Terrible news on Saturday: An insane druggie* carried out his berserk plan, shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords and 19 others. Eight of the wounded are still in the hospital, including the Congresswoman who remains in intensive care. Six people were killed — an aide to the Congresswoman, Arizona's chief federal judge, a 9-year-old girl, and three more of the Congresswoman's constituents who had come to her "Congress On Your Corner" event to talk with her.
What may be the more important part of the story is now, slowly, beginning to come out. Several people who were injured and expecting to be killed still fought to restrain the perpetrator. Several other people ran toward the gunshots to help. Among those are a guy who had just stopped to buy some cigarettes and a University of Arizona junior — hired as an intern in Giffords' office just a week earlier — who is probably the reason she is still alive.
That more important part is more like the Tucson I always knew. I grew up there, on the northwest side. I know well the area where the shooting occurred. I'm sure that, even this many years later, someone like Jared Loughner is an extreme aberration.
* Reportedly a "left-wing pot-head" with a backyard satanic altar. Definitely a left-wing substance abuser according to those who knew him.
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