14 Confirmed Dead After Shooting At Batman Movie Premiere In Denver: Police

[rice555]

Hello All, another nut job with a gun.

bangkokrick, so he had 6,000 on him or with him?(car/home) That's about 230-Lbs.

CO, like 38 States say you can own "full automatics", but that is done through the BATF,

not the State Gov.

My info is 14-5 years old, but no crime as ever been commited with with a leaglly registered

FULL AUTO's says the FBI.

[bangkokrick]

Hello All, another nut job with a gun.

bangkokrick, so he had 6,000 on him or with him?(car/home) That's about 230-Lbs.

CO, like 38 States say you can own "full automatics", but that is done through the BATF,

not the State Gov.

My info is 14-5 years old, but no crime as ever been commited with with a leaglly registered

FULL AUTO's says the FBI.

Agree a total nut job.

This is the ammo quote Aurora police chief: "In the last 60 days he purchased four guns and over 6,000 rounds" I realise that he could not be carrying that amount, but why was he allowed to buy it. Still scary that people can own automatic weapons in my opinion.

So all the crimes are committed with illegal automatic rifles. Hard to believe that.

Anyway this is a shocking day for all the families of the victims. It must be very difficult for anyone to handle this kind of situation.

[metisdead]

Nonsense trolling posts have been removed.

[rice555]

Hello All, a "semiautomatic" is one pull, one shot.

A automatic/machine-gun is one pull, multi shots.

Most are talking fruit salad when it's apples & oranges.

The use of "automatic/s" should be "semi-automatic/s",

but if you are anti, you use the words as the same.

Again, nut jobs should not have guns!

rice555

[smotherb]

Does not really matter if terroism or not. USA loves calling things terrorist activities to go after cells or others involved. This guy appears to be a delusional psychotic lone gun man who is just a mass murderer and he will be treated with accordingly. Lots of sucky people in this world and the travesty is giving people like this easy access to guns and assault rifles.

Well now mate, if all those movie-goers had guns, someone would have shot the bastard before he killed or wounded so many.

[hawker9000]

... and the travesty is giving people like this easy access to guns and assault rifles.

Oh, here we go. That didn't take long. Yes, by all means, let's make this political.

RIP (and apologies to the victims' families for posts here like the above.).

[bangkokrick]

Does not really matter if terroism or not. USA loves calling things terrorist activities to go after cells or others involved. This guy appears to be a delusional psychotic lone gun man who is just a mass murderer and he will be treated with accordingly. Lots of sucky people in this world and the travesty is giving people like this easy access to guns and assault rifles.

Well now mate, if all those movie-goers had guns, someone would have shot the bastard before he killed or wounded so many.

If all those movie goers had guns it would have been an even bigger blood bath with people firing in a dark cinema. Good thing that the police turned up quickly. Leave it to the professionals.

[koheesti]

First of all, this is a real tragedy and my sympathies go out to the families. I'm a big movie fan, was looking forward to this film and can imagine if I were back home I probably would have been at the local premiere myself.

I recently spent 6 months in southern Georgia USA and guns are so prevalent (as are the deer), I don't think a tragedy like this could happen. The police are the least of the would-be shooter's worries. At least the police have a protocol they must follow.

As for the shooter, I'm amazed at how educated he is. Seems to happen often (the Unibomber was a genius). They say there is a fine line between genius and insanity. I guess this is another example of the line being crossed.

[thaiedward]

Is it fair to mention that Colorado is home to many defense contractors? And, when the kids find-out...?

[ttelise]

... and the travesty is giving people like this easy access to guns and assault rifles.

Oh, here we go. That didn't take long. Yes, by all means, let's make this political.

RIP (and apologies to the victims' families for posts here like the above.).

Nothing to do with politics and everything to do with common sense. My very innocuous statement has been repeated over and over by both victims and media in National TV coverage. Why apologize for what victims are articulating on national TV. Mass murderers become much more lethal with AR-15s and 100 shot clips. Not sure how to rid world of James Holmes before they flip, but do know how to limit the damage and misery they can inflict.

I have been the victim of a crime and had my friend sitting next to me killed. I spent several months in a hospital. After being in that situation and getting through survivor's guilt, you focus on how to make such a negative a positive.

The tragedies are the poor young father I saw interviewed in front of a hospital. His 6 year-old had been shot and killed and his wife had been shot in the chest and was in critical condition. The indiscriminate killing of young children, if nothing else, just boggles the mind.

