http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/20..._n_1688464.html

 

Batman, Dark Knight Rises: Shooting Deaths Reported At Midnight Film Screening Near Denver

 

Up to 14 people are confirmed dead after a man hurled a tear gas bomb and then opened fire during a midnight Dark Knight Rises film screening near Denver, Colorado.

 

Witnesses say the man was wearing a "Bane-style" gas mask and body armour during the attack and a bomb squad are reportedly examining a Hyundai in the cinema's car park for a further explosive device.

 

Justin Joseph, of Fox affiliate KDVR said the tear gas caused "mass panic" and that as people got up and tried to flee the theatre, they became "moving targets" as the man opened fire.

 

Several children and babies were in the theatre and an 80-year-old is believed to have been shot dead at point blank range. A three-month old is among those being treated in hospital and a six-year-old is believed to be the youngest victim.

 

Police have confirmed attacker was armed with one rifle and two handguns.

 

The screening was taking place at the Century 16 Theatre in Aurora and the trailers for the film had just ended when the attack began.

 

Brenda Stuart of 850 KOA Radio told Sky News that the audience initially: "Thought the gunshots were part of the movie."

 

Paul Otermat saw the attack unfold, and told Sky News he saw a man in a black jacket and cap walk "pretty casually" to the middle of the screen.

 

He said: "I thought it was a publicity stunt at first. Then he threw tear gas at the crowd and started firing shots."

 

Mr Otermat said he managed to escape by crawling out behind seats when there was a pause in the shooting.

 

"He was just picking people at random," Mr Otermat added.

 

Police officers from all local jurisdictions are at the scene, as are FBI agents, prompting fears the incident is related to a terrorist attack. President Barack Obama has been notified of the incident and the FBI is now said to be considering raising the national security level.

 

A suspect in his early 20s is in custody and CBS Denver says explosives have been found in his apartment.

 

There had been reports a manhunt was underway for a second attacker, but Dan Oates of the Aurora Police Department said there was only evidence of one gunman involved in the incident.

 

There had been speculation there were two attacks, with the second taking place in an adjacent screening room, but it is now believed some of the bullets fired went through the walls of the theatre into an adjacent one.

 

Nicole Williams, at the nearby Swedish Medical Centre told 9News the hospital was notified of a "mass casualty incident" at 1.15am.

 

Up to 50 people are feared injured and surrounding streets have been cordoned off.

 

Aurora is 40 miles from Columbine, the town where 13 people were killed in a high school shooting carried out by senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in 1999.

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A mere two days before this event, we get prize idiot Rush Limbaugh mouthing off about how Dark Knight Rises is basically some sort of "liberal conspiracy" against Mitt Romney.... Now, I dont want to say the two things are necessarily related, but, in the minds of some maniacs (like Anders Breivik for example), it doesn't take much to set them off on a kill-crazy murder rampage, and Rush Limbaugh, is supposedly a "pundit" or a "journalist" and as such, has some measure of influence over his listeners as he paints himself as some kind of "authority figure".... Certain people will obviously try to "blame the movies", but, seriously, it probably makes far more sense to blame the likes of Rush Limbaugh and the NRA who tend to have the ear of extreme right wing crazies or the "survivalist" types who would pull a stunt like this or the massacre of Utoya...

 

 

And just 40 miles up the road from this town, you had the Columbine massacre....

Have we got any subversive musicians or video games about we can pin this one on?

 

Jokes aside, I think we should hesitate before we rush to conclusions about the potential causes behind it. We've no idea who the suspect is or even if there is a transparent motive for this yet - there's every chance it could be someone with barely any awareness of national politics or Limbaugh rhetoric.

So once again, you're using the massacre of many individuals to push your own political agenda? That sounds like a nice thing to do.

 

My thoughts and prayers are with those killed and injured and with their families. At the moment I'm scraping for any information I can get out of Denver at the moment. Several of my friends from my stay in the states are from Colorado, and a few of them were going to the midnight screening, so I'm just hoping that they're alright.

So once again, you're using the massacre of many individuals to push your own political agenda? That sounds like a nice thing to do.

