Jared Loughner Pre-Planned Assassination Of Rep. Giffords

By majestic on January 10, 2011 in News 11

The only story that matters as we start the week is the Giffords shooting, for which a nationwide moment of silence is about to begin as I post this story. The New York Times is reporting that the attack was premeditated:

TUCSON — 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.

Evidence seized from Mr. Loughner’s home, about five miles from the shooting, indicated that he had planned to kill Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, according to documents filed in Federal District Court in Phoenix.

Special Agent Tony M. Taylor Jr. of the F.B.I. said in an affidavit that an envelope found in a safe in the home bore these handwritten words: “I planned ahead,” “My assassination” and “Giffords.”

Mr. Loughner, who is believed to have acted alone, is in federal custody and is scheduled to make his first court appearance before a magistrate judge in Phoenix on Monday.

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, and said on Sunday that they had removed nearly half of her skull to prevent damage from the swelling of her brain.

An outpouring of grief was on display all over Tucson, where friends of the many victims joined complete strangers in lighting candles and offering tear-filled prayers. From the back of the temple Ms. Giffords attends, Naomi Present, the distraught daughter of a rabbi, cried out on Sunday morning, “Why, why, why, why?”

Many across America were asking the same thing, and the state found itself on the defensive, with its top lawmakers asserting that Arizona was not a hothouse of ugly rhetoric. President Obama called on Americans to observe a moment of silence at 11 a.m. Monday in honor of the wounded and dead…

[continues in the New York Times]

Assassinations, Congress, Crime, Guns, Politics

http://twitter.com/ElectricBlue32 Allison Hoffman

Loughner was/is and anti-statist/anarchist. NOT far right or left.
http://twitter.com/ElectricBlue32 Allison Hoffman

Loughner was/is and anti-statist/anarchist. NOT far right or left.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Unfortunately, many on the vengeance wagon…especially prosecutors…will try to exploit this as some proof of ‘sanity’ as they often do when dealing with the mentally ill. The standard for legal sanity often comes down to knowing your name and being able to answer basic questions for a few minutes…which many people with even a major mental illness can do. In truth, many people with severe symptoms can function well enough to get by, plan ahead, remain employed for moderate periods of time and more.

One good thing that OUGHT to come from all this…maybe the media could be encouraged to hammer home the danger to all that comes from ignoring and undertreating mental illness. Shuffling it under the carpet only ever leads to tragedy…when simple treatments can make an enormous difference in quality of life for these folks…not to mention prevent episodic tragedies like this weekends shooting.
Hadrian999

one thing i thought was funny in the story was blaming concealed carry laws for the shootings, if you are planning to kill someone you aren’t going to worry that carrying the gun is illegal, look atviolent crime in chicago and DC.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Unfortunately, many on the vengeance wagon…especially prosecutors…will try to exploit this as some proof of ‘sanity’ as they often do when dealing with the mentally ill. The standard for legal sanity often comes down to knowing your name and being able to answer basic questions for a few minutes…which many people with even a major mental illness can do. In truth, many people with severe symptoms can function well enough to get by, plan ahead, remain employed for moderate periods of time and more.

One good thing that OUGHT to come from all this…maybe the media could be encouraged to hammer home the danger to all that comes from ignoring and undertreating mental illness. Shuffling it under the carpet only ever leads to tragedy…when simple treatments can make an enormous difference in quality of life for these folks…not to mention prevent episodic tragedies like this weekends shooting.
Hadrian999

one thing i thought was funny in the story was blaming concealed carry laws for the shootings, if you are planning to kill someone you aren’t going to worry that carrying the gun is illegal, look atviolent crime in chicago and DC.
Haystack

Please don’t say “pre-planned.”
Haystack

Please don’t say “pre-planned.”
5by5

And his plans were helped along by the law which Bush and the Republicans allowed to sunset in 2004, which prior to that, would have prevented him from purchasing the type of automatic weaponry and ammo that he used to commit these murders.

You may argue that he “would have found a way” to get such a gun, but it wouldn’t have been a legal, readily available way, had it not been for George Bush and the GOP, and their irrational love of guns even at the expense of safety and common fricking sense.

And I say that as someone who has visited a gun range regularly, and LIKES shooting firearms for sport.
5by5

And his plans were helped along by the law which Bush and the Republicans allowed to sunset in 2004, which prior to that, would have prevented him from purchasing the type of automatic weaponry and ammo that he used to commit these murders.
5by5

And his plans were helped along by the law which Bush and the Republicans allowed to sunset in 2004, which prior to that, would have prevented him from purchasing the type of automatic weaponry and ammo that he used to commit these murders.