‘Oh my God. Not this’- Delaware delegation reacts to baseball shooting

As a big baseball fan, Delaware Sen. Tom Carper said the shooting of a Congressman Tuesday morning in Virginia targeted one of the few places lawmakers find common ground.

A man with a rifle shot multiple people at a Tuesday morning practice for members of the Republican congressional baseball team. House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana was shot along with several others. The Associated Press reports the assailant, prepared with “a lot of ammo,” fought a gun battle with police before he, too, was shot and later died.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper played for ten years on the Democratic baseball team. “In a turbulent time, and in a turbulent Capitol, we look for something that draws us together. Baseball does,” Carper said. Carper is a big baseball fan and often talking about his beloved Detroit Tigers with reporters prior to  press events. Carper played second base while he was a member of the U.S. House from 1983-93. “We had a good-spirited rivalry with our Republican opponents. We had great fun…I look back fondly on those years.”

Carper said his initial reaction to the news was “Oh my god. Not this.” He credited the Capitol police officers who responded to the attack. “Thank God for them,” Carper said.

Delaware’s U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat, said members of Congress are family. “Today, we are not Republicans or Democrats, we are a family and we are concerned about the well-being of our own,” she said in a statement. “The best way we can move forward is to serve with the same selfless spirit as my colleagues did this morning and to stand together in the face of senseless violence and hatred.”