Pima County Sherriff Says Arizona Gun Laws Contributed to Saturday's Shooting

It didn't take long for the usual suspects to begin calling for more gun control in the wake of Saturday's shooting in Arizona.  Law abiding gun owners have come to expect the gun ban lobby to use a tragedy to advance a political agenda.  You can add Pima County Arizona Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik to the list of those who at least think Arizona's gun laws made it easier for the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner to commit his horrible act.

"We're the Tombstone of the United States of America," Dupnik said, referring to the Arizona town known for its gun-slinging past. "I have never been a proponent of letting everybody in the state carry weapons wherever they are. That's almost where we are."

But the narrative from others talking to the media are focusing more on "heated political rhetoric" instead of gun control.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared the Arizona shootings to the "extremism faced in other countries."  Even the Brady Campaign added a reference to "heated political rhetoric" to their missive on the shooting.

The narrative of those on the left, including the Pima County Sheriff,  goes something like this - the horror could be traced to the influence of American conservatives; members of the Tea Party; right leaning pundits Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck; former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin; and Fox News.  But none of the rantings of the shooter even mention any of them.  Sheriff Dupnik told Fox News' Megyn Kelly that the "vitriol" of the country's harshly polarized political climate was partly to blame, arguing that unbalanced individuals are uniquely "susceptible" to vitriol. Dupnik added:

We see one party trying to block the attempts of another party to make this a better country.

Kelly asked Dupnik if he had any proof that Loughner was "influenced by political vitriol" to which he responded it was his opinion.

Fox News Special Report panel member Charles Krauthammer thought that all of the talk of this being political was irresponsible with there being no evidence that politics played a role in Loughner's actions.



The statists will use anything to try and take away freedom, whether it is our Second Amendment freedom or our right to freedom of political speech. We must be vigilent, and we must not allow them to use the acts of one individual to paint us all with a broad brush.

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