The amount of suffering this father and others are currently enduring is beyond comprehension. I think we as nation owe it to the victims to somehow takes steps to keep this from happening again. The sad part is that I have little confidence or faith anything meaningful will be done because too many people and too much lobbying power are concerned only with themselves and what they stand to lose.

Edited July 21, 2012 by ttelise

[frodo]

Here is a 16 minute police audio between dispatchers and police.

RIP to the victims.

http://www.lawofficer.com/video/news/audio-aurora-theater-shooting

[geriatrickid]

Does not really matter if terroism or not. USA loves calling things terrorist activities to go after cells or others involved. This guy appears to be a delusional psychotic lone gun man who is just a mass murderer and he will be treated with accordingly. Lots of sucky people in this world and the travesty is giving people like this easy access to guns and assault rifles.

Well now mate, if all those movie-goers had guns, someone would have shot the bastard before he killed or wounded so many.

They would have also shot and most likely killed bystanders. Do you think the typical gun owner is competent to use a firearm in a place that is dark and crowded. The last thing that was needed was additional gunfire. The police responding would not have known who was the bad guy and who was the good guy and some of the vigelantes would have certainly been killed.

[Jayman]

Has any known motive for the shootings been released yet?

[ttelise]

Has any known motive for the shootings been released yet?

They are not going to say for some time I bet. Speculation is that the guy was acting out The Joker. They have refused to release mug shot which is a bit unusual and the consensus is his appearance will cause much more speculation.

[khaowong1]

FBI spokesman Jason Pack said it did not appear the incident was related to terrorism.

I guess me and the FBI agent hold different definitions of what is terrorism.

Terrorism is not some fruit cake going postal in a movie theatre. Columbine high school wasn't terrorism.. Oklahoma City was terrorism. Unless the shooter turns out to be some fanatical "let's bring down the US government" fruit cake. That's terrorism.

[ttelise]

FBI spokesman Jason Pack said it did not appear the incident was related to terrorism.

I guess me and the FBI agent hold different definitions of what is terrorism.

Terrorism is not some fruit cake going postal in a movie theatre. Columbine high school wasn't terrorism.. Oklahoma City was terrorism. Unless the shooter turns out to be some fanatical "let's bring down the US government" fruit cake. That's terrorism.

So far FBI and government agencies are so terrosum unlikely motive and they give many reasons for conclusion during TV interviews. Sounds like dude just lost it.

[Jingthing]

Here's a different angle.

Be honest: were you SHOCKED by the news of the movie massacre?

I wasn't. These events in the USA though obviously not everyday have become completely PREDICTABLE.

Just saying.

No one should be shocked, just as we should not have been shocked by the killing of seven at Oikos University in April; or the school shooting in Chadron, Ohio, in February; or the Arizona shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others—killing six—in 2011; or the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007; or the Columbine shooting more than 13 years ago. It depends on which study you choose, but 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.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/spitzer/2012/07/20/the_aurora_shooting_wasn_t_shocking_it_was_inevitable_given_our_lax_gun_laws_.html

[JemJem]

I am a liberal democrat but when it comes to crime, I am in favor of 'no-nonsense laws/treatment'. Whether such massacres are committed by an Islamist extremist or a redneck fascist or a depressed, fed-up-with-life university student, it should mean the same thing for the murderer: life sentence with no chance at all for a parole, to be spent alone in the tiniest-possible cell, with only 1 hour a day of out-of-cell time.

I sincerely think that if potential killers know that what is awaiting them is such a punishment, many of them won't do it.

In massacre cases, 'please of insanity' should be possible for only very severely mentally ill people.

[Jingthing]

Harsh sentences and/or death penalties are not deterrents to crimes like this one ...

[Somtamnication]

No law, however strict it can be, will deter a crazy person.

[meatballs]

Another lunatic wants his 15 minutes of fame. Ignore him.

[Berkshire]

... and the travesty is giving people like this easy access to guns and assault rifles.

Oh, here we go. That didn't take long. Yes, by all means, let's make this political.

RIP (and apologies to the victims' families for posts here like the above.).

Well of course, when a tragedy like this happens, everyone wants to know what to do to avoid future occurrence. Clearly, the easy availability of guns in the US is a problem. But apparently, Australia has tried to deal with this problem and has had some success. This article discusses why Australia was able to solve this problem, while the US could not (and will not, any time soon): http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/20/opinion/donohue-gun-control/index.html?hpt=hp_bn4

[lomatopo]

Admittedly I am way behind on my reading but I was in the midst of this article when I heard about this incident in Aurora, CO. Some may find it informative.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore

U.S. CHRONICLESBATTLEGROUND AMERICA

One nation, under the gun.

by Jill Lepore

APRIL 23, 2012

Every American can be his own policeman; the country has nearly as many guns as it has people.

