Gabrielle Giffords being sworn in by House Speaker John Boehner
(Fox News January 8, 2011) Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was fatally shot by a gunman while holding a public event today. She was hosting the "Congress on Your Corner" event at Safeway Supermarket in Tucscon, Arizona. She was shot along with several other people. After first reading about the shooting on the Fox News.Com website earlier today, I linked onto another website which stated that she was fatally shot. Thankfully that wasn't a true statement. I spent a few hours this afternoon watching Shepherd Smith and Jon Scott on Fox News elaborating on the shooting. It was a very tragic and senseless shooting. I was checking YouTube, her own website, and other websites to try to learn more about this Congresswoman and her views. Giffords, who is known as "Gabby" to her colleagues on Capitol Hill, describes herself as a "Blue dog" Democrat who is a fiscal conservative and supposedly moderate on other issues. She's liberal on some issues. She is a gun owner and claims she supports the 2nd Amendment's right to bear arms. She is Jewish. She is a staunch abortion-rights advocate and also is a strong advocate of solar energy. She supported the healthcare bill which was passed by Congress on March 22, 2010 and signed by President Obama a day later. Her office in Tucscon was vandalized following the vote she cast for the new healthcare bill. She was criticized by Tea Party members due to her support of Obamacare. She was targeted by Sarah Palin on her website using images of gun sights to identify 20 Democrats, including Miss Giffords, for backing President Obama's new healthcare law. In an article from "World Net Daily", her father said that the whole Tea Party were her enemies.
Giffords is a three-term Democrat. She was first elected to Congress in 2006 amidst voter discontent with the Republican Party's performance in Congress and the presidency. Jeff Kolbe, the former Congressman of the eighth district in Arizona, chose not to run in 2006 so it left an open seat. In last year's election, she narrowly defeated Tea Party candidate Jesse Kelly in a close election contest. She was sworn in for her third term this past Wednesday. She also took part in the reading of the U.S. Constitution on Thursday, reciting the First Amendment. Yesterday, she was a guest on Fox News "American Newsroom" and was interviewed by Bill Hemmer. She is married to Mark E. Kelly, a NASA Astronaut. The bullet went all the way through her head. It went through her temples and came out through her forehead. As of this moment, she is responsive to doctor's commands. According to the latest news, authorities are now saying that Loughner might not have acted alone.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Giffords was the target of a gunman whom he described as mentally unstable and possibly acting along with an accomplice. He said Giffords was among 13 people wounded. As of what I know, a nine year old girl has been killed and a federal district court judge named John M. Roll was killed. Roll has served as District Judge for almost 20 years. He was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush in 1991. The name of the shooter in custody is Jared Loughner. Pima County Sheriff's officials say Loughner used a 9 mm pistol to carry out the attack. A former classmate stated that Loughner was a pot-smoking loner who had rambling beliefs about the world. He stated that there needed to be invented a new U.S. currency and complained about the illiteracy rate among the residents in the eighth Congressional district in which Giffords resides.
I want to say in closing that I hope Giffords recovers soon. As much as I'm opposed to her politics, there's no excuse for the wicked, unlawful assassination attempted by Loughner. The U.S. Constitution guarantees us a method for protesting unconstitutional laws. Every two years there are federal elections. If we are displeased with our elected representatives, we vote them out. Assassinating public officials is never justifiable. I can't imagine how the Left-wing media will be reacting to this in the next few days. I will speak more about this shooting in future posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment