Jared Loughner is alleged to have killed six people and wounded 13 others including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the target of the attack in a shooting rampage outside a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona on Jan. 8. Minutes after the news broke, left-wing bloggers and pundits began trying to pin the blame for the shootings on right-wing politicians and commentators. Unfortunately, few people have raised the more important question: How did a deranged man such as Loughner get his hands on a semi-automatic handgun in the first place?
Loughner was not exactly your typical political junkie. On YouTube, he listed his favorite books such as "The Communist Manifesto," "Alice in Wonderland," "Animal Farm" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and posted many bizarre videos. He had been kicked out of community college and had been involved in previous altercations with the police. The day before his shooting spree, he took pictures of himself with his handgun while wearing a red G-string. There is no evidence that he had any involvement with the Tea Party or similar groups.
None of this seemed to matter for many political pundits in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. Partisans on the left knew who was to blame for the shootings right-wing pundits in general and Sarah Palin in particular and they were not about to let the evidence get in their way. Left-wing commentators focused especially on Palin's infamous "crosshairs" map, which depicted a gun's crosshairs over traditionally conservative congressional districts represented by Democratic congresspeople, including Giffords' district. The partisans of the right then dug up numerous examples of Democrat political advertisements from the last election that also used target and crosshair symbols. Politico quoted an unnamed "veteran Democratic operative" saying that the Democrats' top priority should be "to deftly pin this on the Tea Partiers."
While ideologues attempted to villainize their opponents, few brought up the one controllable factor directly responsible for this tragedy: guns. In one of the best speeches of his presidency, President Barack Obama admirably condemned attempts to politicize the tragedy. But not even he has questioned Loughner's ability to purchase such a deadly weapon.
In every first-world country besides the United States, no one can legally buy a semi-automatic Glock handgun, the weapon that Loughner used in the attack. Prior to 2004, the extended, 31-bullet magazine that Loughner used was illegal in America. The United States is the only first-world country with nearly as many guns as people, a reality that shows in international homicide statistics 30,000 Americans are killed annually by firearms , several times the rate of annual firearm homicides per capita in any other first-world country.
However, for gun control to become politically feasible, laws will have to treat hunting rifles and shotguns differently than handguns. The real divide between pro- and anti-gun Americans is regional, not political. Rural areas are generally pro-gun rights because people associate "guns" with "rifles and shotguns to be used for hunting." Urban areas are generally pro-gun control because people associate "guns" with "handguns used to murder people." This regional divide is why Ms. Giffords, a Democratic Congresswoman from Arizona, publicly opposed gun control. Of the firearm homicides in the United States, only 4 percent are committed with rifles and 5 percent with shotguns, while more than 75 percent are committed with handguns. Given that implementing greater controls on handguns will probably require a constitutional amendment, a broad political coalition is required. Thus, a proposal to restrict access to handguns but not rifles and shotguns is the most feasible way forward.
It is unethical for individuals to attempt to capitalize on this heart-wrenching tragedy for partisan political gain rather than channeling the current national mood into efforts to prevent similar tragedies in the future. This tragedy teaches us not that an entire right-wing sector of Americans is crazy, but rather that we need to prevent truly crazy people from getting access to handguns. The disgusting political accusations and counter-accusations that were made in the aftermath of Tucson shootings were not only wrong but also unproductive. An unusual amount of political unity will be needed for America to tighten its control of handguns. Our vitriolic partisan punditry has only hindered that aim.
