Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Gunman kills Arkansas Democratic Party chairman

As reported here, [a] man barged into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters and opened fire Wednesday, fatally shooting the state party chairman before speeding off in his pickup. Police later shot and killed the suspect after a 30-mile chase.

Police said they don't know the motive of the suspect, who they described as about 50 years old but whose name has not been released. However, they said that moments after the shooting he pointed a handgun at the building manager at the nearby the Arkansas Baptist headquarters. He told the manager "I lost my job," said Dan Jordan, a Baptist convention official.

Chairman Bill Gwatney died four hours after the shooting. The 48-year-old former state senator had been planning to travel to the Democratic National Convention later this month as a superdelegate.

I just want to say that this is a tragedy that didn't need to happen. I mean, is this what politics in this country has come to? If you're unemployed, and believe that it's the fault of someone of one political party or the other, the solution to your problem is to shoot them? Certainly not!

In our political system, you can disagree with someone on the opposing side, and those disagreements can become quite heated. Republicans have some major issues with the Democrats, and Democrats have some major issues with Republicans as well. But you know something? That's actually ok - as long as we discuss and/or debate those major differences, and do NOT resort to violence.

I never knew, or even heard of Bill Gwatney before today, but he didn't deserve to die because someone else felt he was at fault for some perceived injustice. My heart goes out to the Gwatney family, and those who were also involved in this tragedy.

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