Meanwhile, a woman who had been in a poetry class with him at a community college had, after the first class with him, written to a friend expressing grave concerns. This woman went on to tell the teacher (it was his first time teaching) and he talked to the department. The shooter was escorted from the class at least once for misbehavior. The woman had then written a second e-mail to a friend saying she thought he was dangerous and the type of person you would read about bringing an automatic weapon on campus. She said she said next to the door ready to run. The school finally exited him and told him to get a mental health evaluation.

I wonder what his parents thought was going on.

It's also coming out that he had a grudge against the congresswoman dating back to 2007. This story will inevitably be more complex than the simple right winger goes crazy thanks to Sarah Palin narrative being propagated by the popular media.

"Waiting period? But I'm mad now!"

"This, and only this, is the dark core of the present galaxy of violence, mayhem, and loss."

May I humbly remind you that 6 million people have been hacked to death in the Congo? Under our watch the holocaust has happened again...

Of course there were 200 million guns in the homes of americans that didn't go off that day... and every day.

@4, you know, fuck you about the congo. totally fuck you and all other westerners who bring that shit up like there aint no fucking history. an absolutely big fuck you!

if he hadn't shot a congresswoman, this shooting would be just another blip on america's Amoklauf radar. maybe if he'd had to join an actual WELL-REGULATED militia to get a gun, and interacted with all you law-abiding gun absolutists in wholesome american activities like filling powder horns and casting musket balls, he'd had been spotted as a schizo prior to killing.

I'm with Mudede. FUCK YOU #4

"...cuddling my semiautomatic, what a very fuzzy feeling!"

(Regina Spektor, "Uh-merica")

"This, and only this, is the dark core of the present galaxy of violence, mayhem, and loss."

Wrong. The core is a political maelstrom that refuses sensible disagreement and promotes violence-centered thought and speech. The core lies in a society that promotes the illegitimization of politicians as individuals and presents them as targets. The core is a society that is drowning in its own xenophobia, hate, and fear.

"@4, you know, fuck you about the congo. totally fuck you and all other westerners who bring that shit up like there aint no fucking history. an absolutely big fuck you!"

Spoken by somebody who clearly has no understanding of gun ownership, either, which makes your immediate defensiveness really goddamn funny. Also, you manage to sound like a complete and utter douche. Kudos on your journalistic abilities there, chief.

In Arizona, they'll sell you a semiauto weapon, even if you're drooling and making monkey chatter while standing at the sales counter.

I'd rather have a glockenspiel than a glock. But that's just me.

@10 No understanding of gun ownership? That's what you're going with? It's not that complicated. Oh, right, your one of those people that confuse ideology for knowledge. Right.

What's insane is that the argument that people die elsewhere for other reasons is used as an argument to have fully unlimited access to guns for murderers. The poster Mudede was responding to says that we shouldn't even try to keep ourselves safe because other people die for other reasons elsewhere. That argument doesn't deserve respect.

@ 13 No, what doesn't deserve respect is the idea that because some dumb douchebag decided to shoot a bunch of innocent people means the rest of us, who have never hurt anyone, shouldn't be allowed to own what we want to own. You and Mudede are making the same argument morons will make about the fact that he smoked pot; if he hadn't been the kind of person to get high, surely he wouldn't have killed anybody!

You're making the same argument people make every time something happens involving something they don't like. People who drink and drive kill people: let's ban alcohol! People who get high kill people: let's ban drugs! Riding a bike without a helmet kills people, and riding in a car without a seatbelt kills people: Let's force people to do what we want to do!

Go ahead. Try to make guns in the US illegal (it won't work, but go for it). Of course, it won't do anything about all the illegal guns in the country but hey, at least they'll be criminals BEFORE they kill somebody. That seems to be an important part of the equation to some people.

And maybe it'll work and you'll get rid of every gun in the country. I'm sure nuts won't think of, say, putting fertilizer and fuel in a truck and detonating it as people walk out. McVeigh was probably the only redneck smart enough to think of that. But we could ban fertilizers and diesel fuel too. Maybe that'll do it. And then of course anything sharper than a spork. Stabby things can be dangerous.

Moral of the story: If you're going to figure out how to stop lunatics from killing people, you've got a lot bigger problems than legally owned firearms. I know you don't care about that, and neither does Mudede. People never care about rationality when it comes to their prejudices.

I think what Charles is saying is two things:

1) We do not do a good job as a society of protecting ourselves from harm - it was far too easy for the shooter to purchase a handgun (designed to kill humans; call it what you will, but I differentiate between guns and handguns).

2) go to the library and check out King Leopold's Ghost.

@5
Fuck You Charles

I guess guns are only ok when Mugabe's thug use them to murder white farmers, ask your dad a bout that one you racist piece of shit.

this was the most staged shooting of a politician to enact gun control laws since the reagan- brady shooting in the 80's? i cant remember fer sure when because if you remember the 80's you weren't there. fake set up? oh yeah . just like big ron was shot in the heart through his bullet proof vest with a .22 and lived, which led to the ban on assault rifles and hi cap 9mm pistols? none of which was involved in the shooting. then today they trot out that old horse of a woman to yell about the banning of hand guns. of course obama has been trying to ban all guns since his election to office, he even went so far as to try and sign gun rights away in the u.n. charter a while back. now we have a congress woman shot through the head, still alive?! save by a gay , mexican , illegal immigrant in arizona. i couldn't have made that up better myself, fantastic fantasy work by the left. i'm on pins and needles waiting to see how this plays out.

Good Morning Charles,
I will not comment on this now hotly and unfortunately politicized massacre and shooting of Rep. Giffords. I wish her a swift & full recovery and express sympathy for the 6 victims' families and friends.

However, regarding "gun culture" especially in Arizona this article caught my eye:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/us/11g…

I didn't know Rep. Giffords owned a Glock pistol and apparently was pretty good with it. Evidently in Arizona, "gun culture " is evident on all sides of the political debate.

@5 The 'history' of the Congo is shared with the US if you are noting colonialism for their troubled past.

May I humbly remind you that we were colonized by the same English bastards, and we were the first country to begin rolling back colonialism around the world and send those fuckers back to racist Europe.

This is something you can never own nor feel proud of.

Wow, @19 is wrong. I won't debate history, and I should leave well enough and old threads alone, but if you're not trolling you really need to unpack that last sentence. Unbelievable.