Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the third-ranking House Democrat, suggested Monday that the actions of alleged Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner were an example of the sort of "Second Amendment remedies" that former Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle referred to during last year's campaign.
"He saw a Second Amendment remedy and that's what occurred here and there is no way not to make that connection," Clyburn told The Charleston Post & Courier in a recent interview.
Angle, the Tea Party upstart who unsuccessfully challenged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this fall, said in a radio interview that while she hoped "Second Amendment remedies" wouldn't be necessary, that a vote would offer a "potential cure for the Harry Reid problems," the Second Amendment exists "to defend ourselves."
Angle later denied making those statements, but in doing so claimed that some form of revolution was indeed "possible."
Clyburn also earlier made reference to such inflammatory rhetoric in the wake of the shooting over the weekend, saying that it was a symptom of the increased "vitriol" infused into political discourse:
And I think that what has happened here is the vitriol has gotten so elevated, until people feel emboldened by this. And people, who are a little less than stable, and people aren't thinking for themselves or are so easily influenced, they got out and do things that all of us pay a great price for. I applaud the Republican leadership for doing what they've done in this instance, for giving everybody a chance to step back and take a hard look at this, and decide how we can go forward.
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