Gabrielle Giffords and Olof Palme

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Graybeard
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Gabrielle Giffords and Olof Palme

Post by Graybeard »

I may regret this foray into politics, but it's been done before on Errant Threads, with the discussions generally remaining civil and thoughtful, so ...

I'm curious to get views regarding the Giffords frightfulness from those, especially Europeans, who are old enough to remember the Olof Palme assassination. It seems to me that there are some parallels: political leader attacked while doing the things that a leader is "supposed to do," i.e., being out among those whom they serve rather than cloistered away in a palace/mansion and carefully "protected" from dealing with us riff-raff. Of course, there are also differences (notably the fact that the Palme assassination remains nominally unsolved), but the Palme situation had enough parallels that it should be kept in mind when a response to the latest tragedy is formulated. So is it being kept in mind, or not? Or are the media succumbing to the all-too-facile (if not necessarily wrong...) finger-pointing about how this is another example of the barbaric Americans being too in love with their guns?

Slamlander, I know you can remember Palme, and I hope you'll weigh in, but I'd love to hear from others on that side of the lake too. For the younger among us, a pointer to info on the Palme affair is here.
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