Follow on TwitterTucson Shooting Survivor Arrested At Taping Of ABC’s ‘This Week’ For Threatening Tea Party Founder
ABC’s ‘This Week’ with Christiane Amanpour shot a ‘Town Hall’ meeting today called “Tragedy in Tucson: An American Conversation Continued” (to be aired Sunday Morning) where survivors, witnesses and first responders of the massacre were reunited. Towards the end of the otherwise sad and emotional event, as was described by AZ Central, Amanpour brought up the touchy issue of gun control.
ABC – Channel 9 reported that the topic brought a well known Tucson Tea Partier to his feet which stirred up tensions with survivor Eric Fuller:
When Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphries rose to suggest that any conversation about gun control should be put off until after the funerals for all the victims, witnesses say Fuller became agitated. Two told KGUN9 News that finally, Fuller took a picture of Humphries, and said, “You’re dead.”
When State Rep. Terri Proud (R-Tucson) rose to explain and clarify current and proposed gun legislation in the state, several people groaned or booed her. One of those booing, according to several witnesses, was Fuller. Witnesses sitting near Fuller told KGUN9 News that Fuller was making them feel very uncomfortable.
The police escorted Fuller outside, and he screamed at the audience, “You whores!” Capt. Byron Gwaltney of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said that Fuller was arrested and charged with one count of threats and intimidation, as well as with disorderly conduct.
So Fuller, a 63 year old shooting victim, who is obviously burdened with unimaginable grief and anger after having barely survived a massacre, gets arrested for merely flipping his lid on the topic of gun control? He’d just been shot by a psychopath for Christ’s sake! — AND for saying something “inappropriate” to a Tea Party founder? The Tea Partiers’ inappropriate rhetoric likely helped to incite this killing spree!
Yesterday, Eric Fuller described the shooting in vivid detail to Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow! He created some controversy during that interview, when he stated:
“How many other demented people are out there?
It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target. Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled. Senseless hatred leading to murder. Lunatic fringe anarchism subscribed to by John Boehner …”
WATCH the DemocracyNow! interview here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q17gZIcwnAw[/youtube]
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Don’t excuse Fuller because he was a victim of a fellow nut job. Fuller has been nuts for many years. He had an altercation with a marine at the store and had to be pulled away shortly before the shootings. He has had other altercations in the past. He is the type to do what Loughner did. Your support for him only perpetuates the problem in our society of people making excuses and not doing something to help these people thereby preventing these atrocities from happening.
Do you have any links or sources that demonstrate Fuller has been nuts in the past (like links for these examples you’re giving)?
Not saying it’s not true, but this is the first time I’ve heard about it.
I based my opinion above on the fact Fuller, a shooting victim — shot in the knee and in the back by a deranged, constitution-thumping individual — is VERBALLY lashing out at whom he believes incited the mad man.
When people experience this kind of trauma they tend to go through a lot of grief and anger.
Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and Sharon Angle — some of the people he blames — VERBALLY incite violence and they’ve experienced no such trauma. They are reaping in millions by lying and misleading and inciting violence from others.
Having said that, if Fuller is in fact someone who’s been arrested, etc. for lashing out in the past, threatening people, etc. then that obviously changes everything.
Death penalty, that’s what some of us want to happen as punishment for what he did. However, the court is has not yet come up with the final decision. The presiding judge in Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner’s competency trial has decided that Loughner can be forced to have drugs. He was ruled emotionally unfit to stand trial, and Loughner, diagnosed as schizophrenic, has been refusing to have medication for mental illnesses. I read this here: Judge rules medication can be forcibly given to Jared Lee Loughner.