by Roger Hedgecock

“There was a hero Saturday in front of that Arizona supermarket. He didn’t have a gun and didn’t shoot back, but it is said by witnesses he saved Gifford’s life.

Twenty-year-old Daniel Hernandez is a junior at the University of Arizona. He had signed up as an student intern in Gabrielle Gifford’s District office just five days before the shooting.

This was Hernandez’ first event staffing Gifford’s “Congress on Your Corner” constituent meeting. Hernandez was about 30 feet away from the representative, signing people in as they came up to see her. Then he heard the shots.

Then he ran, not away screaming as most people there understandably did, but toward the shots. “I don’t even know if the gunfire had stopped,” he recalled later to reporters from the Arizona Republic.

Dan Hernandez said, “Of course you’re afraid. You just have to do what you can.”

What Dan did was move from one wounded, bleeding, victim to another, checking for pulse. One man’s pulse had stopped. Then he saw Gifford, contorted and lying bleeding on the sidewalk. He ran to her. She was conscious but quiet, Dan later recalled.

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“TUCSON — Ms. Giffords was in critical condition after surviving, against the odds, a single gunshot wound to the head at point-blank range. Her doctors were cautiously optimistic that she would survive…

Prosecutors charged Jared L. Loughner, a troubled 22-year-old college dropout, with five federal counts on Sunday, including the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, in connection with a shooting rampage on Saturday morning that left six people dead and 14 wounded.

Mr. Loughner, who is believed to have acted alone, is in federal custody…

Investigators here focused their attention on Mr. Loughner, whom they accused of methodically planning the shootings, which occurred outside a supermarket. The court documents said Mr. Loughner bought the semiautomatic Glock pistol used in the shooting at Sportsman’s Warehouse, which sells hunting and fishing gear, on Nov. 30 in Tucson.

The gun was legally purchased, officials said, prompting criticism of the state’s gun laws, which allow the carrying of concealed weapons. Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik of Pima County, a critic of what he calls loose gun restrictions, bluntly labeled Arizona “Tombstone.”

Loughner has refused to cooperate with investigators and has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, the Pima County sheriff’s office said.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/us/politics/10giffords.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Jared L. Loughner:

“As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy,” the former classmate, Caitie Parker, wrote in a series of Twitter feeds Saturday. “I haven’t seen him since ’07 though. He became very reclusive.”

“He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in ’07, asked her a question & he told me she was ‘stupid & unintelligent,’ ” she wrote.

Mr. Wiens said that something Mr. Loughner said during a discussion about religion had stuck in his mind: “Whatever happens, happens,” Mr. Wiens recalled the suspect saying. “Might as well enjoy life now.”

Don Coorough, 58, who sat two desks in front of Mr. Loughner in a poetry class last semester, described him as a “troubled young man” and “emotionally underdeveloped.” After another student read a poem about getting an abortion, Mr. Loughner compared the young woman to a “terrorist for killing the baby.”

“No one in that class would even sit next to him,” Mr. Coorough said. Another fellow student said that he found Mr. Loughner’s behavior so eccentric — including inappropriate remarks and unusual outbursts — that he wondered if he might be on hallucinogens.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/politics/09shooter.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

By GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS

“…With only the barest outline of events available, pundits and reporters seemed to agree that the massacre had to be the fault of the tea party movement in general, and of Sarah Palin in particular. Why? Because they had created, in New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s words, a “climate of hate.”

The critics were a bit short on particulars as to what that meant. Mrs. Palin has used some martial metaphors—”lock and load”—and talked about “targeting” opponents. But as media writer Howard Kurtz noted in The Daily Beast, such metaphors are common in politics. Palin critic Markos Moulitsas, on his Daily Kos blog, had even included Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s district on a list of congressional districts “bullseyed” for primary challenges.

When Democrats use language like this—or even harsher language like Mr. Obama’s famous remark, in Philadelphia during the 2008 campaign, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun”—it’s just evidence of high spirits, apparently. But if Republicans do it, it somehow creates a climate of hate.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703667904576071913818696964.html

At the moment we’re seeing liberal Democrats self-righteously bemoaning the “violent rhetoric” of conservative Republicans, and criticizing Republicans for stirring up “vitriol”, implying that the shooting in Arizona was due in part to harsh language from conservative politicians and TV or Radio personalities.

