As a people, Americans have their faults. Some of the most notorious have been on display on a weekend in which a young man emptied a semi-automatic handgun into a political event in Tucson, Ariz. But one of those faults is not a lack of courage -- or a reluctance to stay safely in the crowd when the time comes to stand up.

As well as grieving for the dead and injured, therefore, let us honour the bystanders, starting with a middle-aged woman, who jumped on the shooter before he could reload. And let us cheer the plain-spoken sheriff who, at a subsequent press conference, pointed an accusing finger at the crazy-angry rhetoric that increasingly poisons American political debate.

Apparently, the primary target of the shooter was conservative Democratic congressman Gabrielle Giffords, one of those who appeared last year in the crosshairs of an election website sponsored by "Tea Party" favourite Sarah Palin. Miraculously, after taking a bullet through to the head, Giffords may survive, although assorted others did not, including a nine-year-old girl.

Inevitably, a debate instantly erupted about whether the shooting was fuelled by over-the-top Tea-Party politics, or was just the random act of a single deranged individual. (For some reason, U.S. conservatives are not especially troubled by the fact that a crazy person can easily buy and conceal a semi-automatic weapon in Arizona.)

But Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik had a good bead on the irrelevance of this distinction:

"It's time to do a little soul-searching about the rhetoric we hear on the radio, how our children are being raised ..." he said. "I think people who are unbalanced are especially susceptible to vitriol. People tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences."

As they have always done at difficult moments in the past, Americans will doubtless sort this question out without patronizing advice from foreigners. To honour the dead in Arizona, what we Canadians must do is note how our own political discourse has been getting a bit nastier and more disrespectful, and vow not to follow our American friends any farther down this particular path.