Republican Politician Shot: Steve Scalise

[Crazedwraith]

A US Republican politician and aides have been shot during baseball practice in Virginia, US reports say.

Police in the upmarket Washington DC suburb of Alexandria said they were investigating a "multiple shooting" and a suspect was in custody.

Fox News said House of Representatives Majority Whip Steve Scalise and aides have been hit by gunfire.

Police tweeted they were "investigating multiple shooting 400 block E Monroe St. Suspect believed in custody."

An apparent eyewitness said on Twitter that gunfire rang out at the YMCA baseball fields, by the Eugene Simpson Stadium Park.


The witness, @ben_childers, said it happened at a congressional baseball team practice session.

Local media report there is a major police presence after the attack.

Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, texted Fox News to say that Mr Scalise had been shot in the hip and would survive.

He said someone had used a belt as a tourniquet on him.

Mr Lee said the shooter had used a long gun and was dead.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted that President Donald Trump was being briefed.

"Both @POTUS & @VP are aware of the developing situation in Virginia. Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected," Mr Spicer tweeted.

[Broomstick]

Most recent reports say the gunman was a middle-aged white male and is in police custody, and the reports I'm listening to say nothing of him being dead so by that wording I'm thinking he's still alive. Apparently he was shot by the police.

Assuming he's a "white, middle-aged male" it wouldn't surprise me if he's described as a lone wolf, nut, etc. but really, this sounds like it could fit with terrorism. Reports of 50, or 100, or 50-100 shots being fired by the gunman have been reported which is a LOT of bullets. Seems to me (but subject to change with more information) this may be about politics and possibly targeting Republicans specifically (the Democrat practice this morning was elsewhere). Or maybe just "kill the politicians" and which group was targeted was a matter of convenience.

Sad to say, if it IS about politics I'm not entirely surprised - I haven't seen the mood of the country this dark since the bad side of the 1960's/early 70's

[FireNexus]

50-100 rounds is nothing if you planned it and have extra magazines along with three minutes against unarmed targets.

[Broomstick]

True - but it takes it out of the realm of drive-by and spontaneous shooting. To have that many bullets you had to plan in advance. This indicates a pre-mediated attack.

[FireNexus]

Maybe he just bet a lot of money on the Democrats in the big game?

[Edi]

50-100 rounds is nothing if you planned it and have extra magazines along with three minutes against unarmed targets.

If it's that, then it's a surprise there aren't a lot of dead bodies among the targets. But according to at least CNN reports the return fire from the Capitol Police probably interfered with his aim and statements from the Republicans present credit the police for saving their lives.

[Broomstick]

Keep in mind, too, that at the first shot people scattered over an open field - moving targets are hard to hit, and if people are spread out it's nigh impossible to hit more than one at a time. That probably helped, too.

[Broomstick]

Shooter identified as a 66 year old white guy from Belleville, Illinois.

[Gandalf]

According to early rumours, based on people's supposed finding of his social media; the guy was a democratic socialist, and a big fan of Bernie Sanders.

[Patroklos]

His site is also littered with "Resistance" rhetoric, as well as Russia conspiracy theories.

[Elheru Aran]

So early indications are a left-wing extremist? Unfortunate, but I was expecting something like this to happen sooner or later. The downside is that there are a lot less outright violent extremists on the left than there are on the right, and guess which side tends to actually be armed for bear....

[Crossroads Inc.]

Well fuck... I guess it was too much to hope this guy being super alt right, and going after these people because they "Weren't conservative Enough"

So, a Liberal dare shoots up some Republicans?
Am I too much of an Arlamist to think there is going to be massive nation wide backlash against Democrats? Burning of buildings and a huge spike in assaults?

[Simon_Jester]

I'd bet against massive burning of buildings and things, simply because life generally doesn't escalate randomly into massive drama.

But I'd strongly bet for a constant stream of smarmy rhetoric about how the Left is causing violence by complaining too hard about Republicans trying to take away people's health insurance or whatever.

Key points:
1) Obligatory denunciations of violence need to play a large role.
2) This is exactly the problem the Republicans have with abortion clinic bombers, and it's worth pointing that out in my opinion.

[SCRawl]

There's going to be a backlash, but yeah, I doubt that there will be violence in the streets much beyond the usual. What I *do* think we might see is the Republicans taking the opportunity to clamp down on the kinds of protests that have had some success of late in scaring Republican lawmakers into not voting for some stuff. All in the name of protecting their members.

[Raj Ahten]

I'd posit that there would be backlash regardless of the shooters actual affiliations because that's how it's worked for awhile now. It's been a theme on the right that they are the victims always.

I wonder how many republican congressman will demand some sort of changes in light of this or will they be consistent and say it wouldn't have happened if they were all carrying their guns?

Pretty cynical I know but since as a society we've apparently decided mass shootings are a cost of doing business then business should continue as usual regardless of who gets shot.

Honestly I'm just so disgusted with political life in general right now I couldn't give a damn less about who got shot or why by whom. All I care about is how this is just going to make things worse.

[TheFeniX]

There's going to be a backlash, but yeah, I doubt that there will be violence in the streets much beyond the usual. What I *do* think we might see is the Republicans taking the opportunity to clamp down on the kinds of protests that have had some success of late in scaring Republican lawmakers into not voting for some stuff. All in the name of protecting their members.

