LONDON  The shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others is a huge story in the United Kingdom, initially because of the natural interest in all things U.S. political and the fact that the story was so compelling.

Now there’s more reporting here in England on what was behind the shooting. Some of the stories are  taking a distinctly knee-jerk line critical of the U.S., that the gun culture in the United States makes it a distinctly American event.

Others are more nuanced.  “Violence like this knows no boundaries,” historian Michael Burleigh told Fox News.

He wrote an Op-Ed in the London Times today citing the “lone assassins and mass murderers” who have been targeting many political figures across the European continent in recent years.

Most of the reporting here, too, is noting the political rhetoric some see as important to consider in any analysis of the event.

Burleigh says the name-calling can get pretty nasty on this side of the Pond too.  “There is a lot of vitriol in the political system,” he told us.

Just last May an incident here echoed this weekend’s event in Tucson.  Popular Labour Member of Parliament Stephen Timms was attacked at a constituency meeting in his London district.

The assailant, a 21 year old woman, used the weapon of choice here, a knife, stabbing Timms twice in the stomach, she said, for his stand on the Iraq war.

He has since recovered but, we’re told MP’s think a little more carefully about security when they’re mixing with voters.

“When they meet with their constituents they’ve very careful about other people who are available, panic alarms, that sort of thing,” Burleigh said.

That’s just some of the soul-searching already beginning on Capitol Hill and across the country.