Note: the video is a montage set to the song “I’d Take Away the Guns” by Cheryl Wheeler; not footage of shooting. – amanda
If you watched the news at all yesterday (I missed it, myself), you know that Jan. 8, 2012 was the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting in Tucson, AZ that left six people dead and 13 wounded, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, who has been undergoing extensive physical and speech therapy, was able to climb the stairs of an outdoor stage at the University of Arizona, walk with assistance, and lead the Pledge of Allegiance for a memorial service commemorating the event yesterday. Jared Loughner, the mentally ill young man who committed the shooting, had been determined unfit to stand trial and is since being medicated in a Missouri prison facility in an effort to make him mentally ready for trial.
Last year, a week after the shootings, Eric covered the charts for the incident plus the natal charts for Giffords and Loughner in a premium subscriber issue titled, Beneath the Guns and Politics, Gender Rage. In part, it’s an especially fascinating case study of the roles that the centaur planets can play, as well as Eris and Mars (two planets highlighted in today’s Full Moon configuration). Even more uncanny are the astrological connections, in the case of these two people, between perpetrator and victim.
One important question raised by Democracy Now! in light of this anniversary is: In the wake of calls for more thorough background checks and better handgun regulation after last year’s shooting, what exactly has changed? The infuriating answer is actually worse than ‘not much’. Apparently, if anything, it has gotten easier for someone to purchase a gun in the U.S. The rush transcript was not yet available at the time of this posting, but you can watch the segment of today’s show here, which features an interview with Colin Goddard. He is a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that left 32 people dead, and has since worked tirelessly for gun control. He tells Amy Goodman, “I think a lot of Americans already think that we do background checks on everybody and are surprised to learn that we don’t … at the minimum we should be doing a background check.”
Personally, I think I’m with Cheryl Wheeler in the video above.
One of the things about this whole story that has made me shake my head is how Jared Loughner is being “made fit” to stand trial. Think about that.
dammit –sorry kristal! i can never get that one right despite otherwise being an excellent speller. what i really can’t believe is that spellcheck did not give it a red underline as i was writing the draft. weird…
Thank you for covering this. Tucson is a special place, we struggle against a lot of critical issues right here at the frontline: immigration, gun control, (mental) healthcare, and academic freedom. This weekend was an example of what a special community this is, as we came together to remember and we’re set to come together tomorrow to defend our state’s attack on our local ethnic studies program. With that said…can you spell our name right? 🙂
Amanda: Thank you for posting this and for the hyperlinks. The plain fact is there are simply too many guns, unless their purpose is otherwise than stated by those who manufacture and sell them.
I’ve been on the stop-NRA bandwagon all my adult life, so you’re preaching to the chior here with me. It is beyond insane to me that guns are so easy to get for anyone, let alone people with serious mental health issues.
I’ve sat by for what seems like ever waiting for someone to discuss this issue in a calm rational manner and, as we all know, it just doesn’t’ happen. We do nothing for the mentally ill and leave them to their own devices and then wonder how and why people shoot up post offices and universities and one extraordinary congresswoman named Gabrille Giffords.
If nothing else in this nutty environment, perhaps Congresswoman Giffords will take this issue somewhere productive. We could and must do so much better than this. And, after 20some years of fury at the gun lobby, I actually find some common ground with the NRA — it’s not just about the gun. So perhaps we all find some common ground here and move forward.
mm.