Saturday’s shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others at a shopping mall in Tucson should be universally condemned. The wounded and killed speak volumes about the biblically predicted “perilous times” in which we live (2 Timothy 3:1). It only takes one mentally deranged person to perpetrate such a senseless act with its horrifying human carnage. Innocent lives are lost and others shattered.

Let us all pray for the wounded and their families, as well as for the grieving families of Saturday’s fatalities. To bend our knees on behalf of those wounded and brokenhearted is an act all Christians should readily perform.

The moment I heard about Saturday’s tragedy, I quickly surmised that it would be used as fodder to fuel political fires. Although information on the gunman, Jared Loughner, shows him to be mentally ill, not a political extremist of any stripe, the left-leaning media, not to mention Prima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik—who has called his home state of Arizona the “mecca for prejudice and bigotry”—are already spinning the shooting so as to lay the blame at the feet of political conservatives. As a result, Republicans, like always, are ducking beneath the media barrage and forfeiting their principles in order to go through all of the politically correct paces required by liberals to prove genuine conservative outrage over a horrifying event.

According to Sunday’s New York Times, the “fallout” over Saturday’s shooting could “hold the potential to upend the effort by Republicans to keep their agenda front and center in the new Congress and to alter the political narrative in other ways.” For instance, the Times reported how the new Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, had already announced that all legislative activity slated for this week would be postponed. This includes the scheduled vote to repeal Obamacare, something newly elected House members vow that they were elected to do by the American people.

While one could interpret this shutdown of Congress as a act of respect for a wounded colleague, another possible interpretation is that Saturday’s mad gunman accomplished more than the senseless shooting of innocent victims. He also managed to shutdown the legislative process of the United States Government. If so, then one cannot help but wonder how many more mad gunmen are out there and how fickle a thing our government has become in these politically correct times.

We all remember how we were admonished to resume our ordinary lives following the 9/11/01 terrorist attack upon our nation. To fail to do so, we were told, would encourage more terrorist attacks, since it would suggest to terrorists that perpetrating a terrorist attack carries with it the additional potential of paralyzing our whole nation. Yet, in this incident, we watch as our government shuts down over the shooting of one member of Congress. Will this not encourage other shootings, since it suggests to other would-be assassins that an attempted assassination of a member of Congress carries with it the additional potential of shutting down the People’s House?

To try to squelch freedom of speech, especially that of those with whom you disagree, by painting horns and pointed tails on all of your political opponents with the brush of an unconscionable crime like Saturday’s shooting, is a most loathsome thing. It is also a crime, a murderous attempt to destroy the future of a democratic republic. It is the selfish using of human tragedy to further your own ideology and thirst for political power. 

Furthermore, to attempt to orchestrate the aftermath of such an horrendous evil in such a way as to force everyone, including our elected officials, to go through the prescribed politically correct paces to prove themselves sympathetic rather than insensitive, carries with it not only the potential of undermining our system of government, but also the possibility of encouraging the enemies of our state to perpetrate such crimes against our people, both the elected and the electorate. I don’t believe America really wants to go there. Do you?