I wondering how much success they will have in this regard. First off, State lawmakers can (and do) choose to just ignore any mandates in this area. Further, they can't draft laws that say "liburals suck" without getting smacked down by the courts. Sure, they might enjoy some short-term success, but the long-term repercussions seem punitive to me.

If they just give police more power to crack skulls, sure yea: police themselves seem to have little loyalty to ideology outside that which benefits them specifically. But combining that with "fuck tha' police, we're going with volunteer armed alt right groups for security" is a sure way to make the cops laugh in their face after they're forced to intervene during the inevitable blowout.

Certain cops or groups of them may sympathize with some alt-right bullshit, but armed civilians clashing with unarmed civilians leading to injury or death is going to force their hand as it's a different scenario than unarmed civilians clashing with armed police.

I don't know where this is going to go if it goes anywhere (it could also be used as a "need more gun control" example). But I agree there won't be violence in the street. But using it to crack down on protesters they don't like? This was a white-guy from out of state with a political axe to grind. If they try to target left protestors they'd be screwing protestors on both sides. Much like "literacy tests" screwed politicians because poor whites were getting caught in the net they had cast for minorities.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Video of a statement from Sanders

Image of the text of his statement

Short version, he condemns violence, believes real change comes only through non-violence, and wishes Scalise and everyone else wounded a speedy recovery.


I really can't say I'm surprised that someone on the left finally chose violence. More and more there is an impression that politicians are not listening, especially politicians on the right.

[Soontir C'boath]

Well hey, people buying guns to protect themselves from the tyrannical government is the reasoning many gun owners use. It looks like Scalise was responsible for pushing through Trump's health care plan, so on that note, can't blame him for actually going through on that rhetoric. We need more left leaning people to buy guns against an administration that is certainly hell bent on fucking us all over.

Apparently no one died thankfully, but this will get far more recognition than Sandy Hook ever could by the right. We need an Alex Jones on the left telling people Scalise's shooting incident never happen.

[Patroklos]

Surely you understand there is a difference between a crazy person killing random people (Sandy Hook) for non political motives and a targeted assassination for political motives. For some ends, say general gun control arguments, the distinction is meaningless. For LOTS of other reasons, it makes a big difference.

The simple fact is citizens murdering their democratically elected leaders, for whatever reason whether good or bad to any particular point of view, is a much bigger deal than the killing of other citizens. At least it was when Giffords was the target, maybe the board has changed its mind since then.

[The Romulan Republic]

I am disgusted but not surprised by the number of people either tiptoeing around calling this what it is (domestic terrorism), or seeming outright supportive of it.

And yeah, God damn you Soontir C'boath for making me agree with Patroklos, but this is nothing like Sandy Hook. And yeah, if this had been a Republican out to shoot Democrats, this board would be screaming to high heaven. But I guess its okay when your tribe does it?

If the Left starts adopting the tactics of Right wing extremists, its going to escalate and escalate. Is that what you people want? Or are you just in denial about that possibility?

You can also bet that this is going to be used by Trumpers and Centrist Democrats alike to brand Bernie supporters and progressives generally as dangerous radicals and terrorists.

[The Romulan Republic]

So early indications are a left-wing extremist? Unfortunate, but I was expecting something like this to happen sooner or later. The downside is that there are a lot less outright violent extremists on the left than there are on the right, and guess which side tends to actually be armed for bear....

So... a Left-winger shoots up a bunch of Republicans, and you think the downside is that there aren't more violent Left-wing extremists?

[Flagg]

Why does it matter that he's a Republican? Guy got shot and so did his aides. I've seen too much (not so much here) "Oh well, he was a hypocrite, deserved it, now let's use this to push gun control."

That's what the NRA does in reverse. When a movie theater or first grade classroom is mowed down by some lunatic, the NRA goes out and screams "NO GUN CONTROL!!! IN FACT, MORE GUNS!!!"

It's clear that the gun control people aren't running an effective strategy since they never seem to get results and the NRA does the same thing over and over and wins. So let's not wish ill on this piece of shit.

And since almost every act of violence targeting groups be they political, misogynistic, homo/transphobic, racial/ethnicity, religion, etc is by definition; Terrorism.

If the asshole that did this, did it to kill a Republican congressman for political reasons, it's terrorism. If they did it to impress Jodie Foster then it's a wholly different story. And if it was just the biggest crown he could find, then Triple Dog Douchebag.

[Flagg]

His site is also littered with "Resistance" rhetoric, as well as Russia conspiracy theories.

Are these cornfirmed or just speculation/hope by the right? To me it doesn't much matter until they release this stuff publicly. If he is a lefty, then fuck him twice.

[The Romulan Republic]

So apparently Congressman Steve King has come out saying that violence is "coming from the Left".

I checked, and, yeah, this is the guy who's Democratic opponent just dropped out, citing death threats.

I oppose political violence from the Left as well as the Right, but seriously, fuck Steve King.

Edit: Not to mention that using this to attack the Left generally is basically pouring gasoline on a fire.

[Ralin]

You can also bet that this is going to be used by Trumpers and Centrist Democrats alike to brand Bernie supporters and progressives generally as dangerous radicals and terrorists.

You fail to grasp that we don't greatly care about that because decades of experience has shown it doesn't matter. Republicans don't need reality on their side to do any of those things. It doesn't matter what pretext they use or invent; their base will eat it up all the same. Trying to prove that we're totally the respectable and peaceful leftists doesn't make a damned bit of difference other than distract from actually working to improve things.