 

And you dont think that politicians will pursue their own agenda of using this to censor the movies...? This is a "Politics Forum" mate, we talk about the issues here, and there are serious issues to be addressed with this event.... Regardless of how many would like to bury their heads in the sand and hope it will all go away. It wont... Columbine and now this, something is very wrong in America...

Have we got any subversive musicians or video games about we can pin this one on?

 

And this is precisely what will happen, mark my words...

 

No one ever seems to want to discuss The Second Amendment when horrors like this happen.. Now, I mean, gun ownership in itself is not really a big problem, but gun ownership + paranoia + ignorance is a problem....

 

And just reading from the descriptions of the killer - heavily armed, wore a gas-mask, body armour, explosives were found as well.. I'm remembering the notorious picture of Anders Breivik in the body armour toting the assault rifle an knowing what we know now, only a fool would say he wasn't influenced by extremist right wing politics....

And you dont think that politicians will pursue their own agenda of using this to censor the movies...? This is a "Politics Forum" mate, we talk about the issues here, and there are serious issues to be addressed with this event.... Regardless of how many would like to bury their heads in the sand and hope it will all go away. It wont... Columbine and now this, something is very wrong in America...

 

I think that ANYONE who uses the massacre and spilling of innocent blood to further their own political cause is incredibly morally bankrupt. To be honest I find it bleakly humorous that you're using the "conservatives will use it for their own ends, so I will use it for my own ends" excuse for your own actions.

 

 

 

I think that ANYONE who uses the massacre and spilling of innocent blood to further their own political cause is incredibly morally bankrupt. To be honest I find it bleakly humorous that you're using the "conservatives will use it for their own ends, so I will use it for my own ends" excuse for your own actions.

 

Like I say, this is Politics Forum, so it's hardly inappropriate to look at the implications, obviously, if I was posting this in the Cinema Forum it would have a completely different tone.. If you dont like the tone of the debate, then you dont have to contribute, but you're sort of implying that there shouldn't even be a debate, and that's just silly, I can guarantee other forums are already buzzing with this and many are saying things far more offensive and cruel than anything that I or anyone else here will write...

The one thing we can be sure of is that American attitudes towards guns and gun control will not change. The gun lobby will make sure of that.

From BBC News: ""There are going to be other days for politics, this is a day for prayer and reflection," President Obama says before leading the audience in a moment of silence."

 

Hear hear.

Edited July 20, 201212 yr by Brett-Butler

The one thing we can be sure of is that American attitudes towards guns and gun control will not change. The gun lobby will make sure of that.

 

Indeed they will... I quite liked Chris Rock's idea, by all means have your right to own guns, but "every bullet should cost $5000", I know it was meant to be humourous, but there was a serious point to be made...

 

I've already seen the remarks that some have made on other Social Media sites - "If someone in the audience had had a gun, things would have gone differently".. Yeah, right, unless the shooter was wearing body armour, which, from some accounts I heard, he likely was...

 

 

 

From BBC News: ""There are going to be other days for politics, this is a day for prayer and reflection," President Obama says before leading the audience in a moment of silence."

 

And if I'd waited until tomorrow to post this, you'd likely still moan at me.... -_-

 

I actually don't think it's inappropriate to discuss relevant political issues, such as gun control, our fear culture, the violent imagery of the far right in the US, etc.

 

That said, I'm not convinced these kinds of events can be chalked up to a single social or political problem.

 

When you take a look at this list of recent mass shootings, I'm not sure there are any common strings except perhaps severe mental illness:

 

The deaths of 12 people at a movie theatre in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., early Friday is the latest in a long list of mass shootings around the world:

 

July 22, 2011: At least 80 people are killed at a summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utoya. A man arrested also is suspected in a blast earlier the same day in downtown Oslo that killed seven.

 

April 30, 2009: Farda Gadyrov, 29, enters the prestigious Azerbaijan State Oil Academy in the capital, Baku, armed with an automatic pistol and clips. He kills 12 people before killing himself as police close in.

 

March 10, 2009: Michael McLendon, 28, killed 10 people — including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff's deputy — across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

 

Sept. 23, 2008: Matti Saari, 22, walks into a vocational college in Kauhajoki, Finland, and opens fire, killing 10 people and burning their bodies with firebombs before shooting himself fatally in the head.

 

Nov. 7, 2007: After revealing plans for his attack in YouTube postings, 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen fires kills eight people at his high school in Tuusula, Finland.

