Who Should be Accountable for the Arizona Shooting?

No more than 24 hours later, the blame game has begun in regards to the question of whether the shooting that took place in Arizona was motivated by violent political rhetoric. Taking the brunt of this is, Sarah Palin, who had posted the picture on her facebook page that claimed they needed to, "take aim" and was a depiction of the United States with cross hairs on states that needed to be won over.

While in light of the recent shooting, the fact that Arizona was on this list, looks pretty bad, however I'm positive that Palin did not have this sort of action in mind. Naturally, when dealing with issues that are ingrained into a person's belief system, things will tend to get heated. While it's always preferable that people need to be reasonable and not fly off the deep end, things will get said sometimes that aren't entirely meant. Things that aren't intended to ever really be acted out.

The question here begs to to be asked, should the people who sometimes use violent messages to promote their ideals be held accountable for the people they influence? I'm split on the issue personally. Part of me thinks that there are better ways of spreading a message than implying violence. Then again I know that I am personally guilty of doing the same thing myself. I would hate to believe if I said, "so and so, is so awful they need to be shot," and someone taking that to heart and fulfilling that statement. So from that perspective I can understand someone saying one thing but not in a literal way. Unless you're talking about Glenn Beck, then I literally want to punch him in the face.

Anyhow, in regards to the shooting, no I do not believe that it was spurred on by Palin's call to, "reload" nor any other political propaganda. From what I've heard and read of and from the shooter, in the end they are going to find that it was simply the actions of a disturbed individual. Even if this is the case though, hopefully this incident will bring to light the fact that the fighting needs to calm down between the GOP and Dems and they can focus on getting along with civility, and perhaps, get this country back in order.