Tragedy in Arizona

Gabrielle Giffords was doing what members of Congress do every week: She was home in Tucson to meet with her constituents.

Today, Giffords lies in critical condition in a Tucson hospital after one of those constituents opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun. Six people died in the attack; 14 were injured.

The madness at the Tucson shopping center Saturday morning raises old and troubling questions about gun violence in America and threatens a treasured American tradition: the right of the people to meet face to face with their elected representatives. But the violence also has sparked a discussion about the underlying coarseness in our political debate, a discussion that could be helpful if it leads to a more reasonable political dialogue.

Giffords, 40, a Democrat, had been an outspoken opponent of Arizona's punitive immigration law and last year voted for the controversial health care reform bill. She was threatened after the health care vote, and a window in her district office was broken.

John M. Roll, 63, the chief judge for federal court in Arizona, was among those killed. A respected jurist, he had been in the middle of some of the state's most contentious immigration cases. He had received death threats.

Five others died, including Christina Taylor Green, a 9-year-old who came to Gifford's constituent meeting because, having just been elected to her student council, she wanted to learn more about how government works. Born on Sept. 11, 2001, her death may become a heartbreaking symbol of another tragedy.

Giffords won a bruising re-election race in November against Jesse Kelly, an Iraq war veteran supported by the tea party movement who accused Giffords of betraying her district. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin targeted 20 Democrat-held districts for defeat in the November election, posting a map on her website studded with cross hairs - a needlessly inflammatory action.

Giffords' district was one of them.

American politics is often vitriolic, a field of play in which demonization and shrillness too often replace common sense and reason. The left's treatment of former President George W. Bush comes to mind, as does the right's harangues against President Barack Obama. House Speaker John Boehner was wise to delay a vote, scheduled for Wednesday, on a controversial bill to repeal health care reform.

But investing this rampage with too much political context is facile. Although he apparently targeted Giffords, the shooter's motives may never be known or be coherent if they are discovered. Jared Loughner, 22, the alleged attacker, has a history of strange and threatening behavior.

Loughner should seem disturbingly familiar to Americans. In 2007, Seung Hui Cho slaughtered 32 people at Virginia Tech. Like Loughner, he easily purchased a weapon. Like Loughner, he exhibited increasingly strange behavior before the shootings.

Loughner got his gun, a 9mm Glock with an extended clip, at a retailer in November. By that time, his abnormal behavior already had gotten him thrown out of a local community college. The alleged shooter had two clips of 31 bullets each, police said.

Such a weapon is "not suited for hunting or personal protection," Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, told The New York Times. "What it's good for is killing and injuring a lot of people quickly." Civilians have no need for such high-capacity magazines. The lapsed federal ban on assault weapons, which would prohibit such weapons, should be reinstated.

Security for members of Congress is being reassessed, as is proper. We hope members of the people's house do not shrink from meeting the people as a result of this tragedy.

More than anything, we hope that Giffords recovers and perhaps one day returns to Congress to serve the people of Arizona's 8th District.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM