10 dead, 35+ wounded at Batman premiere shooting

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Just a note on metal detectors in movie theaters; According to the Aurora police, the gunman propped open a rear door and came in through an exit which was supposed to be only opened from the inside.

I read that too. You would think someone would have seem that and gotten suspicious.

Propped the door open can be mean a lot of things, including just slipping a credit card over the latch as you close it so that the latch is jammed closed and the door can thus be pried open from the outside even though it doesn't have an outside handle (claw hammer under the bottom of the door or something similar).

[JME2]

Well, Warner Brothers is moving quickly in the wake of the shooting:

During Thursday's midnight release of "The Dark Knight Rises" at Century 16 Movie Theaters in Aurora, Colorado, a masked gunman entered the theater and opened fire, resulting in 12 fatalities and 59 injuries. According to ABC News, the tragic incident is the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, and although Warner Bros. initially stated that the shooting would not hinder the release of the anticipated summer blockbuster, a red carpet premiere and cast interviews in Paris have already been cancelled. Now, Variety reports the studio has pulled TV and radio spots advertising the film that were scheduled to run over the weekend.

Warner Bros. is expected to communicate with media partners about long-term plans for the highly anticipated final chapter in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The tragedy has caused the studio to reevaluate its entire marketing campaign, pulling millions of dollars worth of advertising in a move which may be indicative of how much the shooting will affect what is arguably Warner's biggest film of the year.

Sources report that in some cases, "The Dark Knight Rises" television spots will be replaced by advertisements for other Warner Bros. or Time Warner products.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Violent uses of smoke?

i.e. ,the fact that it was used here to suppress resistance and therefore allow him to increase his body count substantially, exactly like the police use it to contain protesters for arrest.

[Mr Bean]

I'd make another edit but let me demonstrate how hard it is to make your own smoke bombs
You need
1. A computer to Google "how to make your own smoke bombs"
2. A credit card to order five pounds of saltpeter and baking soda off Amazon.com
3. About thirty bucks and a clear place to work
4. The ability to read and follow mixing instructions and make a few example smoke bombs before you start packing it into Tin cans or whatever.

Your literally trying to ban something that's far to common Duchess, this is like a knife ban except worse since you see Saltpeter and baking soda everywhere in their raw forms and dozens of other places in mixed forms which you could filter or distil out if you wanted.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'd make another edit but let me demonstrate how hard it is to make your own smoke bombs
You need
1. A computer to Google "how to make your own smoke bombs"
2. A credit card to order five pounds of saltpeter and baking soda off Amazon.com
3. About thirty bucks and a clear place to work
4. The ability to read and follow mixing instructions and make a few example smoke bombs before you start packing it into Tin cans or whatever.

Your literally trying to ban something that's far to common Duchess, this is like a knife ban except worse since you see Saltpeter and baking soda everywhere in their raw forms and dozens of other places in mixed forms which you could filter or distil out if you wanted.

It at least makes it harder for them to get; and military style ones that are very easy to ignite would be much harder to manufacture than that.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

So far he's not talking to investigators

[Mr Bean]

It at least makes it harder for them to get; and military style ones that are very easy to ignite would be much harder to manufacture than that.

How would you construct said ban because as I pointed out the materials used are very common place and widely used. And what would the punishments be if you catch John Doe with a military smoke canister he had shipped in from Canada or Mexico?

How useful would such a ban have been if he had for example taken the step of I don't know... setting the theater on fire?

[Sea Skimmer]

Well, Warner Brothers is moving quickly in the wake of the shooting:

Yeah they have a more then slight problem now, judging by this ad I spotted in today's local free paper stocked at hundreds of locations in Philadelphia.

[JME2]

Ouch.

[ZGundam]

They are beginning to remove the bodies from the theater now. Hopefully, the people of the missing will finally have an answer.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It at least makes it harder for them to get; and military style ones that are very easy to ignite would be much harder to manufacture than that.

How would you construct said ban because as I pointed out the materials used are very common place and widely used. And what would the punishments be if you catch John Doe with a military smoke canister he had shipped in from Canada or Mexico?

How useful would such a ban have been if he had for example taken the step of I don't know... setting the theater on fire?

It's imperfect, but the social utility of smoke grenades is much, much less than that of firearms, so it's obvious which one legal action should be focused on.

[ZGundam]

This I guess says it all.

From the Denver Post editorial:



Link to the article as well:

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_21120516

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Anyway, debates like this in the aftermath of these shootings are highly charged and pointless, so I'm just shutting up now to avoid drifting to far away from the tragedy of the fact twelve people are dead.

[JME2]

And if Rush Limbaugh, who's already been getting on my nerves this week for the "Bane = Bain" discussion, tries to spin-doctor this for his talk show, I'm going to get pissed.

Speaking of Rushy, some people are already wondering if Limbaugh's comments about TDKR being a leftist conspiracy earlier in the week might have triggered Holmes' shootout.

I'm getting flashbacks to the Tuscon shooting and the debates over extremist rhetoric that followed it.

[Sea Skimmer]

I saw the news clip again by the reporter, what he actually said was that you can buy guns online without background checks.

What you can do is make a private seller deal at any time without a background check. Nothing about this is specific to online sales. Though making such a deal to a person who you even think would fail a check is in fact illegal and you are liable for any illegal use of said weapon such as it use in a murder as you become a strawbuyer. If you want to buy a gun online from a dealer, it has to be shipped to another physical dealer and be picked up in person which does involve a formal background check. Course, none of this matters in this case because the shoot had no criminal record and would have passed any check. The same is true for a number of other shooters in recent US history, such as the nut at Virginia Tech who bought his guns right from a dealer because of the state mental health laws were messed up.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'm getting flashbacks to the Tuscon shooting and the debates over extremist rhetoric that followed it.

He was preparing for this more than a week. And remember, the Tuscon shooter's motives turned out to be that he felt the congresswoman didn't properly respect grammar and the nobility of the english language.

Yeah.

[Aaron MkII]

I'm getting flashbacks to the Tuscon shooting and the debates over extremist rhetoric that followed it.

He was preparing for this more than a week. And remember, the Tuscon shooter's motives turned out to be that he felt the congresswoman didn't properly respect grammar and the nobility of the english language.

Yeah.

I'm sorry but do you have a source? Because...that's fucked.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'm sorry but do you have a source? Because...that's fucked.

An old article, but it explains how crazy he was. His fixation with Congresswoman Giffords stemmed from a town-hall meeting where he asked her "What is government if words have no meaning?" He was unhappy with her answer to his bizzare and esoteric question, and thats when he started hating her, writing 'die bitch' on the letter thanking him for his attendance.

He hated all political groups and the government, just wanted everyone to believe he was right.

[ZGundam]

Looks like Ann Curry to going to co-host Today this weekend and is coming to town to report everything about the shooting.

Oh yay.

[CaptainChewbacca]

In a related story, the trailer for the upcoming film Gangster Squad has been pulled and the film's release delayed because there's a scene where four men in trenchcoats walk into a movie theater and open fire on the crowd. Its at the 2 minute mark in the trailer.

[Aaron MkII]

I'm sorry but do you have a source? Because...that's fucked.

An old article, but it explains how crazy he was. His fixation with Congresswoman Giffords stemmed from a town-hall meeting where he asked her "What is government if words have no meaning?" He was unhappy with her answer to his bizzare and esoteric question, and thats when he started hating her, writing 'die bitch' on the letter thanking him for his attendance.

He hated all political groups and the government, just wanted everyone to believe he was right.

Wow, that's a spectaclor amount of fucked.

[Aaron MkII]

I'm sorry but do you have a source? Because...that's fucked.

An old article, but it explains how crazy he was. His fixation with Congresswoman Giffords stemmed from a town-hall meeting where he asked her "What is government if words have no meaning?" He was unhappy with her answer to his bizzare and esoteric question, and thats when he started hating her, writing 'die bitch' on the letter thanking him for his attendance.

He hated all political groups and the government, just wanted everyone to believe he was right.

Wow, that's a spectaclor amount of fucked.

Haven't there been cops shot by these sovereign citizen guys at random traffic stops?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I'm sorry but do you have a source? Because...that's fucked.

An old article, but it explains how crazy he was. His fixation with Congresswoman Giffords stemmed from a town-hall meeting where he asked her "What is government if words have no meaning?" He was unhappy with her answer to his bizzare and esoteric question, and thats when he started hating her, writing 'die bitch' on the letter thanking him for his attendance.

He hated all political groups and the government, just wanted everyone to believe he was right.

It's been 18 months and he still hasn't been brought to trial- they've only just gotten around to holding a competency hearing to determine if he's mentally fit for trial- 7th of August. I'd be very surprised if after all this he doesn't get the death penalty

[CaptainChewbacca]

I think Loughner will be found 'guilty but insane' and then put away for the rest of his life. Arizona doesn't allow not guilty by reason of insanity.

[ChaserGrey]

So ChaserGrey,

Do you think he failed a course or the semester, felt his life was over, and decided to go out with a bang, so to speak?

Just seems so drastic.

Less that and more what Simon said. In the case I'm familiar with, the guy had a pre-existing mental condition, but was also extremely bright and motivated, a high achiever all through high school and college, and at the time he started the program seemed to have his issues under control to the point where they didn't affect his work. The problem is that a doctoral program is hard both mentally and emotionally, especially during the first year where you have to deal with the change in workload, the incredibly high expectations, and the shriveling of your life outside the program. The intense stress caused that controlled mental condition to get out of control, manifest entirely new symptoms and eventually lead to a breakdown. Guy in this story ended up fine, but not everyone's that lucky.

I'm not saying that's what happened here, but withdrawing after a year into a doctoral program basically means he ran into some major, major problems there. Add in the possibility of developing schizophrenia, and you could very easily be talking psychosis. That's my working theory until I hear something different.