I do not know what caused Jared Loughner to buy a gun and plan and attempt the assassination of Representative Giffords.
I do know that every community has a cadre of mentally unstable people that are explosives just waiting for the right match to set them off. These walking wounded of our communities have rights and so long as they more or less obey the law there is nothing more to be done.
To deny that the incendiary rhetoric coming from Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and their kin has led to an escalation in violence in our political discourse (remember the Tea Party rallies, The curb stomped protester of the November elections) is disingenuous at best.
The useful fools who do violence because of the hatred spewed by these chicken hawk generals are responsible for their actions, but so are the media hate mongers.
For a media person to deny responsibility when their venom pushes one of the unstable members of a community to violence is to have them lie to our faces. The goal of media is to influence people, so there can be no surprise when it works.
I am sad to say that I know more about this issue than I would like.
Please come inside.
Tea Party Republicans are not Jared Loughners.
They may be racists, they may be frightened gun rights people, but except for those few unbalanced individuals would have nothing to do with talk of assassinations. But make no mistake the Tea Party Republicans are part of the problem.
I said I know more about this issue than I would like.
I have an older brother, ex-Marine 100% disabled Vietnam vet. You can't see his wounds, but you can't meet him without knowing they are there.
My Brother lives with my mother, because he is not able to manage on his own.
My brother has been under house arrest most of the last 5 years for a series of DUIs.
On Dec 23rd my answering machine picked up and it was my brother. He was clearly cognitively altered. I didn't pick up. He called back about a minute later with more of the same.
I have learned that it is better not to interact with my brother when he is altered. I call back the next day and every time he either doesn't remember making the phone call or fabricates a pretext for the call.
Experience has taught me that his call is usually triggered by an altercation with my mother.
I called back on Christmas Eve ~10:00AM and my Mother answered the phone. I spoke with her at length letting her tell me what ever she wanted to. When it became clear that she was not going to mention my brother I asked her how she and my brother were getting along she deflected. I replied that the reason I asked is that my brother had called me the previous day.
Once confronted with this fact my mother replied that my brother had threatened to kill her.
By my count this is the fifth incident that I know of. Two have involved a handgun. The police have been called numerous times and my brother had himself voluntarily committed to the psych ward at the local veterans hospital for 72 hours when the police gave him the choice of going to jail or going to the psych ward.
My mother is frightened, but her maternal instincts are strong. She knows that my brother is a threat to all around him, but she can't bring herself to do anything.
My brother is not stupid he is mentally ill. When he is well regulated, he passes for unpleasant but normal. So the courts that control his activities don't see the danger.
I have consulted law enforcement, attorneys, and social workers and they are unanimous in there opinions. Yes he is dangerous. Unless my Mother files a complaint or my brother gets in trouble with the authorities there is nothing I can do.
Every time the phone rings, every time there is a shooting I just about jump out of my skin, thinking it will be the call that my brother has killed someone. This is not helping my mental health one bit.
There are 3 televisions in my mother's house one in the living room, and one in my brother's, and my mother's bedrooms.
I have never been at my mother's house when all 3 televisions were not tuned to Fox News.
My Brother's Guru, Glenn Beck!
My Brother is just one more useful fool ready to do the bidding of the haters.