In A Recent Statement, AZ House Speaker Forgets Tucson Shooting

TUCSON, AZ — Residents of Tucson on January 8, 2011 won’t ever forget the mass shooting targeting then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and bystanders in the parking lot of a local Safeway. However, the Tucson shooting apparently slipped the mind of Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers in a statement he issued Monday. Or perhaps he didn’t consider it “major."

Bowers’ statement, tweeted by CBS 5 reporter Dennis Welch, said, in part, “While Arizona has been fortunate not to experience a major mass shooting, that shouldn’t stop us from considering measures to prevent a tragedy like we saw over the weekend in Texas and Ohio.”

About an hour after Welch’s tweet, Bowers’ office issued a correction, again shared by Welch on Twitter: "Speaker Bowers erred in not classifying the 2011 Tucson shooting as a major mass shooting, but that doesn't change his message that there is work the legislature can do to prevent major shootings like that from occurring again."

Randy Friese, a Democrat State Rep from Tucson, issued his own Twitter response: “If Speaker Bowers has forgotten about the mass shooting in Tucson, which is in AZ, I’m sure @danielforaz and I could find some time to help him remember.”

The Tucson shooting, carried out by Jared Lee Loughner with a Glock pistol, left 6 dead and 13 injured. Loughner was arrested and, in 2012, sentenced to serve seven consecutive life sentences in addition to 140 years in jail.