Lax gun law or politics gone mad?

Voices on both sides of America’s political divide and the gun lobby lined up to give their theories on the reasons behind the Arizona shooting.

Saturday’s shooting of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of others at a Tucson shopping centre prompted Americans yet again to debate if guns are still too readily available, or if the nastiness of today’s political debate inspires such tragic violence.

At a news conference on Sunday, Pima County sheriff Clarence Dupnik blamed a “climate of hatred” “mistrust of government” and “paranoia” for the Tucson shooting.

He criticised the Arizona legislature for lax gun laws and said the state had become “the Tombstone of the United States of America”, referring to the lawless, late 19th century silver mining boom town in Arizona, home to many Wild West gunfighters.

Ms Giffords herself had spoken of her concerns about the US political atmosphere even before the shooting. In an interview when her office was vandalised after she voted to support President Barack Obama’s health care reforms, she referred to the animosity against her by conservatives.

Later she spoke of former 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s decision to list Ms Giffords’s seat as one of the top “targets” in the mid-term elections.

“For example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realise that there are consequences to that action,” Ms Giffords told a TV interview during last year’s congressional election campaign.

At the news conference with Sheriff Dupnik, FBI director Robert Mueller, who was dispatched to Tucson by Mr Obama, declined to answer a question about the effectiveness of Arizona gun laws, but said internet access for those promoting “hate speech and incitement to violence” were a “far greater challenge” for law enforcement than in previous years.

Many Republican politicians emphasised the growing belief that shooting suspect Jared Loughner was mentally unstable and not someone inspired by the kind of far-right or tea party rhetoric that characterised the last election.

“It’s probably giving him too much credit to ascribe a coherent political philosophy to him. We just have to acknowledge that there are mentally unstable people in this country. Who knows what motivates them to do what they do? Then they commit terrible crimes like this,” said Arizona Republican senator John Kyl, the majority whip.