By PETER WORTHINGTON

11 Jan 2011

The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six and wounding of 14 others in Tucson, is one of those American tragedies that threatens to be interpreted according to what one wants to believe.

The shootings will be argued over and debated as more information comes forward, but what’s unavoidable is that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was a nutbar through and through, and there was no way he could have been deterred.

Arizona’s curious (to Canadians) gun laws that permit concealed weapons to be carried by anyone, are blamed by those who seek more gun controls. Ironically, Ms. Giffords was not one of those, and advertised herself as a Glock owner and a good shot.

Nor should left and right ideologues seek to blame each other for Loughner — although elements will try to. It’s unlikely he ever listened to talk radio or TV, and he had contempt for American traditions.

Inevitably some seek to blame Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for ads during the mid-term elections last November that showed various Democracts (including Giffords) targeted in the crosshairs of a gunsight.

Politicians have mostly avoided the Palin connection, although in Cuba, Fidel Castro has blamed the Tea Party, as have commentators in Russia.

Giffords was a conservative Democrat, and like most Arizonans was upset at the porous border with Mexico and the influx of illegal immigrants, and about drug killings across the border.

Apparently, she used to be a Republican and was respected and well-liked by all who knew or dealt with her — Republicans and Democrats. Feeling is such, that her shooting may even persuade all parties to be a bit more civilized towards one another and curb the polemics.

Tragedy has a way of uniting Americans.

Some U.S. commentators view Loughner as having “fallen through the cracks.” This is always said when nutbar shootings occur, be they Muslim army psychiatrists at Fort Hood, or at an Arkansas recruiting centre.

In this case it is wrong — Loughner fell through no cracks. Although he was weird, there was no way he could legally have been stopped.

One wonders about this guy’s parents. What are they like, what is their reaction, what was their role in his life?

The shooting may have been political in Loughner’s mind, but any guy attracted to the Communist Manifesto and Hitler’s Mein Kampf and who was rejected when he tried to join the army, is missing a screw or two.

While shootings are common in America, political assassinations are rare. Celebrity assassinations are a bigger danger.

In 1901, President William McKinley died after being shot by an anarchist. Since then, assassinations and attempts have been mostly by demented individuals.

Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John Kennedy in 1963 for reasons unknown, but the 1968 shootings of Martin Luther King (a racist assassination?), Robert Kennedy, and the 1972 shooting of Alabama Governor George Wallace, the 1975 attempt on Gerald Ford and the 1981 wounding of Ronald Reagan...all smacked more of celebrity shootings — like John Lennon in 1980.

At the Tucson shooting, everyone seems to have acted well, even bravely. Ms. Giffords’ survival may have hinged on an intern’s quick and selfless treatment, while a 62-year-old woman prevented the gunman from reloading to continue firing.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s condemnation of “prejudice and bigotry,” while valid, had nothing to do with what motivated Loughner to pull the trigger. That is still a mystery.