Another horrific mass shooting, this time in a Colorado movie theater showing the new Batman film. At least a dozen killed, 50 wounded, some critically. The gunman is reportedly in custody.
This will be another moment of great national mourning and one or two politicians calling for some modest legislation, such as a temporary ban on assault rifle clips. But look for it to be a glaring non-issue in this election year. Issue platitudes, go on TV, make a speech, memorial photo-ops, rinse lather repeat and move on.
And in this age of automated internet advertising, practically every headline blaring about the shootings is also generating a hyped-up violence-soaked commercial for the Batman movie. Somebody human who is in charge should really look into that.
Developing.....
8 comments:
Yes, "another massacre", Karen! The horror of a 24 year old running amok with tear gas and guns in a movie "plex" featuring premiere of new Christian Bale Batmman mmovie is beyond comprehension! That weapons are easily acquired in America by all kinds of maniacs - crazies, nuts, sickos, losers, killers - who want to "be famous"in our celebrity-worshipping culture, who shoot their innocent fellows to death as a way of saying "I am! I'm alive! I'm famous!". we, Democrats, Republicans, independents, sane people of all colours, faiths, ages, races, are sick about this brand-new massacre. President Obama spoke wisely and well and comfortingly to the nation from Ft Myers, Florida, where he was appearing in a campaign event. Haven't seen Willard Mitt Romney on camera yet, but am sure he and Ann will join the President in condoling the American people. Gun control is un-American! And that is why we have shooters running amok and rampaging in our skewed culture. This massacre may be a preamble to weird and terrible events in London during the next couple of weeks, in Tampa and Charlotte during our Presidential Conventions next month and September. Global events like the Olympics, any places Americans gather for pleasure or worship or business can become killing fields because of our lack of weapon control in these United States.
I am now starting to read comments that someone with a gun could have taken this guy down.
Umm, no. He was armored. He had a flak vest and a helmet. He threw smoke grenades. Who thinks they can shoot a shooter in a dark theater when their eyes are running and not hit innocent people?
Sorry, NRA. No on this one.
There have been a number of commenters elsewhere and possibly here soon that are attempting to connect today's tragedy with a radio talk show host who's opinions they disagree with. Time will tell if that is in any way correct or not.
That said another thought comes to mind. There are a large number of illegal weapons available for sale. Some among them were supplied by our own Government through various programs including programs like "Fast and Furious". What would your opinion be if today's "Madman" used a weapon originally supplied by our own Government? What would it be if it was supplied through an illegal Government program?
Richard@John-Locke.net
It absolutely DISGUSTS me that Americans only get upset when WE Americans are the victims of violence, but don't give a flying fuck when our government orders the destruction of entire villages, cities, and countries abroad and the citizens therein. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were only two of many Holocausts carried out by our government, in our name, and I am pretty sure the average American is ok with all of it. They eat up war movies and other glorifications of violence like candy or an addictive drug they can't get enough of.
We live in a society that doesn't just glorify violence but makes it the national sport, recreation, and entertainment in all its many forms. We are indisputably the biggest and most powerful Killing Machine the world has ever seen.
'Gun control' should start at the top - in the Capitol and at the Pentagon and include protection of all the world's citizens. Where are all the gun control voices when it comes to our God-damned endless wars?
When Americans start caring about others as much as they care about their own, I might feel a little more sympathy. These theater goers paid good money to watch violence. Well, they certainly got their money's worth this time.
It is a truly sick society that feeds itself and its children a constant diet of violence, murder, and mayhem.
@ Richard
Not sure what your point is about a few thousand guns supplied through "an illegal government program". It is a drop in the bucket compared to the availability of over 270 million guns for the USA population of 310 million people. This is a totally gun-crazy country.
Obama loyalists, avert your eyes!
Obama might have spoken 'wisely, well, and comfortingly' about this massacre as he admittedly related it to his own family, but he still has a longer kill list than this madman and lots of silence about other massacres. Yet one is considered crazy and the other an upstanding paragon of virtue. Killing is murder when it isn't war. The dead are innocent victims when they aren't collateral damage.
Obama was completely silent after his election when Israel struck Gaza and killed women and children day after day, as if their children didn't need to be defended or comforted by the most powerful nation and leader on earth. I get it, they weren't 'ours'. The Nobel Peace Prize winning President can always find the words and support for 'Rebels' and 'Democracy Fighters', while remaining conveniently silent as innocent woman or children are slaughtered.
'The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing'. Well, there's been a whole lot of nothing going on for far too long and evil has been triumphing like there's no tomorrow. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess what is likely coming to us, or from us, soon.
Americans are dumb, collateral damage to the 1%ers.
@Anne Lavoie
Your posts remind me of working on my Citizenship merit badge around 1970 when I was fourteen years old. During a meeting with my advisor, a man who was a pillar of the community, I asked him about civilian deaths in the Vietnam War, which was going full force then. Mr. Hill explained to me that I need not worry, because "they" did not value life as we did in America. To "them" life was cheap. I thought he was wrong.
Earlier this year I emailed a few times with someone who lives in Vietnam, a person whose Vietnamese uncle was killed in the war. The family still morns the death of their uncle, and they are sad that he is not alive today. Apparently "they" value life too, maybe more so than in America.
Our homeland peace and security carries the price of complacency and indifference by many Americans to the suffering and death of others. What else could explain the indifference, really the banality of evil, about which you passionately wrote?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_of_evil
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