Gabrielle Giffords

In response to Saturday's shooting spree in Tucscon, Rep. Peter King (R, N.Y.) has announced that he's planning on introducing legislation to make it illegal for American citizens to knowingly carry a firearm within 1,000 feet of a member of Congress.

There has been no shortage of individuals and institutions that have sought to capitalize on the shootings in Tucson. Add Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to that list.

This afternoon Sanders sent out a fundraising appeal, seeking to raise money to fight Republicans and other “right-wing reactionaries” responsible for the climate that led to the shooting.

George Will writes in the Washington Post:

As Jared L. Loughner opened fire on Representative Gabrielle Giffords and a small crowd of supporters, killing at least 6 and wounding many others, there appears to be at least three people who, in the face of horror, performed unimaginable heroic acts: Bill Badger, Daniel Hernandez, and Patricia Maisch.

Paul Krugman writes on the Arizona shooting in his New York Times column today: 

it’s the saturation of our political discourse — and especially our airwaves — with eliminationist rhetoric that lies behind the rising tide of violence.

Even before anything at all was known about Jared Lee Loughner, who went on a deadly shooting spree outside a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday, a narrative was beginning to take shape.

At a news conference moments ago, a spokesman at the hospital where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been taken said that Giffords is out of surgery after being shot through the head. The spokesman said he is "very optimistic about recovery" and "about as optimistic as I can get in this situation."