I really hope this video of the shooting doesn’t get leaked, but just the retelling of it reinforces what Cheney leaned toward today. Jared Loughner, a determined individual, ran up and shot dozens of people at close range, and only ended his rampage when he had to reload, providing a moment of opportunity for the victims. Nobody had any chance of stopping him at any other point; the only heroic acts available to them were to shield other bystanders and sacrifice themselves. Loughner’s victims never knew what hit them. “More guns” in this case would have amounted to nothing; in fact, the one person with a gun who came running out to aid in the situation almost wound up shooting an innocent man.

The vitriol-filled right is busily trying to refute its role in creating the environment in which Jared Loughner carried out his horrendous attack on Saturday when Representative Gabrielle Giffords was holding a “Congress on Your Corner” meeting at a Tucson Safeway. While much of the walk-back by hate radio and hate politicians is in response to Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s condemnation of Arizona as “the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry”, another aspect of Dupnik’s experience-based comments deserves equal attention. At the same news conference, Dupnik “criticize[d] the Arizona Legislature for pushing to allow weapons pretty much everywhere.” He then went so far as to say “[Tucson] is the tombstone of the United States of America.” That is an incredibly important point that should not be overlooked as the country looks to move on from this tragedy. Just as we need to dial back the hate in our social and political discourse, we also need to change the atmosphere which has idolized guns to the point that they are actively encouraged in state legislative buildings and where automatic weapons are given away with the purchase of a truck.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who lost her husband to gun violence before coming to Congress, and who has since become one of the leading pro-gun control politicians in the country, plans to introduce legislation in response to the shooting in Tuscon, Arizona that claimed the life of six and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a medically induced coma.

What we know is that Jared Loughner, who was rejected from the military and kicked out of a community college, and who had various minor run-ins with the law, was able to purchase a semi-automatic 9MM Glock with an extended magazine.