Giffords shooting sparks US debate

By Tom Braithwaite and Richard McGregor in Washington and Matthew Garrahan in Tucson

Published: January 9 2011 17:59 | Last updated: January 10 2011 18:37

Candles surround a portrait of Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in the head in a Tucson, Arizona, shooting spree

President Barack Obama led a minute’s silence on Monday at the White House to honour the six dead and 14 wounded in Arizona ahead of a scheduled court appearance by the 22-year-old man charged with the killings.

The White House ceremony was mirrored on the steps of the Capitol, where workers from Congress and government agencies also gathered to show respect for the victims gunned down at a political meeting outside a Tucson supermarket on Saturday.

The alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was due to appear in court in Tucson on Monday afternoon.

He has been charged on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress, Gabrielle Giffords, and two other counts of attempted murder. The initial charges relate to the attacks on federal officials.

Mr Loughner was due to be represented by Judy Clarke, the lawyer who also defended Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber.

Investigators said they had discovered evidence that Mr Loughner planned the attack on Ms Giffords. At his home, they found an envelope with the phrases“I planned ahead” and “My assassination”, along with the name “Giffords” and what appeared to be his signature.

Ms Giffords remains in a critical but stable condition, her doctors said. “I would say the best way of describing her is that she is holding her own,” Dr Michael Lemole said.

Democrats and Republicans appealed for calm but the aftermath of the shooting could be fraught for both parties, especially if the bipartisan front breaks down over attempts to tie the incident directly to the political invective of the past two years.

Ms Giffords, a 40-year-old Democratic congresswoman for Tucson, was shot on Saturday by a lone gunman who also killed John Roll, a federal judge, and five others, including a nine-year-old girl. Thirteen others were wounded.

Doctors were cautiously optimistic about Ms Giffords’s recovery in spite of a “devastating wound” to her brain.

Mr Loughner, a 22-year-old college dropout who had posted rambling videos to the YouTube website, was charged on Sunday with five criminal counts, including murder and attempted assassination.

The FBI said the suspect could face more charges in Arizona, which retains the death penalty.

In spite of the bipartisan condemnation of the shooting, there was a notice­able split on whether to link the incident to the broader political atmosphere.

Clarence Dupnik, the local Democratic sheriff for Pima County, blamed a raucous political discourse and criticised local gun laws as too lax. Ms Giffords, though, is a long-time gun owner and self-avowed “strong supporter” of the second amendment right to bear arms.

“The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous,” said Mr Dupnik. “And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

The acrimonious healthcare debate first led politicians to warn that the charged climate, including vehement protests against the president and the dramatic rise of the conservative Tea Party movement, could spark violence.

Ms Giffords herself had complained about an image on a website run by the political action committee of Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and potential Republican presidential candidate, that depicted crosshairs on districts of targeted Democrats, including hers. “When people do that they’ve got to realise there’s consequences to that action,” she told MSNBC in March.

But Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican representative from Washington, told Fox News Sunday: “As far as we know, [Mr Loughner] is not tied to a political movement and this wasn’t a politically motivated act. I think it’s important that we recognise that this is an individual who had mental challenges.”

Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky who was elected in November with the backing of the Tea Party, said: “Weapons don’t kill people. It’s the individual that kills these people.”

Mr Obama called congressional leaders and also the families of some of the victims, leading a concerted effort by political leaders to maintain calm in the wake of the incident.

“What Americans do at times of tragedy is to come together and support each other,” he said.