City of Edmonds flags at half staff to honor Tucson victims

Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper on Monday ordered all city flags lowered to half staff in remembrance of the Tucson, Arizona shootings last Saturday.

“The terrible tragedy in Tucson has caused us all to stop,  pause and wonder why such things happen,” Cooper said.  “As Mayor, I am joining the requested action in President Obama’s Proclamation and directing all flags on city buildings to be lowered to half staff immediately in honor of the victims of the Tucson, Arizona tragedy.”

 The flags will be raised to full staff at sunset this Friday, Cooper said.

  1. Thank you very much, Saturday was a great day with the seahawks and all, till I found out about what happened down there, the whole thing is very disturbing, there are way too many people walking around with guns that should’nt be I sure wish people would make some noise about that

  2. Can we please not have a gun debate here. Please avoid hot-button topics that have nothing to do with Edmonds. Thanks in advance to everybody who shows restraint.

  3. Saturdays tragic event was clearly due to mental illness. Until we have a program in place to help those that need it bad things will continue to happen. Guns or no guns.

  4. @Joe, I think that gun control in Edmonds is perfectly relevant conversation. I have a friend who has a concealed weapons permit who lives in Edmonds We have this conversation all the time because there are people in Edmonds carrying guns. And, in the alternative, even if the discussion of guns were not relevant to Edmonds, I do not believe that you have the authority to ask anyone what to discuss on these pages since you are not the Publisher of MyEdmondsNews.com.

  5. This is great, we have a first ammendment and a second ammendment discussion all at the same time. What a country. After we get done with 1 and 2 we will have 20% of the Bill of Rights covered and it may then be time to discuss the 3rd ammendment. This ammendment is especailly useful in tough economic times. It helps us all from a form of government control of our lives and saves us all from unwanted guests at the dinner table.

  6. Priya: As a practicing attorney, surely you know I am entirely within my “authority” to make a polite request here, which is what I did. Your words at face value would indicate you are either ignorant or deceptive about people’s rights. I’ll assume neither, but rather that you just chose your words poorly.

    Isn’t it ironic that in your apparent quest for free speech you attempted to take that freedom from me. Regarding that freedom, you and everyone else are obviously entirely within your rights to ignore my request. I’m sorry if I offended anybody with it, but I stand by it.

    I have had countless conversations with friends and family about guns, especially in the last few days. I hope others do the same.

  7. @Joe, I did not ask you to stop putting in your two cents. I just pointed out that you have no authority to ask Mike not to discuss his ideas on gun rights. You can make all the requests you want on this page. But, in reality, only the Publisher has the right to control content. Make all the requests you want. All the power to you, Brother.

  8. Priya, I have no idea what you are trying to say, and I don’t think you understood me. I’m happy to leave it at that. We’ve both wasted too many words on this drivel.

    Thank you (and thank you, Mike), nonetheless for avoiding the gun debate I was hoping to avoid.

  9. Joe morgan I understand what she is saying just fine, and Priya thanks for backing me up, Im not going to get in a gun debate but I wish the higher ups would

  10. My humble apologies to everyone here, especially Mike and Priya. I wish I could take back everything I’ve said on this topic.

    My only excuse was that I was sleep deprived and was tired of listening to “the crazies” in the recent gun debate. (For simplicity, I’ll define crazies as both those who would try to ban all guns and those who would ban none of them.)

    There are many voices of reason in the gun debate, and no doubt many live here in Edmonds. I selfishly asked for silence from those voices in order to avoid having to listen to the crazies. I was arrogant for assuming that the voices of reason needed any advice from me, and foolish for thinking that the crazies would listen. Listening to the crazies is part of the price we pay for allowing the voices of reason.

    My foolish arrogance created the very kind of problem I wanted to solve: meaningless words that enlighten no one. I’m especially sorry if I discouraged anyone from posting thoughtful words on this horrific tragedy.

  11. Joe, you are a good man for saying what you have said. If we all used the good sense you are suggesting in this discussion we would have better debates about some of our real issues in society and for that mater in Edmonds.

  12. Hey Joe! No sweet. I’m used to people slamming me. After all, I am a practicing attorney and a failed politician. 🙂 You are a good man. I’d have a beer with you any day of the week.

  13. Labelling people you disagree with as “crazies” stifles real debate. I believe all guns should be banned in this country. I have opinion, I matter and I vote. It seems I’m in a minority and I’ll have to live with that. On another note, I’m worried that the Rep. Giffords shotting tragedy will cause generalized fear of people with schizoprenia anis other mentally-disabled people who are our neighbors & friends. That is not a logical outcome, methinks.

  14. Susan is very correct that we need to find ways for all people to voice well reasoned opinions and views and have civil discussions. If Susan is on one end of the spectrum on gun issues I would like to have an forum that allows us the hear thoses views and discuss them. I would also like someone from the other end of the spectrum talk about and discuss their views as well. I would like to understand the arguments for things like “we should all pack a gun” AZ has a pack a gun mentality and laws to match. In the Tucson case I do not recall that any gun packers came to the rescue and solved the issue. Isn’t that one of the arguments for all to pack guns?

    All viewpoints should be welcomed and encouraged on forums like this without any name calling. I want to hear and learn from all and then test those ideas against my own views to see what I can learn from others. Who knows I might even learn something in the process. Susan’s worry about how we may react or over react is very valid. It shows a logical wll reasoned view point about the inter actions of events in our society.

    I did not intend to offend anyone with these comments but if you feel offended I apology in advance. Who’s going to offer ME a beer?

  15. You’re right, Susan, “crazies” was a poor word choice, and is completely unfair to your views. Perhaps I should have used “extremist”. That’s probably another bad choice for people on your end of the spectrum because it implies you are dangerous. Would “inflexible” would be better?

    I do respect your view on guns. That view has great value politically in balancing the other extreme: the person who wants to stock their house with enough powerful weapons to take over a small country. But the Second Amendment has widespread popular support and is going to be around for a long time, so I can’t see your view ever becoming mainstream.

    I’m not going to expose my own gun views here except to say that I am against attempts to disarm responsible gun owners. I also like to point out that none of the rights in the Constitution are absolute. The Second Amendment is the only place in the Constitution where the phrase “well-regulated” appears. That makes it the weakest part of the Bill of Rights.

    I hope this tragedy causes us to find ways to help people with mental illness, rather than to fear them.

    Thank you for your thoughts, Susan.

  16. Feb 5th is my birthday and I am going to be a prime number. All of you can buy me a beer.

    Regarding the AZ shooting and gun laws, I tend to be on the left side but do have a very close friend who is has a concealed weapons permit. The thing we both agree on is that guns should be regulated and background checks should include mental evaluations of some sort. As you may know, the AZ shooter was a legal gun owner. Even more interesting was there was a concealed weapons guy on the site who never pulled his weapon. Just some food for thought.

  17. The bystander in Arizona who agonized over whether to pull his weapon apparently feared being mistaken for an accomplice of the assassin. It just illustrates the complexity of actual shooting situations. There are an awful lot of people who imagine themselves breaking up melees like that abd saving lives by coolly shooting the perp. In an actual crisis things aren’t so clear-cut.

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