At least 12 killed, 50 injured at midnight showing of Batman movie
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So I was just briefed on the incident through our NM Emergency Management Department.. This is the nuts and bolts.. There were several additional procedural paragraphs regarding the private sector and things of that nature.. Either way, this is the official offical info.. Not new information, but I thought I'd pass it along.
Suspect Information
James Eagan Holmes
24 years old, born 13 Dec 87
White male
6 feet, 3 inches tall
Address: Apartment complex in Aurora, approximately five miles from the Century 16 movie theater, believed to have been driving a Tennessee registered vehicle
Graduated High School in San Diego, California
Dropped out of University of Colorado Medical School in June
Motive: Unknown, appears to be a lone offender
Incident Overview
20 Jul: James Eagan Holmes, a 24-year-old male, allegedly shot and killed 12 people and wounded approximately 38 more after opening fire in a crowded movie theater during a showing of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises”
The shooting erupted during the midnight showing at the multiplex in Aurora, Colorado (approximately 10 miles from Denver, CO)
Holmes began the attack by throwing two gas canisters into the theater after entering through an exit door that had been propped open
Witnesses stated many assumed it was a promotional stunt related to the movie and did not initially react; after both canisters had deployed, Holmes commenced shooting into the crowd
Holmes departed the theater after the attack and was arrested by local police next to his vehicle without incident
Police later recovered a total of 4 guns, including 2 pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun as well as a gas mask; Holmes was also wearing a bulletproof vest.
Suspect Information
James Eagan Holmes
24 years old, born 13 Dec 87
White male
6 feet, 3 inches tall
Address: Apartment complex in Aurora, approximately five miles from the Century 16 movie theater, believed to have been driving a Tennessee registered vehicle
Graduated High School in San Diego, California
Dropped out of University of Colorado Medical School in June
Motive: Unknown, appears to be a lone offender
Incident Overview
20 Jul: James Eagan Holmes, a 24-year-old male, allegedly shot and killed 12 people and wounded approximately 38 more after opening fire in a crowded movie theater during a showing of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises”
The shooting erupted during the midnight showing at the multiplex in Aurora, Colorado (approximately 10 miles from Denver, CO)
Holmes began the attack by throwing two gas canisters into the theater after entering through an exit door that had been propped open
Witnesses stated many assumed it was a promotional stunt related to the movie and did not initially react; after both canisters had deployed, Holmes commenced shooting into the crowd
Holmes departed the theater after the attack and was arrested by local police next to his vehicle without incident
Police later recovered a total of 4 guns, including 2 pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun as well as a gas mask; Holmes was also wearing a bulletproof vest.
They can't feel good. Even Ironman (RDJ) wrote a long comment about it, and then went outside the walls to try and make someone smile.
Re: 14 killed, 50 injured at midnight showing of Batman movie
There are always armed police at night at the local movie theater here. It's a very large theater and is in kind of a seedy part of town, though. When I saw the midnight premiere of Cabin in the Woods, there were three armed officers standing right outside the doors to the showing.
There are always armed police at night at the local movie theater here. It's a very large theater and is in kind of a seedy part of town, though. When I saw the midnight premiere of Cabin in the Woods, there were three armed officers standing right outside the doors to the showing.
S
Stone_Cold_Sisko
Guest
What a horrible horrible thing.
To be honest, I'm ok with them banning all masks in theaters.
It's kind of strange how this is the 2nd straight Nolanverse Batman movie associated with real world death. Ledger and TDK and now this horrific attack with TDKR. Obviously a movie's just a movie, but it is kind of eerie, considering the (apparent) paramilitary bent to the villains.
To be honest, I'm ok with them banning all masks in theaters.
It's kind of strange how this is the 2nd straight Nolanverse Batman movie associated with real world death. Ledger and TDK and now this horrific attack with TDKR. Obviously a movie's just a movie, but it is kind of eerie, considering the (apparent) paramilitary bent to the villains.
This may be an off-the-rails crazy thing to think but one of my first thoughts when I heard the details of this shooting was "lawsuit". The shooter was an employee right? Hollywood is perceived to have deep pockets? I'm not sure our universe is that crazy yet but it wouldn't surprise me to see suits against the theater and maybe even against the movie studio itself.
Banning all masks wouldn't have changed a thing, unfortunately. He was in the theater, propped open the emergency exit, went out to to his truck to get the weapons, gas, and gas mask, and then came back in through the emergency exit, set off the gas and started firing.
I agree, banning masks does nothing. I'm just surprised that the alarms didn't go off when the emergency exit was opened. That's supposed to happen and they won't reset until manually done so. It would have called a lot of attention to the person exiting, that's for certain.
While horribly tragic, this kind of thing really can't be prevented. This is a very rare circumstance of an educated young adult that hid his neurosis extremely well. One could complain about how easy it is to obtain a weapon these days, but this guy didn't have a criminal record that would bar him from buying a weapon. Quite simply put, he was suffering from a psychological problem that nobody could detect. And then he "blew" his top.
It is sickening that someone could do this to innocent people. What did he hope to achieve? Sadly, we may never really know why he felt compelled to do this. But reacting to this incident with "we have to beef up security" and so forth, it's futile. You can't guard against every possible nutjob case, unless you have everyone's mind hooked up to a wireless cloud and monitored for bad thoughts...
