Alcee Hastings: Loughner was inspired by “violent political expression”

The lessons of this tragedy are staring us in the face. We need to muster the political will and national unity to bring common sense and reason to a vexing gun problem that affects us all.

Giffords was shot — and six others tragically murdered — in part because our violent political expression inspired a mentally unstable person, who had preposterously easy access to previously banned weapons. The pundits can repeatedly claim that Jared Lee Loughner was a “madman.” But we all know that he was neither the first nor the last.

To fail to address these three factors — violent speech, mental illness and easy access to guns — is to waste this powerful, tragic moment in U.S. political history.