The responsibility for the Arizona shootings

[fpb]

Two questions to the illiterate idiots trying to drive the shock for the Arizona shootings in a politically convenient direction:
1)
Were the murders of President Lincoln, President Garfield, President McKinley and President Kennedy, the attempted murder of President Reagan, the murders of Senator Robert Kennedy and Governor Huey Long, and those of too many lesser elected officers to count, and all the many multiple killings from the Texas Tower sniper to Columbine and beyond, also the fault of the "angry" culture of the Tea Parties?  Or is it just something that tends to happen with sickening regularity among the disaffected and ineffective social detritus of a country where everyone owns a weapon?
2)
Since everyone knows all these things, and even illiteracy is not sufficient excuse to speak as though they had never happened and as though the Arizona shootings were anything new and unexpected, how can you possibly not be ashamed of the level of mendacity to which your Palin Derangement Syndrome has sunk you?

Comments

[affablestranger.livejournal.com]

I've had a really hard time this past weekend, trying to get between friends who sit on opposite sides of the political aisle and stopping them from exercising what seem to be deep-seated pet bigotries, intolerances, and hard feelings... over what may or may not have been the motives of the AZ gunman. Attempts to get them talking *to* one another and not *at* one another were wholly unsuccessful. Another acquaintance quipped, "It's got pretty bad, Matt, when things are so bad *you're* the one urging moderation and being level-headed." I'm not sure if it was backhanded compliment, a full-on insult, or something else. Of course, many of the people I know believe my politics are crazy, "out there" or that at the very least I'm quite misguided.

That said, I believe I'm at the point I truly grieve for my native country. I don't believe people are going crazy, as some do. No. I believe a great many people are behaving publicly the way they have acted and thought privately.

Civilization requires work, maintenance, self and collective discipline from the civilized. Take it for granted, and you may well be finished -- and by your own self or collective hand.

[hobsonphile.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

SECONDED.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Don't thank me entirely. There is a strong swipe at the ordinary conservative interpretation of the Second Amendment in there. But the attempt to get the Tea Party in general and Sarah Palin in particular just made me sick, making use of dead people including one dead little girl, before the bodies were cold. And that bloody sheriff in Tucson ought to resign on the spot.

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

This. There is so much more at play here than political slogans I'm sickened the blame is being laid fully the rhetoric of Palin and the Tea Party.

This nation is angry.
We tend to shoot officials and public speakers when we reach this level. I'm appalled but, sadly, not surprised.

What I'm really sickened by is the media saying such things as "I've been on google but I can't find anything like this" "Nothing like this has ever happened before," "I think this is a first"

ok yes she may be the first active congressperson ever shot, but are we really going to split that hair for sensationalism?

I guess we are.

Also, I'm tired of people acting as though no political party or public official has ever used violence as a metaphor before.

But then we never do actually address the real issues when there's a tragedy. Probably because the actual causes are political embarrassing or inconvenient so the outrage as to be directed to a scapegoat.

Meh, maybe I should work this into my own post.
Further more, and I've already addressed this with some. I'm tired of "Christians" and "Conservatives" being universally blamed by the same people that won't tolerate "Muslims" or "Arabs" being used as negative generalities.

[blue-sky-day.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_American_politicians

From the founding of the country to 1950 there were 16 assassinations of politicians. From 1950 to present there were 16 assassinations of politicians - i.e., assassinations are far more frequent in the last 60 years than in any other era. Meanwhile, gun ownership (self-reported) has been dropping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics#United_States), at least since 1973. So there is no correlation between rates of gun ownership and frequency of assassination.

(Disclaimer: This doesn't account for unsuccessful assassination attempts or assassinations of non-politicians. Adding in those numbers may alter things.)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

But the weapons available today are infinitely more precise and deadly than those available in 1860, when Wilkes Booth had to come within touching distance of Lincoln to be sure of him. The reason why we now have Texas Tower snipers is that sniper rifles are available. It does not happen only in America (check out events in Germany and Finland in the last few years) but it happens far more frequently there than anywhere else, and if you think that has nothing to do with the enormously widespread gun ownership in your country, you must be a man of robust faith, to say the least.