So Now You Can't Even Go To A Movie Without Worrying About Getting Killed?

[[deleted user]]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/201...


God help us all.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Dang.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

What are little children doing at a midnight movie?? Not a good plan, parents.

[Félix]

More guns! That's the answer. Yup.

[Cynthia]

I love the comments after this horrible story. A few people are (appropriately) expressing their grief, a few idiots are hoping they don't lose their right to bear arms. AAAAARGH!!!

[Cynthia]

Comments on Yahoo news, I meant.

[[deleted user]]

Lobstergirl wrote: "What are little children doing at a midnight movie?? Not a good plan, parents."

I wondered that myself.

[[deleted user]]

I just ordered tickets online for my son and I for the 8:15 showing tonight at our local multiplex.

It's been nice knowing you all.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Cynthia wrote: "Comments on Yahoo news, I meant."

Yahoo has the most low IQ comments of any website.

[Cynthia]

I think there are riskier things than going to the movies. Still, it does give one pause.

The girls and I were playing in a park in Clarksdale, MS one day when a local man pointed out that kids had been killed in the park in a drive-by shooting the previous month. We still played outside. Children can't be kept indoors forever.

[Kevin]

i am just heartbroken about this incident. when i heard it this morning in my truck i had to just pull over and stop for a few minutes. all morning i have just been saddened by what evil drives people to do these things. i know it happens every day all around the world and maybe i have become insulated to situations like these but i am glad that my value of human life and true sorrow and compassion for the victims and family floods back into my being. again a lesson that life is fragile and we are not guaranteed a long and easy life.

[Sally, la reina]

Kevin.

This world is going crazy.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

My reaction to this and every other mass killing with guns is that we have chosen this world for ourselves. We have chosen to live in an absolutely gun-mad society, where freedom must include the ability to purchase as many guns as possible, and as many different kinds of guns. Our decisions about guns and weaponry bring these results. Whenever something like this happens I feel the same sense of inevitability and lack of surprise.

Everything in society is about the choices we make, how we want to live. We should look both outward and inward when faced with the results of our choices.

[Kevin]

i think guns play a part in this but overall evil/selfishness/rage is the overall driving force. guns make it easier to be homicidal but not imperative. in central and east africa the machete is a weapon of choice to maim and kill thousands of people. bombs are used in the middle east. people kill each other with rocks and sticks and rope.

[Heidi]

Sally wrote: "Kevin.

This world is going crazy."

Sally, I know you don't live in Aurora, but I have to say, I'm relieved to see you posting here this morning... you've been on my mind since I heard the news. ♥

[Sarah]

This is horrible. I do question what a six year old was doing at a movie that is too violent for some adults I know, but that's beside the point. The point being that my heart goes out to everyone who was there. Nobody should have to fear for their life when choosing to see a movie.

[Kevin]

^^^^ totally agree SP. this is not a war zone and we should be able to go to the theatre, mall or wherever without needing flak jackets and helmets. also i am wondering about the children that were there who were unsupervised. may not have made a diff but an adult may have been able to think more quickly and averted some of the damage

[Kevin]

^^^ again i agree. i don't get it.

[Sally, la reina]

Message 14 makes a good point. It is the sickness in the killers mind that worries me most of all.

[Sarah]

It will be interesting to see whether the suspect turns out to be someone with mental illness or someone with a societal grudge (which is really probably also a form of mental illness, if it is able to flourish to the point where somebody can take a gun into a theater). We learn the same lesson over and over and over because we do not as a society have strong enough systems to support the people who are falling through the cracks. And our rhetoric keeps escalating, fueling the fire in sick brains.

[Jammies]

My first thoughts were of kogi and mr. kogi, who are both fine, but who said that 10 years ago they might have been in the audience.

My second thoughts were that children don't belong at a Batman movie, no matter what time.

My third thoughts were that I'm with Bun that I don't understand how anyone can get to a point where they kill people. :(

[Jim]

Sarah Pi wrote: "Nobody should have to fear for their life when choosing to see a movie. "

No one should have to fear for their life at anytime unless they are endangering the welfare of others, and then we still should try for a peaceful solution if possible.

I don't understand how people can get to this state of mind either, but I become less surprised by it each time a similar event occurs.

[Sarah]

The newspapers from the area are already running the usual stories. He was in the process of dropping out of school. He was a loner. He didn't greet people in the halls of his residence.

[Sarah]

I'm also a little disturbed by the response in which cities are increasing security at showings of this particular movie. We are reactive, not proactive.

[Sarah]

Then there's this asshat: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07...

[Cheri]

Sarah Pi wrote: "Then there's this asshat: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07..."

People like him are the problem, not the solution. At some point, a person carrying a concealed gun is going to start blasting away and kill more people than the original assassin. The solution to violence is not more violence. He probably thinks it is OK to beat his wife and kids until they 'learn' to love and respect him.

This is all so sad.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Faculty member: Holmes was "strangely quiet in class"

So was I.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

He's a handsome feller:

[~Geektastic~]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Faculty member: Holmes was "strangely quiet in class"

So was I."

If all quiet students are potential murders, I guess I should go turn myself in before I snap.


But seriously, this situation keeps repeating itself and if we can't find a way to create a better system for identifying and helping troubled people like this, eventually we really won't be able to go to the movies anymore without a flak jacket.

[Kevin]

how do you identify? if someone is having a bad day do you call the SWAT team on them? if someone is just naturally quiet and introverted do we put them under surveillance? is everyone that has a backpack, long coat or has their hand in their pocket carrying a weapon? do we have to wand everyone for metals in everything we do in everyday life? i think maybe a huge public awareness campaign that is designed to say "IF YOU NEED HELP PLEASE PLEASE CONTACT US" and have celebrities, sports stars and others talk on ads and commercials about what kinds of things people might be feeling and where they can get help. it would be a tremendous and expensive undertaking but i would rather sink tax $$ in something like this rather than in wasted programs or corruption. maybe i am just a dreamer...

