
Arizona state Sen. Lori Klein (R) is disputing a reporter's claim that she aimed her loaded gun at him during an interview, instead recounting that she was asked to show her gun and the reporter got up and sat down in the gun's sight.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)President Barack Obama's editorial calling for a fresh dialogue on the issue of guns in the wake of the shootings in Arizona went out of its way to avoid offending gun owners. He said "almost all gun owners in America are highly responsible," called them "our friends and neighbors," and said they "buy their guns legally and use them safely, whether for hunting or target shooting, collection or protection."
He pointed out that gun rights have been expanded during his administration, and didn't call for any new restrictions on guns -- instead advocating for "enforcing laws that are already on the books."
But the National Rifle Association appears determined to be offended by Obama's call for a new tone in the discussion over gun policy. Appearing on Fox News on Monday, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre told Megyn Kelly that Obama has an "administration embedded with people who spent their lifetime trying to destroy" the freedom of the Second Amendment.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Utah is poised to be the first state to designate an official state gun.
The state senate on Thursday voted 20-7 to recommend the Browning M1911 pistol as its official state gun.
State Rep. Carl Wimmer (R) -- the bill's chief sponsor -- told TPM in December that he considers the Browning pistol "an instrument of freedom and democracy."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday announced the results of an undercover investigation into a gun show in Arizona -- and that those results show just how simple it is to buy a gun there with minimal oversight.
According to the the Gun Show Undercover: Arizona report, undercover investigators successfully bought guns after telling unlicensed dealers, "I probably couldn't pass a background check." The investigation took place January 23 at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Phoenix.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)A right-wing blogger who criticized the Native American opening prayer at the Tucson memorial service as "ugly" has gotten in trouble at his day job -- working for a law firm that also defends Native American rights.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Jared Loughner, the suspected shooter in the Jan. 8 attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, researched lethal injection, solitary confinement and political assassins in the weeks before the shooting.
Law enforcement sources tell the Washington Post that a computer seized from Loughner's home shows that he was researching the consequences to an assassination.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Dick Cheney is no gun control advocate. In fact, as Rachel Maddow pointed out in a recent segment, he was one of only a couple members of the House of Representatives who voted against a ban on plastic guns back in the 1980s and is a regular at meetings of the National Rifle Association.
But in the wake of the mass shooting in Arizona that gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others, even Cheney indicated he's support restrictions on high-capacity magazines such as the clip allegedly used by Jared Lee Loughner.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Surveillance video from the shooting in Tucson reportedly show federal Judge John Roll trying to save the life of one of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' aides before he himself was fatally shot.
According to an officer in the Pima County Sheriff's Department, the video shows Roll trying to guide the aide, Ron Barber, to safety.
"It's very clear to me the judge was thinking of his fellow human more than himself," said Richard Kastigar, the investigative and operational bureau chief of the department.
J. Eric Fuller, a victim of the mass shooting in Tucson who was arrested Saturday for threatening a tea party leader, released a statement of apology today.
"It was not in the spirit of our allegiance and warm feelings of each other as citizens of this great country," Fuller said in the statement, which he released through his girlfriend, according to the Associated Press.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)In the same Good Morning America interview in which he said that Jared Lee Loughner "wasn't on the left, he wasn't on the right," former Loughner friend Zach Osler mentioned a documentary film called Zeitgeist, which he says heavily influenced the alleged Tucson gunman.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)One of the 19 victims of last week's shooting in Tucson was arrested yesterday after standing up during a town hall-style meeting and shouting, "You're dead!" to the leader of the Tucson tea party. The victim, J. Eric Fuller, has been charged with disorderly conduct and making a threat. and was involuntarily committed to undergo a mental health evaluation, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
The tea party leader, Trent Humphries, told TPM he hopes that if Fuller needs help, he gets it -- especially if it's the kind of help the suspected shooter never got.
"If pressing charges is the only way to make sure he gets the help he needs, we'll probably do that," Humphries said in a phone interview Sunday. "I'm not saying this guy's Jared Loughner, but I can't tell you for sure he's not a danger to himself, me or the community."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)In a local TV interview that touched on the Tucson shootings, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) recounted threats that have been made to his office -- specifically, one incident in which a man shot himself outside of Sen. Harry Reid's (D-NV) Las Vegas office in 1996.
"Sen. Reid and I actually had a stalker or whatever you want to call him," Ensign told Fox 5. "He left very blood-curdling -- almost threats -- on our phones. He ended up shooting himself in front of both of our offices."
