– Last March, Giffords raised concerns about inflammatory rhetoric after her office was vandalized, and she cited how her name appeared on a website titled "Take back the 20" as part of a list originally issued by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in March 2010 against vulnerable House Democrats.
Sarah Palin's "Crosshairs Map"
– The list, which named 20 House members who voted for health care reform, showed crosshairs over the contested Democratic districts. Rep. Giffords' name is on the hit list.
– At the time, Giffords responded to the map by saying on MSNBC that her long-serving colleagues had "never seen anything like it." "The thing is, the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district," Giffords said in March. "When people do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action."
– A day after Giffords voted in favor of health care reform, a glass panel at her Tucson office was shattered.
So you see this kind of inflammatory rhetoric, which Palin said was "harmless" is just the kind of thing that incites acts of violence. Putting crosshairs on a map was certainly not subtle, now we have 6 people dead & 10 who had surgery & in critical condition, 3 who sustained lessor injuries.
Nine year olds should not be dying in grocery store parking lots because someone disagrees with a political point of view. There are civilized ways to deal with opposing viewpoints, including running for office yourself.
Giffords’ 75-yr old father, at her side in the hospital, was asked by a local newsperson if his daughter had any enemies. “Yep”, he said, “every damn person in the tea party”.
Sympathies to all involved. This is a needless tragedy.
