It is a tragic day for all who are following the shooting incident in Tucson, Arizona. U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is in critical condition at the time of this writing, and was earlier reported to be dead. A nine year old girl, Christina Taylor Green, coincidentally born on September 11, 2001 (the day of the World Trade Center bombings), was killed during the shooting. Six people were killed, including Green. Four people are under intensive care.
The incident happened in January 8, 2011, at around 10 in the morning, outside the Safeway Supermarket in La Toscana Village. Congresswoman Giffords was holding a sidewalk meeting called "Congress on Your Corner". 20 to 30 people were gathered around the table set up by Giffords' party when the shootist pulled the trigger of his 9 mm model 19 Glock at point-blank range. Witnesses claim to have heard 15 to 20 gunshots, claiming six lives and injuring many others, including Giffords.
The primary suspect is 22 year old, college dropout, Jared Lee Loughner. According to interviews of his high school acquaintances, Loughner was known to be a loner and a political radical. Among his favorite books are Hitler's Mein Kampf and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. In his recently retrieved Myspace page, Wikipedia reports that his last entry was "Goodbye, Dear friends . . . Please don't be mad at me."
Sarah Palin's name is also mentioned in almost all reports since Congresswoman Giffords' district was included in the Sarah Palin Action Committee's "to-defeat list" during the November 2010 elections. What makes this chilling and intriguing is how the Sarah Palin Action Committee campaign page "targeted" by way of gun cross-hair icons the districts that Sarah Palin's team was going to defeat. Giffords voiced out her criticism towards the violent nature of the campaign by saying: “We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list. But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that.”
President Obama has called this matter an "unspeakable tragedy", adding "What we do know is that such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society."
With this dreadful occurrence still fresh, we have still many days ahead of us listening to reports on the investigations of the crime.
In this painful time, we share our prayers for everyone, especially the bereaved families and the families of those who were injured. It is now time to be up and about among ourselves and with each other in looking out for everyone's safety - not only in our neighborhoods, but globally as well.
(Information Source Wikipedia)
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