Pop Friday: Tragic shooting at The Dark Knight Rises
July 20th, 2012
By now you’ve heard. Or maybe not. This weekend was to be a colossal opening of the latest in the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises. But a tragic shooting in Aurora Colorado has many around the country saying they’ll sit this out. And, as always happens, the gun and vice prohibitionists are swarming like locusts to exploit the tragedy for their own agendas. The Batman movie franchise has a long disastrous history, from the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze to the untimely death of Heath Ledger. Now it seems this new installment in the series is no exception.
The shooter is one James Holmes, a 24-year-old doctoral student. Thursday night James entered the crowded Theater with a ticket for the sold-out midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. He was wearing a ballistics helmet, bullet-proof vest, bullet-proof leggings, gas mask and gloves, perhaps dressed as the movie’s villain, Bane. At 12:39 am Holmes set off a series of teargas canisters and opened fire on the unsuspecting audience armed with 3 different models of firearm. An AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle, a remington 870 shotgun and a 40 caliber glock handgun. Multiple survivors report thinking it was part of the film until they saw Holmes methodically walking the aisles of the theater, shooting people at random. Bullets from the rampage tore through the walls and into adjoining auditoriums, leading to additional injuries. 10 people were killed immediately and 2 more died in the hospital. 59 were wounded, including a four-month-old baby.
The number of casualties makes this the largest mass shooting in US history.
Holmes was apprehended within minutes behind the theater. Another 40 caliber glock was found in his car outside the theater. Holmes reportedly told the officers that he was “The Joker” (not Bane) and that his apartment was booby-trapped. Police found jars of chemicals wired to explode in his apartment. Police said it was enough explosive material to blow up Holmes apartment building and the ones near it. Other than that Holmes is not talking to police and has asked for a lawyer. The shooter will face his first court appearance at Arapahoe County District Court, in nearby Centennial, Colorado, on Monday.
This is a truly horrific tragedy. The trauma of those who survived and the devastation of those who lost loved ones is unimaginable.
What about the aftermath? Since we know the unofficial policy of the State is to never let a good disaster go to waste. New York has already announced intensified security around the showing of the film… as if the shooter wasn’t already in custody… in Colorado. And a number of theaters have cancelled their screening. Barack Obama ordered flags flown at half-mast and said, “This is a day for prayer and reflection.” Which is sociocrat lingo for “a day of contemplating new gun control legislation.”
Usually there is some online manifesto published by these lunatics. For months after any shooting armchair analysts pour through pages of half coherent ramblings so the liberals can scream “TEA PARTY!” and the conservatives can scream “MUSLIMS!” and the Muslims can scream “SEE! IT’S NOT ONLY MUSLIMS!” But not in this case. It seems Holmes had no Facebook, no LinkedIn, no Twitter. Not ever a MySpace page. Which is strange in and of itself. Authorities have established no motive, and Mr Holmes had no prior criminal history.
If he’s got no criminal history, and history of mental problems, and he bought all the firearms legally we’ve got to pin this on something else for the prohibitionists. Satanic music? Violent video games? Something. Or maybe it can be blamed on costumes. Dressing up like a villain must have made him want to act like a villain. So we’ve got to ban all villain costumes. Sure it sounds crazy, but brace yourself, because the insanity of the busy body prohibitionists is coming to fan culture and cosplay any day now.
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