Irony

Tucson, the town that was unable to stop a mentally unstable person from getting a gun, killing 6 and injuring 13, has suddenly found the "strength" to arrest a mentally unstable man: they've arrested a victim of the shooting who is upset about the fact that guns are so available and make life so dangerous that you can't go to an open meeting with a Congressional representative outside your local supermarket. Ironic!

Double dip the irony: the guy who represents the party of "no restrictions on guns, give guns to everybody, guns are a Constitutional right!" walks away chuckling while the victim of a gun shooting has been locked up for "mandatory evaluation".

Here are a few bits from a report from the NY Times:

A victim of the shooting spree here that killed six people and wounded 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was arrested Saturday after he spoke threateningly at a televised forum intended to help this stricken city heal, the police and witnesses said.

The man, J. Eric Fuller, 63, a military veteran who supports Ms. Giffords, was involuntarily committed for a 72-hour mental health evaluation, said Jason Ogan, a spokesman for the Pima County sheriff’s office.

The sheriff's office has forwarded charges against Mr. Fuller of threats and intimidation, as well as disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, to the county attorney's office, Mr. Ogan said.

Mr. Fuller, who was shot in the left knee and back on Jan. 8, was among several victims, medical personnel and others who attended a special forum at St. Odilia Catholic Church hosted by Christiane Amanpour to be televised Sunday on ABC.

I wasn't there. I don't know the details. But I find it exceedingly odd that the guy who supports unrestricted weapons plays the "victim" while the guy who was shot twice by a maniac is deemed "unstable" arrested and forceably detained as suspected of "mental instability". I guess this poor soul should have gotten on his knees and declared "Lord! I've seen the light! Bless the guns! Please pass out a gun to everybody. Let the toddlers have semi-automatics so they can defend their Constitutional rights when their parents won't give them ice cream for dinner! Let the maniacs have assault rifles so they can press their crazed political arguments more passionately in a crowd. And of course, let the students go armed to the teeth, bandoleers strapped across their chests, a long gun slung over their back and a pair of pistols in their belt so that they can ensure a more 'productive' learning environment in school!"

Again, I wasn't there. Maybe Fuller truly is unstable, but my guess-from-a-distance is that he is a man pushed past the point he can bear after being attacked by a maniac and having to put up with a representative of a party that argues more guns, not less guns, is the "solution" to society's problems. Sorry. But I feel that Fuller should have been sympathized with. And I would have thought that Humphries should have been escorted from the meeting just like you would escort a white guy in full KKK regalia from a meeting of the NAACP. It isn't the local secretary of the NAACP who is unhinged. It is the KKK guy who insists on his "rights" to attend meetings and spout off just after his group has burned crosses all over town and bombed the local church killing little black children. But just like in the late 1950s and early 1960s, I see the police arresting the victim while defending the "rights" of the fanatic. Strange!

Here is a more charitable interpretation of what happened. From the UK's Daily Mail:

Fuller was in the front row and apparently became upset when Humphries suggested that any conversations about gun control should be delayed until all the dead were buried, KGUN-TV in Tucson reported.

Fuller stood, turned and snapped a picture of Humphries, said Pima County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jason Ogan.

'Then he yelled at him and said, 'You're dead,'' Mr Ogan said.
It is not clear what Fuller's aim was, but he may have been attempting to make a point about gun control - using his camera in lieu of a gun to demonstrate how quickly firearms can kill.

This account rings true to me. A victim was driven to rage by a gun advocate trying to squelch any debate, so he stood up and tried to make a point with his camera of just how easily, how quickly, people can be killed if you let guns be as easy to access as weapons.

Again... I don't know the truth. But I find it ironic and unsettling that a victim of a crime is arrested while a political representative of the very party advocating easy access to guns walks free. Something is seriously unbalanced in that society, and it isn't clear to me that Eric Fuller is the one who is mentally unstable.