Just after seven-thirty on the morning of February 27th, a seventeen-year-old boy named T. J. Lane walked into the cafeteria at Chardon High School, about thirty miles outside Cleveland. It was a Monday, and the cafeteria was filled with kids, some eating breakfast, some waiting for buses to drive them to programs at other schools, some packing up for gym class. Lane sat down at an empty table, reached into a bag, and pulled out a .22-calibre pistol. He stood up, raised the gun, and fired. He said not a word.

One thing, among many, surprised me:

"Most Americans do not, however, own guns, because three-quarters of people with guns own two or more. According to the General Social Survey, conducted by the National Policy Opinion Center at the University of Chicago, the prevalence of gun ownership has declined steadily in the past few decades. In 1973, there were guns in roughly one in two households in the United States; in 2010, one in three. In 1980, nearly one in three Americans owned a gun; in 2010, that figure had dropped to one in five."

[Jingthing]

Not meaning to be flip, but the shooter was armed to the teeth in full armor in a totally packed theater which he gassed first before shooting. I'm not a gun person but considering his tactical situation, doesn't the fact that there were "only" 14 dead indicate the guy was not very skilled at hitting targets?

Edited July 22, 2012 by Jingthing

[Ulysses G.]

He injured 70 people and some very seriously. I do wonder if he became less enthusiastic about killing people once he started. I find it interesting that he rigged his apartment to kill even more, but told the police about it right away, so they were able to stop it.

Edited July 22, 2012 by Ulysses G.

[lomatopo]

He injured 70 people and some very seriously. I do wonder if he became less enthusiastic about killing people once he started. I find it interesting that he rigged his apartment to kill even more, but told the police about it right away, so they were able to stop it.

Some reports are that his initial semi-automatic rifle jammed...

http://www.chron.com/news/article/AP-Source-Assault-rifle-jammed-in-Colo-attack-3724591.php

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — The semiautomatic assault rifle used by the gunman in a mass shooting at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie jammed during the attack, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press, which forced the shooter to switch to another gun with less fire power.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to in order to discuss the investigation, said the disabled weapon had a high-capacity ammunition magazine. Police have said that a 100-round drum magazine was recovered at the scene and that such a device would be able to fire 50 to 60 rounds a minute.

[Jingthing]

He injured 70 people and some very seriously. I do wonder if he became less enthusiastic about killing people once he started. I find it interesting that he rigged his apartment to kill even more, but told the police about it right away, so they were able to stop it.

I wonder if the police roughed him up a bit to get that out of him. Not saying they shouldn't have. Also not sure how this serves society that he wasn't shot on the spot. It might serve book sales and curious psychiatrists though. I'm technically anti-death penalty and the rights of insane people, but his case challenges my liberal principles. I think he will be executed, insane or not. Why should he get more "understanding" because he comes from a background of privilege? Edited July 22, 2012 by Jingthing

[Ulysses G.]

I wonder if the police roughed him up a bit to get that out of him.

I hope so. I hope that they roughed him up a LOT.

[ttelise]

He injured 70 people and some very seriously. I do wonder if he became less enthusiastic about killing people once he started. I find it interesting that he rigged his apartment to kill even more, but told the police about it right away, so they were able to stop it.

I wonder if the police roughed him up a bit to get that out of him. Not saying they shouldn't have. Also not sure how this serves society that he wasn't shot on the spot. It might serve book sales and curious psychiatrists though. I'm technically anti-death penalty and the rights of insane people, but his case challenges my liberal principles. I think he will be executed, insane or not. Why should he get more "understanding" because he comes from a background of privilege?

Privilege will likely play against him here. Less likely to get death penalty if young, poor black kid. Not much racial or class divide in Colorado like Southern Staes, but I think his intelligence, education and planning will all get him the death penalty.

[lomatopo]

Not a lot of executions in Colorado, maybe because an innocent man was executed in 1936?

Jack Graham was executed in Colorado for killing his mother in 1957, by blowing up the United Airlines plane she, and 43 other people, was on out of DEN. (I remember this from the Jimmy Stewart movie, "The FBI Story".)

The racial bias of the death penalty in the U.S. is well documented.