Life imitates art—or does it? My thoughts on the Aurora tragedy, gun control, and how it relates to what I write

I kill people. Okay, let me elaborate on the last statement: Since I write thrillers, I routinely devise ways of killing people. Killing someone off in a novel is, I hate to say it, what keeps readers interested. Call it some morbid fascination. It’s like work—people love to read about work even though we all complain about it. It’s one of those weird quirks of human nature.
Back to killing. Frequently, I have to murder a character to keep the story exciting. I’ve had to ask medical professionals if the way I describe someone being killed is accurate. I try to be as vivid as I can with words without having too much of a gross-out factor.
In my latest novel, Kingdom of Rage, I show scenes of torture, and someone murdering another person just because they can. It’s a way of showing how evil someone can be. I also show the consequences of what happens when greed and the desire for power is great enough to topple a nation.
Reading a book is supposed to be a way for all of us to escape. To get away from it all. To forget our problems. And that’s what people were doing when they went to see the latest Batman movie.
At 4:00 a.m., the morning of the horrific massacre in Aurora, Colorado, I happened to turn on the news as I was preparing to go to work. ABC News broke in with a live feed from a local affiliate. The initial count was 20 people dead with many more injured. I sat transfixed for another twenty minutes.
The thought of a terrorist shooting up a theatre isn’t something new. In Brad Thor’s Full Black a Muslim extremist blows himself up inside of a crowded theatre. Is this a case of life imitating art? Tom Clancy blew up a stadium filled with sports fans in The Sum of All Fears.
And guess what—I feel guilty because when I read Full Black I thought to myself I can out-do him. I can make a story of destruction so horrific and thrilling it’ll freak people out. People will eat it up. Look at Batman Dark Night Rises—loved the movie, by the way—the antagonist, Mr. Bane, is excellent as the would-be terrorist trying to tear down Gotham City with an atom bomb. The movie was expected to gross over 500 million, but had plateaued around 400.
Within hours of the shooting in Aurora, politicians, blowhards, and ordinary citizens alike were making accusation about the need for stricter gun control, movie cops, etc. You name it; people were vying for control of the gun issue. Facebook lit up with messages of pro-gun support. I read these posts and news reports and thought These guys need to see the big picture. Gun nuts were so afraid of people attacking their guns that they felt a need to make a preemptive strike. Guess what folks: Take a deep breather because you and your bazooka are not the problem. And your government knows this, despite your paranoia.
To my friends with guns: No one is going to take away your precious guns. Not Obama, not congress, not a single politician. I’ve had this discussion with pro-gun people before. I agree with them wholeheartedly that 99.9% of gun owners are law-abiding citizens. It’s the less than 1% I’m worried about.
What do we know and how do we solve the problem of mass killings? I’m not a criminal justice expert but people need to see where the problem really is. It’s a broken mental health system. I’ve spoken to many religious conservatives who believe that depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder are a figment of our imagination. This stance is utterly naïve and bullshit. They prefer to put their head in the sand and say mental disorders don’t exist than to treat the problem head-on. How many more people have to die before we take this seriously?
I’ve personally visited the parking lot where Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot and six others were killed. Could the killing have been prevented? How do you lock someone up who is crazy but hasn’t made a specific threat? You can’t incarcerate someone just because they are nuts (half my family would be in jail otherwise).
As I sit here writing this, I have news of my own: The first edit is done and the first hard copies of Kingdom of Rage are going out this afternoon to get a first-hand look from readers. I’m excited and nervous about putting something I’ve worked on for over two years into the hands of others.
My goal is to launch the book around September 11th, which is fitting because the novel deals with the after-effects of the attacks. I can hardly wait.