It was a difficult weekend for America. At the most quintessential of American gatherings — a town-hall type meeting where a legislator wanted to listen to and interact with constituents, gunshots rang out. In mere seconds, six people lost their lives, and 13 others, including a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, were injured.
Minutes after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, pundits and politicians alike began to use the events as a wedge. With absolutely no evidence, everyone from the local sheriff to a New York Times columnist and others across the political left began the blame game. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's blog post implied that the shooting was the result of "the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc." He added, "Violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate."
Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerry — again with no evidence whatsoever — said that "one of the reasons this guy was angry" was the impending repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Others piled on, using the actions of a single individual as pretext for everything from proposing new laws about "hate speech" and new gun control laws.
