US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot, Six Die

[Louis VI the Fat]

For too long politicians have tried to silence people speaking against them by accusing them of encouraging violence through their speech.


This suspect seems crazy in the literal sense of the word.

a madman

Surely the principle of incitement to violence itself is not in dispute? If an Imam calls for the destruction of the Great Satan, and then some of his listeners take the message literally and fly a plane intoa bulding, then surely we recognise that there has been an instigation of violence through speech?


As for the killer being 'a madman', 'crazy in the literal sense of the word' - he legally obtained the firearms he used. Something is amiss there, somewhere. Either we are not protected from complete loons aquiring legal firearms, or the guy is not a complete loon, but capable of some understanding of what he is doing and why for.

Here is what Sarah Palin said on the Facebook page where she depicted Gabrielle Giffords in the cross hairs of a rifle scope: "Don't retreat! Instead - RELOAD!" Well, the guy who shot Giffords yesterday managed to keep firing until he killed six, including a child, and wounded 13 .

Palin would no doubt say that she was only speaking in metaphor, that she only meant her followers should work to unseat Giffords and 19 other Democrats who had roused her ire by voting for health care. But anyone with any sense at all knows that violent language can incite actual violence, that metaphor can incite murder. At the very least, Palin added to a climate of violence.

Palin should have taken it as a warning of what might happen when a Tea Party hothead dropped a gun while heckling Giffords at an earlier Congress On Your Corner event, more than a year ago. That did not stop Palin from declaring Giffords a "target." Giffords' district office was subsequently vandalized, and the congresswoman noted that Palin had put "the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district."

"When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action," Giffords said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...#ixzz1AXCJHoNX