When will they ever learn?

[loulizlee]

Yet another tragedy involving a young man and assault/automatic weapons - 12 killed in a theater in Aurora, CO, at a showing of the new "Batman" movie.  I am shocked that assault weapons are still permitted in Colorado.  Why?

[acraw558]

While I understand what you're saying, I really don't think this should be taken as a gun issue.  I think we should look at what is going on with mental health, and what would drive someone to do something like this.  It's incredibly sad and, frankly, as a resident of aurora, I am scared.

[BK_Adores_Chase]

People are d***s and psychos!

[loulizlee]

Please don't misunderstand - I am not against owning guns.  I agree, it is partly a mental health issue, but who needs an assault rifle for protection.  If they were not available or if they were harder to obtain, fewer people would be injured and killed in these situations.  My heart goes out to you and all the residents of Aurora and other places where these tragedies have happened. 

[jcribb16]

That was horribly tragic and incredibly sad.  I feel awful for all there.

[CharmedPhoenix]

Please don't misunderstand - I am not against owning guns.  I agree, it is partly a mental health issue, but who needs an assault rifle for protection.  If they were not available or if they were harder to obtain, fewer people would be injured and killed in these situations.  My heart goes out to you and all the residents of Aurora and other places where these tragedies have happened. 

This was totally a mental health issue. 

The guy had no record, but for one speeding ticket.  They said he passed every background check to obtain weapons.  He used to do good in school, but recently his grades dropped.  His career/life dreams must have appeared to be going down the tubes.  He snapped.  He needs help.   

We need to get better at noticing others pain so we can help them before they snap.  I'm having my own struggles and it amazes me how thoughtless, even cruel, people/"friends" can be.   

Pray for him and others like him.   

[inertia4]

I believe these things will always happen. As long as there are crazy people, these things will happen.

[plennis]

It is a very sad situation.  Hind site is 20/20, now people are going to come up with all kind of signs that meant he was losing it.  BUT..no one did anything.  Sometimes we need to stop and think why is this person all of the sudden behaving so strangely.  ASK them what is up.  Take it seriously, too often people say, Oh I just thought they were kidding around.

I cannot believe how many people are giving the young lady a hard time for having young children there.  Sometimes if you have moved to an area and don't know anyone yet or have family, the only thing you can do is take them with you.   She was doing the best she could do.  She got both babies out of there.

[loulizlee]

Plennis, I think it is incredibly insensitive to give the young couple a hard time about taking their children to the theater, even if it was late.  I have been in the situation, when I was very young,  when I could not afford to pay a baby sitter, and my husband and I wanted to go somewhere or do something every once in a GREAT while and took our daughter with us.  Who would think a movie theater would be dangerous?  As for the gun control vs. mental issue, I agree the shooter did not break any laws, but I think some of the laws MUST be changed. Why did he need an assault rifle?  If he had one of two or several regular guns, he could not possibly have hurt or killed that many people.  That IS crazy.  I also agree gun control would not stop crazy people from doing something like this - it would just cut down on the number of casualties in that type of situation.

[pattersondebra]

Is it true that he was comparing himself to the Joker? This is such a tragedy, God bless those people.

[bowrunner]

I don't believe babies and small children belong at a movie because they ruin it for everyone else and I particularly don't think they should be at a midnight movie. 
Placing the blame on guns is simplistic.  There is obviously something very wrong with this nut.  He has lost all sense of consequences for his actions.

[loulizlee]

How would you feel if one of your children or another loved one was killed with an assault weapon?  If the gunman had walked in with one or two regular legal handguns or rifles, he would not have been able to injure nearly as many people.  Of course, there was something wrong with this young man, perhaps some of the bullying that he was subjected as a boy (this was reported by someone who went to school with him).  How many normal people have 6,000 rounds of ammunition? 

[Abrupt]

This person also had developed explosive devices so if it was not the gun it would have been something else.  Explosives and incendiaries are incredibly easy to make and the ingredients would be impossible to ban (aluminum and iron for thermite, as an example).  We have reached an age of knowledge that such things as bans or restrictions could never prevent any of these tragedies from happening and it falls back to the individual.  You could ban insanity and it would do as much good solving the problem from the approach of restrictions.

[demaina]

I might be wrong, but I think half the issue is people think that A) they will get away with it and/or B) they want to be famous and think this is the only way they will make it.

When we heard about this my sister told us about how there was this girl a while back who paid to have her parents killed and is now regretting it because she was caught and is in jail.  Now, I don't know what the article said, but I think she's more unhappy she got caught, not that she paid to kill people.

Our society seems to make killers celebrities.  Even if they are looked down on, people know who they are.  Not many people know the names of their victims, but they know the names of the killers or can at least recognize the name.

Guns really aren't the issue.  They might be a relatively easy and simple way to kill, but it's the person behind it that is the reason it happened.  Anything can be used for good or bad purposes.  A knife isn't deadly when lying on the table.  Once you pick it up and decide to stab someone with it, that's when it becomes deadly.  If he really wanted, he could've used a book and hit people with it.  Banning things won't help anything but I think there needs to be something about assault rifles to prevent random people from acquiring them.

This is sorta off topic, but another I think that fits into this is the language in this day and age.  Ever heard someone be fuming and hear them say "I'm going to kill you" or something like that.  It's exaggerated for emphasis, I get that, but to me it seems like the language has gotten more violent.

[Trace321]

He could have done the same amount of damage without an assault rifle.

Look at the bombs in his apartment.

Its a mental health issue and we need to find out what is causing this.