a crazed loon can't get a gun?
My liberty to be shot? I'll give that up any day.
Agreed. As a lefty/vegetarian/gun owner too, it's remarkable that people aren't focusing on the issue of imperial violence.
What happened in Arizona is incredibly sad. But it's as much this culture of violence that is to blame.
The fact is, even if gun control laws became even more strict, that would not stop someone like this kid from finding a weapon. In fact, the more strict gun laws become, it will be the police and thugs who will be the most armed.
Canadians are well armed but don't go around shooting each other as Americans have pretty much throughout our history. Who pushes the buttons of our home grown crazies which our media chooses not to call terrorists? Let us remind ourselves that had this shooter been a Muslim, his friends and acquaintances would have already been rounded up and his mosque raided.
You've got it right. In fact the USG/MIC, Mafia Industrial Complex, would have preferred an Muslim to do this. The only reason is that the FBI can't create a Muslim competent enough to carry out an assassination, not for want of trying. The USG/MIC is continuously recruiting wannabe terrist's, training them so that the FBI can apprehend them just in the nick of time, and then trumpet to the American public about how good they are, not disclosing that the FBI created the terrist's for the purpose that they would be apprehended. Creating false flag operations, red herring,stalking horses all to create an illusion for the purpose to KEEP FEAR ALIVE.
You've got it right. In fact the USG/MIC, Mafia Industrial Complex, would have preferred an Muslim to do this. The only reason is that the FBI can't create a Muslim competent enough to carry out an assassination, not for want of trying. The USG/MIC is continuously recruiting wannabe terrist's, training them so that the FBI can apprehend them just in the nick of time, and then trumpet to the American public about how good they are, not disclosing that the FBI created the terrist's for the purpose that they would be apprehended. Creating false flag operations, red herring,stalking horses all to create an illusion for the purpose to KEEP FEAR ALIVE.
My own thoughts on gun control are posted at
http://www.usaliberalism.com