Can anyone explain to me why they picked Gabrielle Giffords to shoot?

[KentuckyWoman]

you'd think if the redneck hillbillies that worship the Quitter were going to shoot anyone it would be someone ethnic.

Trump's rhetoric and the fact he's resurrected Sparklemoose just has me wondering what damage she'll do this time and the fact I never did understand why on earth they picked Gabrielle Giffords.

[linuxman]

1. If by they you mean he,

I suppose it's because he was crazier than a shit house rat.

[rufus dog]

3. Simple answer

And also the crazy shit house rat lived in Tucson, as did Gifords.

[mikehiggins]

2. Cause, guns, y'know?

Congressperson Giffords made entirely too much sense. That loser had to shut her up. And those other people? Well, they were listening to her. One little girl was there just to meet Gabby. Well, he sure taught her a lesson in how important Amendment Two is.

[hack89]

11. Gabby is a gun owner who shoots for recreation

she opposed the DC ban on guns in the home and signed a amicus brief to that effect that went to the Supreme Court.

She was not shot because of her views on guns.

[beevul]

25. Lets remember what the parents of the little girl said

John green:

"we don't need any more restrictions on our society"

"If we live in a country like the United States where we are more free than
anywhere else, we are subject to things like this happening, and I think thats the price we have to pay."

[CBGLuthier]

4. Redneck hillbillies? She was shot by a mentally ill man from Arizona.

Your bigotry betrays you.

[pipoman]

5. You ever been to Kentucky?

....if everyone you see is a martian you soon believe martians are everywhere....

[KentuckyWoman]

14. Well there's at least one in Alaska

Sparklemoose. You can bet your last nickle that any follower of the Quitter's is a redneck hillbilly too..... mentally ill or not.

But alas, the point of my post was completely lost.....

[pipoman]

17. It's your own fault for putting forward a conspiracy theory

When the truth is a single mental patient acting completely alone.

[KentuckyWoman]

20. Actually no I didn't

What I did is not make myself and my point clear. A couple people in the thread understood. Most did not. Since so few understood then I have to take the blame for not being clear enough.

My experience on DU is that it's a complete waste of time trying to clarify once it's misunderstood. It's OK. Cheese happens. No biggie.

[SheilaT]

6. It wasn't "they" who shot her,

but a specific person who brought his gun to that place.

People who do things like this aren't thinking rationally, the way most of us are thinking. We think things like, "I wonder if I should go to Taco Bell today?" or "Should I call my mom this afternoon," or, "Is that book overdue at the library?"

No, people who go off and shoot the local Congressional Representative aren't thinking even remotely rationally like that. They've somehow decided that going to a public space and opening fire is what they want to do. Of course, the amazing availability of guns in our culture makes this astonishingly easy, but that's not even necessarily the point -- although I must say that I'm in favor of total gun confiscation -- although you may have noticed that in other countries, where guns are (oddly enough) not so readily available, their Congressional Representatives or their equivalents don't very often get shot down. How strange is that?

But to answer your question, there is not the kind of thought process involved that most of us use to decide what TV show to watch. The decision to take a gun and go shoot someone, and all those around her, just isn't in the ballpark with other kinds of decisions.

At least that's my take on things.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. I don't think it is that simple.

"...were going to shoot anyone it would be someone ethnic."

I know this just sticks in the craw of some people, but Jews are a minority, some ethnically so. There are those who would happily gun down Jews and there are conspiracy theories involving Jews trying to take people's guns. So, the shooter may have been mentally ill, but the possibility his choice was because she was an "anti-gun Jew" can always exist as a possibility.

[Mc Mike]

10. That's what I would say, too.

She was the first Jewish congresswoman elected in the state. Interesting that Palin, after getting criticism for her bullseye target graphic prior to the shooting that included Giffords, hurled projective charges at her critics of 'blood libel'.

[ileus]

8. Was there a they???

[Odin2005]

9. They? It was one guy with Schizophrenia.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

12. Did the shooter also have multiple personality disporder?

[Tanuki]

13. I have always thought that the ultimate goal of all her violent rhetoric was President Obama.

http://www.thenation.com/article/its-not-game-sarah-palin-and-madness-march/
It was chilling to read "Shoot with accuracy; aim high" "if the gate is closed go over the fence" "never retreat, instead RELOAD" etc.:

"From the shot across the bow —the first second’s tip-off —your leaders will be in the enemy’s crosshairs, so you must execute strong defensive tactics. You won’t win only playing defense, so get on offense! The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons—your Big Guns—to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win. Focus on the goal and fight for it. If the gate is closed, go over the fence. If the fence is too high, pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, parachute in. If the other side tries to push back, your attitude should be "go for it." Get in their faces and argue with them. (Sound familiar?!) Every possession is a battle; you’ll only win the war if you’ve picked your battles wisely. No matter how tough it gets, never retreat, instead RELOAD! "
-------------------------------

Knowing that a mentally ill Hinckley tried to assassinate Reagan in a confused "plan" to impress Jodie Foster, it is not entirely paranoid to imagine that Palin and her handlers were hoping there was someone out there so disturbed as to heed her words and put them into action.