Oh, I'll bet he'll tell us in great detail why he did this. Unlike Loughner he doesn't seem to be a delusional paranoid schizophrenic who would babble incoherent nonsense and grin like an idiot.
And despite how horrible the tragedy was, it still pales in comparison to some of the nightclub fires.
Do you have a link to that?
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2012/07/dark-knight-rises-fans-killed-at.html
Scroll way down. RDJ posts there as "Himmmm" He says its one of his few indulgences.
Scroll way down. RDJ posts there as "Himmmm" He says its one of his few indulgences.
I think the escapism of the movie theater will endure. I really do.
That said, what I want to hope will come out of this would be a closer look at our mental healthcare system. It's a disgrace. Unfortunately I think it's too complex and large a problem for a lot of people to wrap their heads around, so I think we'll just see a period of people blaming guns, the media and the usual scapegoats.
My own thoughts about this have largely been about the victims, and being grateful that I have never had to go through something so horrific that I can barely comprehend it from my outsider's perspective.
That said, what I want to hope will come out of this would be a closer look at our mental healthcare system. It's a disgrace. Unfortunately I think it's too complex and large a problem for a lot of people to wrap their heads around, so I think we'll just see a period of people blaming guns, the media and the usual scapegoats.
My own thoughts about this have largely been about the victims, and being grateful that I have never had to go through something so horrific that I can barely comprehend it from my outsider's perspective.
If that's indeed RDJ, I'm getting even more impressed. The guy is all kinds of awesome.
It definitely, 100% positively him. People started asking questions, as in this article.
http://jezebel.com/5892565/is-robert-downey-jr-spreading-insider-celeb-gossip-on-blogs
After that he was coming under some intense scrutiny and finally outed himself in this thread (several pages in), where he also said goodbye to all the other commenters, thinking he would have to give up his habit after outing the A+ list actor who brutally raped Natalie Wood.
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2012/05/todays-blind-items-greatest-celebrity.html
Then he came back.
I think the previous post that I noticed was from Comic-con last week, where he said he'd been too busy to comment and had been broiling in the heat down South. He's a regular there, a wonderful writer, humble, and funny as hell.
http://jezebel.com/5892565/is-robert-downey-jr-spreading-insider-celeb-gossip-on-blogs
After that he was coming under some intense scrutiny and finally outed himself in this thread (several pages in), where he also said goodbye to all the other commenters, thinking he would have to give up his habit after outing the A+ list actor who brutally raped Natalie Wood.
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2012/05/todays-blind-items-greatest-celebrity.html
Then he came back.
I think the previous post that I noticed was from Comic-con last week, where he said he'd been too busy to comment and had been broiling in the heat down South. He's a regular there, a wonderful writer, humble, and funny as hell.
I'm wondering how reluctant they'll be to use the Joker in media after this. He may not see a big screen appearance in awhile. Will some murderer ruin a fictional character for everyone?
I'm curious about the bullet proof vest...I was under the impression that sales of those were restricted to licensed law enforcement or such could get those. I suppose you can get anything with money or effort, though.
I'm curious about the bullet proof vest...I was under the impression that sales of those were restricted to licensed law enforcement or such could get those. I suppose you can get anything with money or effort, though.
I think only New York and Connecticut have general restrictions on body armor, although Australia bans it for civilians. Many states ban convicted felons from owning it, though. I have two bulky kevlar military vests that will stop a .45, which were British surplus and only cost about $30 each. At that price, I snapped them up for zombie escape kits. 
I think some of the companies that make the better vests (especially including spectra-shield or ceramic inserts) only sell to law enforcement and military. Of course, if you're bored you can make your own spectra-shield by gluing spectra fishing line into sheets (usually with epoxy), and you can make excellent ballistic ceramics by mixing aluminum powder with titanium oxide and sometimes borax, which undergoes a thermite reaction to make Al2O3-Ti05 or Al2O3-TiB2, which you can press into a dense plate while still hot. I mean really. Do you think Batman bought his suit off the rack?
I think some of the companies that make the better vests (especially including spectra-shield or ceramic inserts) only sell to law enforcement and military. Of course, if you're bored you can make your own spectra-shield by gluing spectra fishing line into sheets (usually with epoxy), and you can make excellent ballistic ceramics by mixing aluminum powder with titanium oxide and sometimes borax, which undergoes a thermite reaction to make Al2O3-Ti05 or Al2O3-TiB2, which you can press into a dense plate while still hot. I mean really. Do you think Batman bought his suit off the rack?
Indeed.
Sadly, with all the news networks trying to fill 24 hours of air time with this, we're going to hear a lot of stupid comments from 'experts' over the next few days.
This, pretty much. Unfortunately, spending money to help people seem to be extremely unpopular in this country, so I don't expect things to change anytime soon.
As for the rest, you might see theaters hiring security guards, but I suspect even that will peter out over the next week. I don't see any real lasting change occurring over this.
This, pretty much. Unfortunately, spending money to help people seem to be extremely unpopular in this country, so I don't expect things to change anytime soon.
As for the rest, you might see theaters hiring security guards, but I suspect even that will peter out over the next week. I don't see any real lasting change occurring over this.
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