My Reaction to the Arizona Shooting

The recent shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords on January 8th saw 6 people dead and 13 others wounded. Ironically, one of the victims, a nine year old girl, was born on September 11, 2001. The day will be remembered as a tragic one in American history, but the events also raise a lot of questions for the future, such as how to treat the mentally ill before things get too late, and gun laws.

Jared Loughner, the murderer, had previously showed some signs worthy of suspicion, but not enough to be classified as psychotic behavior or mental illness. This puts into consideration how we can identify mentally ill and potentially dangerous people before things go too far. Loughner is a 22 year old man who has lived in the same with his parents since childhood, dropped out of high school, and then was not accepted to serve in the army because of drug use. As he started attending Pima Community College, he became openly discontent with the school and began posting videos on YouTube as well as messages on MySpace showing his unhappiness with school and the American government in general.

But nothing at this point was really worthy of being speculated for criminal intentions. This is why mental-health care should be more easily available to anyone who is of concern. Even though the signs were subtle, Loughner's family would probably have taken more of an effort to put him into therapy if they could afford it. Therefore, if public mental-health care was better across the nation, a few of these unexpected outbursts could possibly be avoided.

This also brings up the question of gun control in the US. It is very important that guns remain in the right hands so that no one with mental issues such as Loughner has the opportunity to lash out the way that he did.

Obama addressed the nation with a heartfelt speech a few days later and expressed that although nothing can compensate for the losses of the shootings, Americans should stand together and support the families of those who were killed to make it past this tragedy.

Shooting in Tuson Arizona

On January 8, 2011 6 people were killed and 14 people were injured in Tuson,Arizona, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Six people died, including a nine year old girl. The shooter's name was Jared Loughner. The investigators are saying that he had some mental illnesses that pushed him to do this. In an interview on 60 minutes his two good friends said he believed in nothingness and thought the government was useless. On a previous occasion, he had asked Giffords question and she couldnt answer and brushed him off. His friends thought that was what made her the target.

After it happened, Obama made a speech talking about the lives lost and what America needs to do to turn these tragedies around. He talked a lot about the nine year old girl. I can't imagine what that must be like for her parents, she was nine and had her whole life ahead of her. Amazingly, even though she was shot in the head, Giffords seams, so far to be on the road to recovery. The bullet just missed her skull and went through the side of her head and out the other side. The head is an amazingly delicate place and that was a one in a million chance. Obama also talked about two men that jumped out to cover their wives. Their final act of heroism was a sacrifice.

Before this happened Sarah Palin had created a map of "targets" that were marked with cross hairs. These were the twenty democrats that had voted for the health care bill. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been one of the twenty. There is talk that this could have been a reason for this attack. Even though I think that making that map was unbelievably wrong, I dont believe that was the reason for Jared's attack. He didn't seem to base his reasoning on that, in fact there didn't seem to be any reasoning beside the fact that he may have been mentally ill.

There was one difference that I noticed in this incident. In many shootings like these, other suspects  end up shooting themselves after. Maybe because they feel guilty or maybe because they don't want to face the consequences. What ever their reason, Jared did not shoot himself after the attack, in fact it took many people to tackle him down while he was reloading, to stop the shooting. What this says to me is that he does not regret what he did.

Tragedy in Arizona

You assignment, due Wednesday 1/19 is to create a blog/news report, in your own words about the Arizona shooting that took place and the nation's response.
No two blogs should be alike. There are many different aspects to this story such as:

- Why was Gabrielle Giffords targeted?
- Sarah Palin's response and "Blood Libel"comment
- Sarah Palin's Map
- Obama's Speech and Response
- Gun Laws
- Details on the Killer

Here are some links to get you started:
People who were killed 
Blood Libel Comment
Obama's Speech in Tuscon
New Gun Laws?
Arizona's Newspaper

Make sure to check grammar and spelling. Include links and pictures. I look forward to seeing on Wednesday. Have a great long weekend.

CSPAN Winners Response

The C-SPAN videos I chose were "I've Got The Power", "Stand Up, Speak out", and "Cancer It's Personal".

Each video won because of their details into their work and all the time they put into their work. Each were different and were creative in their own way. All of them consisted of videos recorded and interviews they conducted to make it look more professional. Some integrated music, personal accounts and self recorded videos.

The speakers used their own videos. as well as interviewing people. They also used different effects to transition one part to another.

I will probably interview and use videos in mine as well. I will also insert video transactions to make my video run more smoothly. Mine will probably not be as good as these kids because they put so much time and effort, and we have a short time table to get this done, but I will integrate many of their ideas into mine to make it better!

2010 Grand Prize Winner "I've Got the Power"

(Middle School)

I think that she won the grand Prize for her video, because she went into great detail about her topic. She added interviews, many were from people she found on the street and government officials. She included very detailed information, on not just the problem, but whats behind it also.

2010 First Prize Winner "Childhood Obesity"

(Middle School)

I think that this person may have won the first prize for their video because they included a lot of information about what was the difference of today and one hundred years ago. He interviewed job professionals and used a lot of shots of different places that were relevant to the topic.

2010 First Prize Winner "The American Melting Point"

(High School)

This person probably won the first prize for her video, was because she interviewed a lot of students, as well as teachers.

She used a lot of footage of others and not just herself speaking. She gave a lot of information about this topic, and went into great detail about it.

Past C-SPAN Winners

I Think the 2010 grand prize winner won because their video was very detailed and well edited. The video includes a lot of interveiws. I think this video is an excellent video and completely shows what is required. For the second video I chose "Girls Wear Pink, Guys Wear Blue", I thought that video was rather fair. It makes a lot of of sense and gave much detail in it. The video deserved its won at second place because it was a fair video and looked like their was much work put into it. The third video I chose was "Stand Up, Speak Out", I thought this video was really good. It had many iterveiws and was well edited with lots of detail. The techniques I can use for my own video are that I can work on getting more interveiws with people and local citezes, I also can work on editing better so I will be able to get a greater chance in winning.

2010 Grand Prize Winner: "I've Got The Power"

2010 Second Prize Winner: "Girls Wear Pink, Guys Wear Blue"

2010 Second Prize Winner: "Stand Up, Speak Out"

Cspan video winners

I looked on the cspan student cam website and watched videos of three past winners.


The first video was called "Stand up and speak out". It was about a boy who went to the white house almost everyday of the summer to film protestors. I think this video won because he spent a lot of time on it and used a lot of interviews. I think that interviews and getting the protestors on film was a huge component.


Another winner was "No child left behind". That was a look into the act that President Bush made in 2001. It says that schools and districts will be held accountable if the kids are failing. I think this video won because she also had a lot of interviews. It is important to find people that are influential in the subject that you are doing.


The third winner was "The truth about cheating". This video was about kids cheating to get ahead. I think this video won because they used a lot of cspan videos relating directly to the subject. I think that is a huge part of winning and it adds depth to your video.


An important thing we can do for our video is get good interviews. The interviews in these videos really shaped them. Another important thing is to get good cspan videos. If they directly relate to your topic it can help per sway your point.