Apparently, Tucson shooting victim Eric Fuller, a “63-year-old disabled veteran” who was hit in the knee and back by Jared Loughner’s gunfire, has not gotten the memo about America’s new civil discourse. Or the memo about there being absolutely no indication that Loughner was influenced or motivated by political rhetoric. Maybe that’s understandable, as he’s been pretty occupied recently with, you know, healing, which might not leave a ton of time for reading metaphorical memos. Still … now might be a good time to catch up on them. Here’s what he told the Democracy Now radio show about his initial thoughts the night of the massacre (which, as far as we know, haven’t changed):
It’s one thing to say that the fearmongering common on the right could potentially influence “demented people” to commit acts of violence. And that’s a great reason to tone things down. But to say that it has in the case of Loughner is just not supported by anything that’s come out about him thus far. John Boehner? He’s like a big weepy teddy bear! It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway, we guess?) that nobody should defer to Fuller’s opinion on this simply because he’s a survivor of the shooting.
Tucson Shooting Survivor: “It Looks Like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the Rest Got Their First Target” [Democracy Now]