George Packer of the New Yorker said,

“This relentlessly hostile rhetoric has become standard issue on the right. (On the left it appears in anonymous comment threads, not congressional speeches and national T.V. programs.)

Whatever drove Jared Lee Loughner, America’s political frequencies are full of violent static.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/judging-from-his-internet-postings.html#ixzz1AbtpGYkH

This is not to defend or excuse Republicans but just a little reminder to pious Democrats that maybe they should pause for a moment of self-reflection before accusing others of stirring up trouble.

Of course, in the minds of these fine Democrats the “violent rhetoric” displayed below is different, I suppose they felt it was justified. I suppose they felt they were expressing free speech.

May I suggest we try less name-calling and more actual discussion? Fewer insults and more genuine suggestions on how to make things better?

It would be good if everyone would tone down the rhetoric on both sides and try to be more civil in their disagreements, but it’s disgusting to see Democrats act self-righteous about “violent rhetoric” given their public expressions of hatred and violence in the past. Here are just a few examples:

“At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff Clarence Dupnik offered more details on how suspected Arizona shooter Jared Loughner was disarmed.

Dupnik said that when Loughner ran out of bullets in his first magazine, a woman who had already been shot “went up and grabbed” the new magazine “and tore it away from him.” Dupnik said the name of the woman was known but he did not share it during the press conference.

After the confrontation with the woman, Loughner was able to load another magazine into his weapon, but “the spring in the magazine failed,” Dupnik said, and two men were able to get his weapon away from him and subdue him until law enforcement arrived.

Dupnik said the work of these three people potentially averted a “huge greater catastrophe.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/09/arizona-shooting-hero-clarence-dupnik_n_806434.html

This is the YouTube channel of the shooter in today’s tragedy in Arizona, Jared Lee Loughner :
http://www.youtube.com/user/Classitup10

This guy was clearly mentally unhinged, psychotic, schizo, something along those lines.

Read some of what he had written, from his YouTube channel description.
He said:

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by Nutnfancy:

“Your actions could save lives.

At the heart of what I have referred to as The Sheepdog is a selflessness that looks outwardly to the needs of others. They cannot abide watching their fellow humans beings suffer and die while they do nothing. They are compelled into action even when those actions could lead to their own deaths or injury.

The Sheepdog comes from every walk of life, every race, and can be male or female; it is impossible to identify them from appearance alone. It is their actions in the face of horrific situations that reveals the Sheepdog as they step forward when no one else will.

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(Reuters) – Fifteen bodies, all but one of them decapitated, were found early on Saturday in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco as drug violence in Mexico intensified.

The victims, all male, were discovered at dawn near a shopping mall along with several, threatening hand-written messages that are typically left as a calling card by drug cartels, authorities said.

At least a dozen more bodies were found at several scenes of violence around the city early on Saturday, local media reported in more examples of drug gang skirmishes and killings.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70715L20110108

“Sheepdogs are kind and empathetic but they are also warriors and deadly to the wolf.

In this to-the-point video, I recommend closing with a mass murderer to engage him. This will save lives and other “feel good” alternatives to prevent these shootings have failed, resulting in more dead people.

Thousands of responsible civilian Sheepdogs will GREATLY improve public safety and it is the REAL answer to stop these killings, not more asinine disarmament laws that have never worked. These shootings are rare but nevertheless continue to claim innocent lives. Placing more good armed people in the paths of these wolves can help de-rail their success.

Always use good judgment, maturity, and your own “unlock codes” (correct situational assessment and weighing of alternatives) before deciding to use lethal force and intervening in these situations. Non-lethal alternatives can be employed by the Sheepdog to disable the shooter but they must achieve immediate and reliable incapicitation to be effective. Generally a decisive lethal counterforce will need to be employed against such a mass murderer.

Also note that history has shown in these situations that surrender does not work, begging for your life does not work, and as many victims have found out, cowering in a corner does not work. Only the use of directed and effective gunfire so far has stopped these murderers (but other options as discussed do exist). Engage the bad guy with good tactics, preferably from behind or on a flank.

Choosing to implement lethal force is a serious decision to be weighed carefully by the individual. A clear understanding of your local laws and the implications of your decision should be considered before such an action.”     – Nutnfancy