Gabrielle Giffords is shot

By The Economist online

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot and severely wounded and several other people have died in Tucson, Arizona

MORE than a dozen people have been wounded and six are reported dead after a gunman opened fire on a gathering centred around Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives. Mrs Giffords, who is 40, was speaking to constituents in front of a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, when a lone gunman shot her in the head at close range. John Roll, a district judge, and a nine-year-old girl are confirmed casualties of the attack. Mrs Giffords, a three-term congresswoman and no stranger to violent threats in her district, is described as being in a critical condition. Her doctors say they are cautiously optimistic about her recovery, but add that it is too soon to make predictions.

Both Barack Obama and John Boehner, the new Republican speaker of the House, have made statements lamenting the attack. Mr Boehner called it, “a sad day for our country." Mr Obama said that “such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society” and asked Americans to pray for the victims and their families.

The question hovering in the background [our Lexington columnist writes on his blog] after such tragedies is whether the killer was motivated by politics. Gabrielle Giffords is known as a moderate, pro-business Democrat. She is Jewish, and a proponent of immigration reform in a state where illegal immigration has become an inflammatory issue in recent years. One tea-party group, the Tea Party Nation, has already issued a statement predicting that "the left is going to blame this on the tea-party movement".

The shooting may turn out to have had nothing at all to do with politics. But if it was motivated by politics—domestic politics—there will now ensue a great debate about the sometimes hateful tone of electioneering in America. Without wishing to pre-empt that discussion, is it too much to ask politicians who use apocalyptic language to remember that inflammatory words can have dangerous consequences? I was struck at the swearing-in of the 112th Congress earlier this week by the good grace and cheer of both parties as power was transferred from Democrats to Republicans. It was as if all the rancour of the mid-terms had been turned off like a switch. That's a relatively easy trick for most of the worldly types who fight elections. They know that besmirching opponents, impugning their motives and stirring up exaggerated fears about the future are all part of the democratic game. Out in the audience, however, there will sometimes be a credulous soul who never understood that it was a game.

Big news stories go through a strange period of suspended animation before enough facts become available to shape a narrative. We are still learning about Mrs Gifford's suspected attacker, a 22-year-old called Jared Lee Loughner. Evidence taken from Mr. Loughner's home suggests that he planned to assassinate Mrs Gifford. He has been charged with two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder.

If it emerges that the attacker is mentally ill, is a gun enthusiast, a religious fundamentalist, or has any kind of political affiliation, the story of the terrible event that took place in Tucson on January 8th will take on a different meaning. Even then any explanation offered will only make superficial sense of the shooting. The killer's motives are likely to be pathetic and banal and, therefore, unfathomable.

Photo credit: EPA