Bill to Ban Gun Imagery Targeting Obama, Members of Congress

Following the Arizona shooting rampage, Rep. Bob Brady (D-PA) plans to introduce a bill that would ban symbols like the now-infamous campaign cross hair map that Sarah Palin used to target Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ district, along with 19 other Democrats.

“You can’t threaten the president with a bulls-eye or a cross-hair,” Mr. Brady, told the New York Times, and his measure would make it a crime to do so to a member of Congress or federal employee, as well.

Asked if he believed the map incited the gunman in Tucson, he replied, “I don’t know what’s in that nut’s head. I would rather be safe than sorry.”

If such a bill passes the U.S. Congress, it would make maps like the one used by Sarah Palin, where a telescopic cross hairs symbol was used to target Giffords’ and other Democrats’ Congressional districts, a crime.  At the time Palin released the map, she had sent out a Tweet, “Don’t Retreat, Instead RELOAD!”

“We’re paying particular attention to those House members who voted in favor of Obamacare and represent districts that Senator John McCain and I carried during the 2008 election”, Palin wrote when she released the target list.

Giffords, 40 years, who remains in critical condition, was shot along with 18 others, six of whom were killed, as she held a “Congress On Your Corner” event at a Safeway grocery on Saturday morning in Tuscon.

Jared L. Loughner, 22 years, the suspected lone gunman in the shooting rampage is expected to  appear in a Phoenix court later on Monday.  It is not yet clear the motives for Loughner’s shooting spree.   The FBI has charged Loughner with multiple counts:   attempted assassination of  a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee.  Additional charges are pending at the state level in relation to the other victims.