Here's what happened, according to contemporary news reports: In 1995, when Ensign was a congressman, a man named Michael McCusker starting calling Ensign's office. He wanted help, he said, getting back $23,000 he lost in a Mexican land scam. When Ensign's staff found they couldn't help him, McCusker continued calling the office. He eventually came in and handed staffers a note that said "Justice or Death" and claimed he had a gun.
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"Alright, so here's what we're doing," says the man behind the camera as he navigates through a dark parking lot. "We're examining the torture of students. We're looking at students who have been tortured. Their low income pay in two wars. The war that we are in right now is currently illegal under the Constitution. What makes it illegal is the currency. The date is also wrong. It's impossible for it to be that date, it's mind control."
That's how a video Jared Lee Loughner posted on YouTube in September titled "Pima Community College School - Genocide/Scam - Free Education - Broken United States Constitution," begins. It's the video that ultimately got Loughner, the gunman allegedly behind the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and the murder of six others, suspended from the school.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Before he allegedly went on a mass killing spree Saturday, Jared Lee Loughner had photos of himself developed at a local Walgreens that showed him dressed in a bright red g-string, a Glock 9mm gun next to his naked buttocks, the New York Times reports.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)There's a least one group not taking kindly to President Barack Obama's call for civility this week in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ): the Westboro Baptist Church.
Not surprisingly, a spokesperson from the infamous congregation (best known for protesting the funerals of soldiers killed in action with anti-gay signs) blew off Obama's plea to bring it down a notch in a phone interview with TPM on Friday.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)A Washington Times editorial defends Sarah Palin's use of the phrase "blood libel" in the wake of the Tucson shootings, by calling media criticism of Palin "the latest round of an ongoing pogrom against conservative thinkers."
Palin had been criticized for using the term "blood libel" to characterize media attacks against her, because of associations between "blood libel" and persecution of Jews in Europe. The term has its roots in the false charge that Jews would murder children and use their blood in religious rituals.
The choice by the Times to describe media attacks as "pogroms" is even more unfortunate since the term usually refers to destructive riots that targeted Jews during the time of the Russian Empire, and often resulted in massacres.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Westboro Baptist Church won't actually be protesting at any of the funerals of the victims of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) last weekend, the Tucson Sentinel reports.
Tucson Police Department investigators confirmed that the extremist anti-gay group -- notorious for protesting outside the funerals of members of the military killed in action -- will not be coming to the state, spokeswoman Diana Lopez told the paper Thursday night.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Several weeks ago, NewsTalk 790 KNST in Tucson put up a billboard to advertise Rush Limbaugh's radio show. The text reads, "Rush Limbaugh/Straight Shooter," and the ad is riddled with images of bullet holes. In the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 18 others on Saturday, KNST's parent company, Clear Channel, decided to take down the billboard.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Police in Tucson have found a black bag containing ammunition near Jared Loughner's house and the FBI is analyzing it, according to local reports.
Investigators have been looking for the bag, which they say Loughner and his father fought over the morning of the shooting. According to police, Jared Loughner took it out of the trunk of his car and then argued with his father about it. When Jared drove away, his father reportedly tried to drive after him, but lost him.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Before Sarah Palin posted her Facebook provocation this morning accusing the media of committing "blood libel" for connecting some of her statements to the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), that phrase was being batted around by the conservative media.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)For a 22-year-old high school dropout, some of Jared Lee Loughner's concerns were typical. He had trouble landing a minimum wage job. Girls didn't get him. He fixated on weight lifting.
But other postings allegedly made by Loughner on a private forum associated with the online game Earth Empires under the names Heroin, XTC and Erad were much more disturbing.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Debbie Scheidemantel, the adjunct professor at Pima Community College who called the cops to have Jared Loughner removed from her classroom last year, told The Early Show that when she first heard the description of the suspect in the shootings in Tucson that claimed six lives and critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), she thought of Loughner.
Scheidemantel described the events that led to her call to the police and have Loughner removed from her classroom.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)As the debate over the use of violent political rhetoric heats up in the aftermath of the shooting in Arizona that killed six and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition, a South Carolina gun company may find itself in an uncomfortable position.
Corey Hutchins, a reporter for the South Carolina alt weekly Free Times, reports that a South Carolina gun and accessories company is selling semi-automatic rifle components with the words "You Lie" inscribed on them.
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Jared Lee Loughner appears to have been a user of a web forum where conspiracy theorists discussed UFO sightings, the existence of God and racism in video games. But even there, he didn't fit in. Other website users appeared to grow frustrated with Loughner and one even plead for him to seek professional help.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Arizona Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, who like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was targeted by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said in an interview Tuesday that "the blame game is not helpful right now."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who just became chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, says he will not widen the scope of his hearings on "Muslim radicalization" to include non-Muslim extremists.