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I don't understand how you identify either. If someone is having some type of potentially dangerous breakdown and seeks help at a mental health facility, his privacy is protected by HIPAA. We don't yet know if this guy was "troubled," or if he was, how that manifested.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

A lot of people aren't aware they have problems for which they should seek help, either. They lack self-awareness.

[Kevin]

i agree LG, i am just thinking that if you had public awareness spots that said "if you feel this way... or this way... or are having thoughts like this....we want to help. please contact us right away. we care"

like i said, i am maybe a dreamer but i would rather help the problem than band-aid the issue

[~Geektastic~]

That's the thing, I don't know how either. Unfortunately it seems we're at an impasse when it comes to safety vs. freedom. Part of it boils down to our individualistic culture. So many people are no longer part of an active, caring community so they are left isolated and inundated with violence, consumerism and selfishness. But then again, maybe my ideas of community are nostalgic for a time that may never have even existed.

[Sarah]

I think you're right, Amber. In a lot of these cases, though, the shooter turns out to have been someone who had been under treatment at some point, or watched or warned about behavior at some point. Those people are failed by the system.

[~Geektastic~]

BunWat wrote: " ~Geektastic~ wrote: "But then again, maybe my ideas of community are nostalgic for a time that may never have even existed.
..."

Yes I think they are. :) Not that a time of closer knit communit..."

I think I was spoiled living with my grandparents in a neighborhood full of elderly people. They definitely looked out for each other. Although you're certainly right when it comes to the social coercion of small communities; I can only imagine how that tiny little neighborhood would have reacted to a gay couple or kid with tattoos.

[Sarah]

This is a good post about the intersection of this violence with mental health: http://www.twloha.com/blog/what-that-...

[Sarah]

My aunt had written just last night to ask my family not to see the movie until the family reunion next week. Today she wrote back to say never mind. My sister responded that the movie had been ruined for her.
I still want to see it.
The shooter was at the midnight premiere. He hadn't yet seen the film. He was drawn by the publicity, or some connection with the movie that was entirely in his own head.

[~Geektastic~]

Sarah Pi wrote: "My aunt had written just last night to ask my family not to see the movie until the family reunion next week. Today she wrote back to say never mind. My sister responded that the movie had been rui..."

It certainly won't deter me from seeing a movie I've been waiting to see for nearly 2 years. I think he knew there would be a large, dense crowd in a poorly lit, loud room. The perfect trap if he was trying to cause as much damage as possible.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

What we know so far: he was a brilliant student, a loner, seemed like a normal dude. After getting a bachelor's in neuroscience he couldn't find a job in his field, worked part time at McDonald's for a year, then enrolled in his PhD program. So what happened then? Maybe he read that article about how science PhDs are having extreme difficulty finding jobs and it set him off.

[Alias Reader]

After reading the excellent Columbine~Dave Cullen I learned that the reports one hears the first few days are probably not accurate.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

This person has it right:

You Yanks like to prattle on about "freedom"...(to the point where many of us here think the people you're most trying to convince is yourselves)......

Tell me....How come the freedoms of a cinema audience enjoying an evening out took second place to the freedom of a psycho to legally obtain an arsenal and kill them?

[Félix]

My rural cousins couldn't get on the Facebook "Don't even think this event gives any more credence to 2nd Amendment infringement efforts that may ensue" bandwagon much quicker than they did. It's depressing.

E. J. Dionne's latest piece says it all -- the gun lobby effectively stifles all constructive discussion about controlling the flow of weapons and ammo.

[Cynthia]

Lobstergirl wrote: "This person has it right:

You Yanks like to prattle on about "freedom"...(to the point where many of us here think the people you're most trying to convince is yourselves)......

Tell me....How ..."

LG: Who said this wise thing?? The freedom of a single unhinged person trumps the rest of us? Good quote.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

The number of people murdered on 9/11 is utterly dwarfed by the number of people killed each year by firearms. We spent a trillion dollars and created the largest government bureaucracy ever to protect us from another 9/11 - i.e., another 3,000 deaths.

But we don't seem to really give too much of a shit about all the firearm murders and massacres.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

We are the only ones to whom this is happening in such massive numbers, however. Mass shootings in those countries are extremely rare events. Here you expect it to happen annually, if not every few months.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

And why don't we compare accidental shootings/killings by children of other children in the U.S. versus those countries, while we're at it.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Cynthia wrote: "LG: Who said this wise thing?? The freedom of a single unhinged person trumps the rest of us? Good quote.

A commenter on a Washington Post article.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

You know, gay marriage is the same kind of issue. That's why Republicans put it on the ballot in so many states, because people who hate the queers are easily mobilized to go vote even if they aren't mobilized by other things.

We're at a place now where gay marriage is winning, slowly but surely.

There's really no reason why gun issues can't be approached in the same way. No, it wouldn't be easy. But harder things have been done.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

The Aurora Shooting Wasn’t “Shocking”—It Was Inevitable, Given Our Lax Gun Laws

http://www.slate.com/blogs/spitzer/20...

"...there are about 10,000 gun murders in the United States every year. According to USA Today, there are on average 20 mass shootings per year. And according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, every day in America, guns claim 84 lives and wound nearly 200," notes Eliot Spitzer.

He's not even proposing anything radical. Just that "it is time to ban all military-style semi-automatic assault weapons, ban assault clips holding more than 10 rounds, and require that new guns have micro-stamping technology so bullets left at crime scenes can be traced."