Rachel Maddow and others on Loughner and guns

NOW I ought to be in the air on my way to Science Online 2011. I hope so.

I can’t properly blog about all the things I’m thinking about this. And I’m sure, since I’m writing this a few days in advance of publication, that more information will come out that provides more context to some of these links. However, I can say this — I am scared for Americans in a country that so values its “right to bear arms” that any attempt to make “arms” reasonable and limited, such that Loughner didn’t have the ability to fire 31 bullets without reloading, is quashed at the starting gate. And I am seriously concerned that politicians are being assassinated by idiots influenced by antigovernmental conspiracy theories, and that the political discourse contains popular people like Sarah Palin claiming “blood libel” when someone says “hey, maybe you shouldn’t be talking about ‘don’t retreat, reload’ and putting gunsights on politicians”. I’m just going to link a bunch of stuff below the fold. Tell me what you think. What are our options for restoring sanity to the political discourse? Is it possible in an environment where one is expected to only be able to take the 7.62mm anti-aircraft machine gun from someone’s “cold dead hands”?

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A crapload of links about the shooting and political fallout, without commentary:

Camels With Hammers – Indifference to the Facts of the Case
HuffPo – Black GOP Official Resigns, Citing Arizona Tea Party Threats
HuffPo – Rush Limbaugh: Jared Loughner Has ‘Full Support’ Of Democratic Party
Reuters – Disruptive Arizona suspect axed from online group
ABC News – Exclusive: Jared Loughner Radically Changed Before Alleged Shooting, Friend Says
Greg Laden – Should Gabby Gifford have been packing heat?
Abortion Gang – Connecting the Dots: Political Assassination, Rep. Giffords and Dr. Tiller
Queerty – Daniel Hernandez Jr., The Gay Intern That Kept Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Alive
Pharyngula – “Don’t politicize this tragedy!”
PhysOrg – Space flight by Giffords’ husband may be in doubt
PoliticsUSA – Sarah Palin’s Camp Says Depraved Liberals Blame Sarah Palin for Mass Murders
The Guardian UK – The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords highlights the ‘man-up’ culture in US politics
The Guardian UK – Jared Lee Loughner note reveals aim to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords
The Guardian UK – Gabrielle Giffords’s injury explained
Yahoo News – News outlets follow Loughner’s social media trail
News Junkie Post – Palin and Angle Didn’t Use Political Rhetoric, They Gave Jared Loughner Instructions.
News Junkie Post – Tucson’s Tragedy: A Symptom Of America’s Erotization Of Violence
The Atlantic – Sarah Palin Accuses Press of ‘Blood Libel’
Media Matters – CNN’s Erickson: In Wake Of Attempted Murder Of Jewish Politician, It’s Important To Stress “A Saving Faith In Jesus Christ”
Foreign Policy – A Very American Conspiracy Theory

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Rachel Maddow and others on Loughner and guns
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