[KentuckyWoman]

16. That was my thought as well.

It was just so weird one of the loons picked Gabby.

[backscatter712]

23. Like I said, stochastic terrorism. n/t

[MosheFeingold]

15. The shooter was delusional

After much inquiry, there was no known link to politics.

He was a drug-using schizophrenic and had paranoid fantasies involving George W. Bush and Rep. Giffords.

A loon, basically.

[mercuryblues]

18. she won by 4000 votes

in a red state. The political climate, thanks to the tea baggers and palin, was extremely volatile. Palin was not the only one who targeted Giffords with violent rhetoric. Her opponent, Jesse Kelly was equally obnoxious and local.

Back in June 2010, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's (D-AZ) Republican opponent Jesse Kelly had an event at which voters could shoot an assault rifle with the candidate, promoted as thus:


Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/flashback-giffords-opponent-had-m16-shooting-event-help-remove-gabrielle-giffords-from-office

The shooter had become fixated on Giffords at some point in 2007. Palin's and Jesse Kelly's antagonistic speech directed towards Giffords fed into his delusions to the point where he shot her.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

19. She was accessible.

[Atman]

21. Convenience

I doubt the guy followed politics enough to know, or care, who he was shooting. He was just gonna git one of them evil politicians. Giffords was nearby.

It makes me sad...I did many of Gabby's mailings and 'franking' pieces (those "Notes from your Congressman" you get in the mail). She was a tough client. At one point the firm wanted to fire her as a client because she was so difficult to work with. But I fought in her defense (and we kept her as a client). She wasn't difficult, she just knew what she wanted, she knew what she liked. So every creative piece had to have cacti and Arizona sunsets in it...stop trying to convince her to try something different! She knows her constituents. Her being "difficult" to the front office actually made her easy to work with back in the art department. You always knew when you started a creative piece to get pictures of cacti and sunsets!

[backscatter712]

22. It was random. That's how stochastic terrorism works.

The right-wing politicians and right-wing media repeatedly demonizes the targets, until some deranged dipshit goes postal and takes a shot at one of them. Then when people rightly complain about the demonization, they do the "Who, me? Nobody could have predicted it!" routine.

Another example: the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs - the right wing continually demonized them with the whole "Planned Parenthood sells baby parts!" routine until this particular psycho lost his shit and went on a shooting rampage.

[Wounded Bear]

24. Pretty much this....^^^

The ultimate plausible deniability.

[mwrguy]

26. He had gotten into a bizarre argument with Giffords on a prior occasion

Tierney, who's also 22, recalls Loughner complaining about a Giffords event he attended during that period. He's unsure whether it was the same one mentioned in the charges—Loughner "might have gone to some other rallies," he says—but Tierney notes it was a significant moment for Loughner: "He told me that she opened up the floor for questions and he asked a question. The question was, 'What is government if words have no meaning?'"

"He said, 'Can you believe it, they wouldn't answer my question.' Ever since that, he thought she was fake, he had something against her."
Giffords' answer, whatever it was, didn't satisfy Loughner. "He said, 'Can you believe it, they wouldn't answer my question,' and I told him, 'Dude, no one's going to answer that,'" Tierney recalls. "Ever since that, he thought she was fake, he had something against her."



http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/jared-lee-loughner-friend-voicemail-phone-message

[Behind the Aegis]

27. When the right is less cagey and more open...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141341579

[davidn3600]

28. The shooter was a paranoid schizophrenic

It's likely he never even saw that Palin advertisement.

The guy was delusional and paranoid with all sorts of weird government conspiracies. He's been declared legally insane.

[Dont call me Shirley]

29. That should have landed her a stint in jail.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

30. There's plenty of answers as to why, if you bothered to do some research

Mainly that the man who did it, Jared Lee Loughner, had a run-in with her at a Town Hall meeting after he asked a nonsensical question related to his obsession with semantics, and she couldn't answer him because it made no sense to anyone with a brain which he saw as a sign of disrespect.

He's crazy.

I doubt he ever went to Sarah Palin's website.