 

April 16, 2007: Seung-Hui Cho, 23, kills 32 people and himself on Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va.

 

April 26, 2002: Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, who had been expelled from school in Erfurt, Germany, kills 13 teachers, two former classmates and policeman, before committing suicide.

 

April 20, 1999: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves in the school's library.

 

April 28, 1996: Martin Bryant, 29, bursts into cafeteria in seaside resort of Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia, shooting 20 people to death. Driving away, he kills 15 others. He was captured and imprisoned.

 

March 13, 1996: Thomas Hamilton, 43, kills 16 kindergarten children and their teacher in elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and then kills himself.

 

Oct. 16, 1991: A deadly shooting rampage took place in Killeen, Texas, as George Hennard opened fire at a Luby's Cafeteria, killing 23 people before taking his own life. 20 others were wounded in the attack.

 

June 18, 1990: James Edward Pough shoots people at random in a General Motors Acceptance Corp. office in Jacksonville, Fla., killing 10 and wounding four, before killing himself.

 

Dec. 6, 1989: Marc Lepine, 25, bursts into Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college, shooting at women he encounters, killing 14 and then himself.

 

Aug. 19, 1987: Michael Ryan, 27, kills 16 people in small market town of Hungerford, England, and then shoots himself dead after being cornered by police.

 

Aug. 20, 1986: Pat Sherrill, 44, a postal worker who was about to be fired, shoots 14 people at a post office in Edmond, Okla. He then kills himself.

 

July 18, 1984: James Oliver Huberty, an out-of-work security guard, kills 21 people in a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif. A police sharpshooter kills Huberty.

 

Courtesy: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/07...tings-list.html

Indeed they will... I quite liked Chris Rock's idea, by all means have your right to own guns, but "every bullet should cost $5000", I know it was meant to be humourous, but there was a serious point to be made...

 

I've already seen the remarks that some have made on other Social Media sites - "If someone in the audience had had a gun, things would have gone differently".. Yeah, right, unless the shooter was wearing body armour, which, from some accounts I heard, he likely was...

Yes, I saw that the gun lobby had been making their usual ludicrous claims. They seem quite happy to run the risk of a major shoot-out in a packed cinema.

There's always one...

 

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/us-pund...shootings210712

 

To quote the lovely Sue Perkins "There is no circle of hell grim enough to contain this emotionally bankrupt, opportunistic fuc-k-knuckle"

Indeed they will... I quite liked Chris Rock's idea, by all means have your right to own guns, but "every bullet should cost $5000", I know it was meant to be humourous, but there was a serious point to be made...

 

I'd be uncomfortable with the idea of making guns only available to those with cash to spend - I'm aware it'd probably help reduce the likelihood of something like this happening but it doesn't sit right with me morally at all.

I'd be uncomfortable with the idea of making guns only available to those with cash to spend - I'm aware it'd probably help reduce the likelihood of something like this happening but it doesn't sit right with me morally at all.

What if the extra cost was a tax?

What if the extra cost was a tax?

 

A bullet tax? I'd rather just ban the things really.

Good luck trying to convince a Southerner to give up their weapons. They'll use their legal right to shoot you for trespassing on their land if you suggest it.

 

At my friend's house in Charleston, South Carolina her dad keeps a loaded Colt .45 at night to dispatch of burglars. She also has two guns of her own as well as the multitude of shotguns, air guns and assorted other guns her family owns. There is NO WAY that any Southerner worth their salt would give up their weapons. There are a lot of Confederate flags in SC, just in case they get asked to put their guns down...

I've just seen some of the news reel of his hearing - definitely looks like he's been given drugs.

 

Died his hair (really badly..) orange aswell. Don't think he's going to be able to get away with insanity.

A bullet tax? I'd rather just ban the things really.

 

Nahh, I think that a firearms ban would be unrealistic.. The problem here was that this guy was able to amass a horde of 6000 rounds of live ammunition, and it didn't raise any red flags.. I think it would be much easier to control the supply of bullets. If people are genuinely only interested in having a firearm for home protection, then they dont need any more than a box or two of ammo.. You want to go around just shooting at things, well, you have firing ranges for that, join a rifle club or a clay pigeon shooting club..