The ranking member of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), had, in the wake of the Tucson shootings, called for King to expand his investigation to non-Muslim extremism as well.
King declined, according to Newsday, saying the shootings in Arizona are besides the point.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Randy and Amy Loughner, the parents of accused shooter Jared Lee Loughner, haven't said anything publicly since their son allegedly took a Glock 19 with a high capacity clip to an event hosted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six people and injured 14, including the congresswoman.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The person who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), a federal judge and 18 other people Saturday may or may not have had a coherent political philosophy or a rational motive. But his actions still come after a campaign season rife with gun imagery and borderline violent rhetoric.
There is, of course, Sarah Palin's map in which targeted districts were marked by crosshairs (spun as "surveyor's symbols" by Palin aides), but there was much, much more over the 2010 campaign:
Target Practice
Robert Lowry, a Republican challenger to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz (D-FL), stopped by a local Republican event in October. The event was at a gun range, and Lowry shot at a human-shaped target that had Wasserman Schulz's initials written next to it. He later said it was a "mistake."
Wasserman Schulz, who defeated Lowry, remembered that incident on Hardball Monday evening.
"Those kinds of actions, words and statements can lead people who are unbalanced to potentially engage and carry out that violence," she said. "It's out of line and we've got to dial it back."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged gunman behind the mass shooting on Saturday that killed six people (including a federal judge) and gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), appeared in federal court on Monday with his head shaved and wearing a tan inmate's outfit. Loughner, who the Associated Press said had a cut on his head, was held without bail as a judge called him "a danger to society."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik thrust himself into the spotlight in the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 19 other people in Arizona on Saturday, decrying the heated political atmosphere and calling for more civility.
"It's not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included," he said on Saturday. "That's the sad thing about what's going on in America: pretty soon we're not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office."
Dupnik immediately angered some on the right, who took his words to be directed at the tea party and conservatives, as well as Arizonans who took offense to his depiction of Arizona as "a mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Federal Public Defender's Office on Monday requested that the court appoint Judy Clarke and Mark Fleming to represent Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect allegedly behind the mass shooting on Saturday that killed a federal judge and gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Whether Jared Lee Loughner is convicted federally of killing federal judge John McCarthy Roll could come down simply to why he showed up to Saturday's event with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Patricia Maisch, the 61-year-old woman who grabbed a magazine away from the alleged shooter on Saturday, suggested in an interview with Fox News on Sunday night that hateful rhetoric was in part to blame for the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and the mass shooting which killed six others and left more than a dozen injured.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Members of the hate group known as the Westboro Baptists Church, infamous for their inflammatory anti-gay protests celebrating the deaths of American soldiers, plan to show up to the funerals of those killed in the Tucson, AZ shootings which killed six and severely injured Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ).
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)There's a partial portrait of Jared Lee Loughner -- the 22-year-old charged in the mass shooting Saturday which left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) fighting for her life and several others, including federal judge John Roll, Giffords staffer Gabe Zimmerman and and a 9-year-old girl, dead -- emerging from the suspect's online tracks, interviews with former friends and classmates and law enforcement sources.
Here's what we know so far: Loughner's classmates at his community college expressed worries about him, and he had at least five run ins with campus police which led to his suspension. Loughner dropped out of high school during his senior year. He was rejected from the Army, reportedly for failing a drug test. On YouTube and MySpace, he ranted against government "mind control" and illiteracy. We also know that Loughner's family were described as "loners" by neighbors.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Judy Clarke, who represented "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and assisted in the case of confessed al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui, has been appointed to represent Jared Lee Loughner, the man charged by federal authorities with two murders as well as the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and two others.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Justice Department just filed charges against Jared Lee Loughner for a count of attempting to kill Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), two counts of first degree murder of federal employees and two counts of attempted murder of federal employees. We've got a copy of the complaint from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona posted here.
FBI Special Agent Tony M. Taylor writes in a statement of probable cause that John M. Roll, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona who was killed yesterday, had worked with Giffords within the last several months to resolve issues related to the volume of cases filed in the District of Arizona. It seems to confirm the theory that Roll was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and that Loughner was targeting Giffords.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said law enforcement officials are no longer interested in the individual who they said earlier was possibly associated with the main suspect in Saturday's mass shooting in Arizona, Jared Loughner.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Update: At just before 3:30 ET, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik announced that they had cleared the person of interest.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department is asking the public for information on a second person of interest in the shootings in Arizona yesterday that included Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who remains in critical condition after being shot in the head.
Following the murder today of Arizona's Chief Federal Judge John McCarthy Roll at the shooting incident in Arizona, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service told TPM the federal agency is taking "appropriate actions to ensure the security of the federal judiciary."
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