The shooting that took place at U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ “Congress on Your Corner” in Tucson raised concerns about civility in politics, media ethics and gun ownership.

In the wake of the tragedy there was a ceasefire amongst many politicians and commentators, with rhetoric being toned down. But many took the opportunity to place the blame on Tea Party politicians and conservative news commentators.

“It seems like people took a week off from using rhetoric, but they’re quickly returning back to the status quo,” said Dr. Alex Aguado, associate professor of history and political science. “Many fear that this shooting will have a chilling effect on the protection of political speech. It probably will in the short run for both politicians and the media, but not in the long run.”

Aguado feels that enough information has been revealed about the mentally ill state and apolitical nature of the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, that there is little cause to believe that political rhetoric, however vitriolic, provoked his actions. According to a recent poll conducted by CBS News, 57 percent of Americans see no connection between rhetoric and Loughner’s actions.

Dr. Janet McMullen, associate professor of radio, television and film, feels that the media may have jumped to conclusions about who to blame.

“In an era when competition between media outlets is so steep, they felt the need to say something significant about what happened,” she said. “The result was that they jumped to conclusions and wrote the script without doing their homework.”

Regardless of whether or not Loughner was influenced by rhetoric, the shooting has brought vitriolic political speech into the spotlight, prompting reflection on whether or not civility in political discourse has declined so significantly as to cause alarm.

“Political rhetoric has always been vitriolic, even as far back as John Adams’ administration,” said Aguado. “I don’t think that it’s any worse than it’s ever been, but access to this sort of information is wider. It seems to be everywhere, giving us a sense that it’s necessary.”

McMullen feels that the problems of vitriolic speech are rooted deeper in the entertainment industry, and that commentators become part of the problem when audiences are unable to distinguish news from entertainment.

“I challenge people to watch a sitcom and make slash marks for every cutting remark that is the focus for laughs,” she said. “It may be hard to find non-degrading humor, and this prevalence of disrespect in entertainment makes it easier to justify disrespect in civil discourse about important issues.”

As a result of the shooting, many are calling for more restrictive firearm legislation, but gun proponents are advocating wider availability of firearms for the purpose of self-defense. Current legislative proposals include a moratorium on high capacity ammo clips like the ones used in the attack.

“I think that if [the shooting] is going to impact gun legislation it will be at a national level only,” said Aguado. “The moratorium on high capacity clips seems to have bi-partisan support, but there is less serious talk about making it illegal to have guns around elected officials.”