Could Tucson happen here?

[Chil1234]

There's much commentary in the US on whether the shooting of the Arizona congresswoman could be the 'unintended consequences' of an increasingly polarised political environment characterised by some very personal verbal attacks and aggressive imagery.

We've already got a situation where Nick Clegg's home has been attacked, staff terrorised at Tory party headquarters and Prince Charles' car smashed up. And all that without the Opposition going particularly on the offensive yet.

I'm hoping our politicans have one eye on the events across the Atlantic and resolve to debate robustly but responsibly in the months to come.....

We don't have much of a culture of shooting sprees, more dog shit through the post. I think the politicians can rest easy

Stephen Timms was stabbed by a constituent not that long ago. Raol Moat and Derrick Bird demonstrated that guns aren't too difficult for nutters to get hold of. I'm conscious that violent crime seems to be part of 'political protest' and wonder if anyone else thinks it might become more personal?

America is a prime example of what happens when you legalise the possession of firearms. We don't have to worry about the chance of a lone gunman going postal very much (although it does happen I admit).

Anything goes - you can't predict these things perfectly, but it is much much more unlikely over here. An egg maybe, but an AK47 on Whitehall is really unlikely.

In the States there is also the far right whipping up all sorts of divisions, creating conflict through for example, the Tea Party's racist rhetoric, which thankfully we don't have here either.

Attacks on politicians on both sides of the Atlantic (and royals this side) are nothing new.

The Tucson attack was hardly a focussed 'political protest' - one of the fatalities was a conservative Republican judge.

It could happen....just far less likely because of as other people have pointed out, the fact that it is much harder to get guns here.

To us it is inconceivable that in some states that you can pick up bullets in your local Walmart (aka Asda) along with your milk.

I also remember reading an article on the web a while back about how in Texas they have metal detector's to stop people getting in with hidden weapons. But at the same time there was a fast lane for those openly carrying guns. Er....can someone see the flaw in their "security" strategy?

Ladyblabla. The car did have it's window smashed. I hope they find who did this.

I never argue with anyone when I'm in the states, in case they have a gun!

I don't like the Tea Party but I haven't seen any evidence they influenced the guy. He is on drugs and his favourite books are Mein Kampf & the Communist Manifesto - hardly Sarah Palin's bedtime reading.

Crazy people shooting politicians can happen anywhere, it even happened in socialist Sweden back in the 80s (Olof Palme the Swedish PM).