The tragic shootings in Tuscon, Arizona, have left our country shaken to the core. I sat glued to my television on Saturday afternoon, flipping channels as I soaked up the coverage. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was originally pronounced dead by several media outlets, but she miraculously survived a gunshot to the head by gunman Jared Lee Loughner. Representative Giffords was holding her regular “Congress on Your Corner” with her constituents at a Safeway grocery store. Six were killed and thirteen were wounded on Saturday.
The dead identified by the Pima County sheriff’s office are U.S. District Judge John Roll, sixty-three; Dorothy Murray, seventy-six; Dorwin Stoddard, seventy-six; Christina Greene, nine; Phyllis Scheck, seventy-nine; Gabe Zimmerman, thirty. Ironically, nine-year-old Christina Greene was born on September 11, 2001. She had been excited about the political process since the election of President Obama. Christina was newly elected to her school’s student council. She went with her neighbor to meet Representative Giffords, and to learn more about the political process. Along with Representative Giffords, twelve others are still hospitalized.
The attempted assassination of Representative Giffords is very similar to the Fort Hood, Texas, mass shooting that took place on November 5, 2009. A gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, killed thirteen people and wounded thirty others. Both shooters were struggling with mental issues. Automatic weapons were used both times to shoot innocent individuals. Both men were loners, and many stated they acted weird and express anti-government sentiments prior to the shootings. Thankfully, Jared Lee Loughner was denied acceptance into the army because of drug use, and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist, was becoming increasing agitated by an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.
