The tragic news on Saturday of the shooting of a congresswoman and a Federal judge in Arizona was quite troubling. (At last report, six dead and 13 wounded.) Chief Judge John Roll of the U.S. District Court for Arizona was killed and Representative Gabrielle Giffords was badly injured but is expected to recover.
Who is the suspect? Jared Lee Loughner, age 22. His YouTube channel makes him appear to be a certifiable flag-burning lunatic, and possibly a mind control subject. His list of favorite books included: “Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Wizard Of OZ, Aesop Fables, The Odyssey, Alice Adventures Into Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, Peter Pan, To Kill A Mockingbird, We The Living, Phantom Toll Booth, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Pulp, Through The Looking Glass, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha, The Old Man And The Sea, Gulliver’s Travels, Mein Kampf, The Republic, and Meno.” Somehow, I expected to see: “The Catcher in the Rye” on the list.
So what is he? A communist? A neo-Nazi? Or is just your basic Looney Tune? And what about the name Loughner? (Loner? Lone gunman?) Or Lugner? (That is German for “liar”.) This whole episode is surely going to prompt plenty of Conspiracy Theory
The sad truth is that we live in a world where there are loonies and radicals (and looney radicals–the most dangerous sort) wandering the streets. The world is a dangerous place.
One part of the Arizona tragedy that will surely be overlooked by the mass media is that the outcome would have been much different if we had a better-armed citizenry. If there had been several private citizens present armed with guns, then the assassin might very well have been stopped before he had the time to shoot so many people. At least Arizona has reasonable gun laws. (Open carry is legal, as is Vermont style no-permit concealed carry.)
I suspect that Mayor Bloomberg and his band of fools will try to use this tragedy as an excuse for more so-called “gun control”. Most likely they’ll ask for another magazine ban (a la the idiotic 1994-2004 ban), since the shooter reportedly used a pistol with an extended magazine. They might also use this to denigrate Vermont-style concealed carry.