The brutal shooting of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the crowd around her at a Safeway in Tucson was caught on tape by a nearby store's security camera. According to a chief investigator in Arizona, via The New York Times, the "gory" clip shows Judge John Roll shielding one of Gifford’s staffers with his body, resulting in his death. Richard Kastigar, the operational bureau chief of the Pima County Sheriff's Department, says the video shows the gun gunman looking "very deliberate...very calculated."

So far, the video has not been publicly released by any media outlets. But should it? The Guardian's Michael Tomasky asks whether "people should see what this kind of thing actually looks like in real life." It's morbid, he admits, and the sensitivities of the families involved must be taken into account. But still, he suggests, seeing the video "might have a salutary impact." Is the video's potential positive impact worth the pain it might cause victims' families?

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Caitlin Dickson