Gunfire during Dark Night Rises

[alvins]

Wasn't happy to hear anchor Shern-Min Chow say, at the end of the segment, something to the effect of: "We are looking into, and will have a report later, about the availability in our area of the high-powered firearms the shooter used...and just how powerful they are."


really? what do they think everyone in houston carries bb guns or somthing? what exsactly is a "high power" firearm anyway?


dont worry nancy grace is on the case.lol

[Jim Beaux]

Ive been patiently waiting and yet no one has stated the obvious; this slaughter is not about access to guns, it's about the influence of violent video games and movies on easily influenced young kids. Due to the media bombardment, our society has become indifferent to commitment to marriage, illegitimate children, same sex pairings, character, drugs, and work ethics.

Have any of you seen some of the trash being distributed? Life has no sanctity. Ive read that this particular movie involves a lot of extraordinary sadistic and violent acts. I understand this movie has a scene in which a victim has a bomb sewn inside him & I also understand that one of the latest James Bond movies shows the hero stuffing a bomb in the villain's rear end before setting it off.

The gun is only the tool, the "can opener" if you will. The honest questions are, just what motivates this sort of violence and just what reduces the regard for humanity & life?

[74novaman]

Ive been patiently waiting and yet no one has stated the obvious; this slaughter is not about access to guns, it's about the influence of violent video games and movies on easily influenced young kids.

Sorry, but I think blaming video games for this is on par with blaming the gun for it. This was the work of a sick, deranged individual. Let's not try to blame inanimate objects for this.

[sjfcontrol]

Ive been patiently waiting and yet no one has stated the obvious; this slaughter is not about access to guns, it's about the influence of violent video games and movies on easily influenced young kids. Due to the media bombardment, our society has become indifferent to commitment to marriage, illegitimate children, same sex pairings, character, drugs, and work ethics.

Have any of you seen some of the trash being distributed? Life has no sanctity. Ive read that this particular movie involves a lot of extraordinary sadistic and violent acts. I understand this movie has a scene in which a victim has a bomb sewn inside him & I also understand that one of the latest James Bond movies shows the hero stuffing a bomb in the villain's rear end before setting it off.

The gun is only the tool, the "can opener" if you will. The honest questions are, just what motivates this sort of violence and just what reduces the regard for humanity & life?

How many millions of people see the Batman movie, or the James Bond movie? How many shoot up theaters? I would claim there is no statistical correlation between the two. The movies are fictional entertainment. If you don't want to see it, don't go. The vast majority of people can differentiate between fiction and reality. Those few who can't end up causing problems -- but something would trigger them eventually even without the movie influence.

[Scott in Houston]

Ive been patiently waiting and yet no one has stated the obvious; this slaughter is not about access to guns, it's about the influence of violent video games and movies on easily influenced young kids. Due to the media bombardment, our society has become indifferent to commitment to marriage, illegitimate children, same sex pairings, character, drugs, and work ethics.

Have any of you seen some of the trash being distributed? Life has no sanctity. Ive read that this particular movie involves a lot of extraordinary sadistic and violent acts. I understand this movie has a scene in which a victim has a bomb sewn inside him & I also understand that one of the latest James Bond movies shows the hero stuffing a bomb in the villain's rear end before setting it off.

The gun is only the tool, the "can opener" if you will. The honest questions are, just what motivates this sort of violence and just what reduces the regard for humanity & life?

Mass murders and craziness goes back before the 1800's. It's not about video games or media. It's about the fact that some people are not only crazy, but flat out EVIL. When you blame media or video games, you play into the same hands that anti-gun idiots play.
Evil is evil. You can't legislate it away... you can't change society to get rid of it... you can only allow individuals to protect themselves from it to the best of their ability.

[74novaman]

Mass murders and craziness goes back before the 1800's. It's not about video games or media. It's about the fact that some people are not only crazy, but flat out EVIL. When you blame media or video games, you play into the same hands that anti-gun idiots play.
Evil is evil. You can't legislate it away... you can't change society to get rid of it... you can only allow individuals to protect themselves from it to the best of their ability.

You said it better than I did. I just went with the "don't blame the object" line of thought, but your last line hits home. We cannot legislate evil out of existence, so we must be prepared to defend ourselves from it.

[Heartland Patriot]

Would the media have been happier if that sick animal had used an IED? Or set the place on fire? What would we be hearing about this right now if he had? I'd wager they'd spend FAR less time covering it if he had killed a bunch of folks any other way than with firearms...

[Jim Beaux]

Of course I accept that not all who are exposed to violent games & movies will become mass murderers, & I also agree that evil has existed since the first man walked this land, but, there is a correlation that exposure to violent media desensitizes. Certain music soothes while some increases agitation. Music was used at Guantanamo to "loosen up" some of the guests. (still to this day if I hear Debbie Boone singing "You Light Up My Life" I wanna kill) So I can accept being exposed to certain other forms of media stimulation can nurture violent behavior.

Check this google link for some articles on the subject.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&s ... 41&bih=515

[jimlongley]

Guns purchased at two Gander Mountain, and two Bass Pro shops. All purchased legally.

Since he purchased them with criminal intent, the legality of the purchase is questionable.

[stroo]

I have been thinking all day about how I would have responded if I had been there. To be honest after thinking about, this is the doomsday tactical solution.

The guy was armored from head to foot so even if you got an open shot, and hit him center mass, he may have been bruised but probably not stopped. If you hit him anywhere in the head other than his face, his bell might have been rung but he probably he wouldn't have been stopped. And given that he came armored up, he probably expected to be stopped but had decided he would not let that stop him from killing. So even if you had a clear shot, you would have had to shoot him in the face, a shot that I, and I dare say most of us, probably could not have made given the circumstances.

Beyond that, I normally sit halfway up in a theater. So at the beginning I would have had at least a 20 yard shot in the dark. At that distance, I could hit a stationary target on a range but a moving target in the dark? I don't know. And I doubt I would have even taken the shot given all the people who would have been between me and him.

Add to that the tear gas and/or smoke grenades he threw out and I doubt I could have seen him well enough to take any kind of shot.

So I would have probably gone to ground and tried to crawl, scrabble to an exit just like everyone else.

Then you think about how this could have been prevented and again it seems incredibly difficult if not impossible. This guy had a clean record with no known mental treatment. Frankly he probably could have qualified for a CHL in Texas. So I don't see how you could predict him doing this, although apparently his mother wasn't surprised.

Gun free zone obviously wouldn't work, since the theater was post as no guns and they never do in any event.

Limiting gun purchases wouldn't have helped since he had a clean record.

Limitations on "assault rifles" wouldn't have worked since he also had a shotgun and handgun with him.

Limiting magazine size wouldn't have worked since he had prepared by bringing 3 guns with him.

And if you had a complete gun ban, given the way he apparently wired his apartment with bombs, he probably would have resorted to bombs.

The police response was about as fast as you could want one and a half minutes but the police who arrived couldn't get into the theater. And even if they did, they would have had most of the same problems a CHL would have had.

So concealed carry, gun control and fast police response all would have failed or did fail.

Frankly given this guy, his planning and execution, I am not sure anything could be done to produce any better result.

Have I left anything out? Kind of disturbing.

[snatchel]

Ive been patiently waiting and yet no one has stated the obvious; this slaughter is not about access to guns, it's about the influence of violent video games and movies on easily influenced young kids. Due to the media bombardment, our society has become indifferent to commitment to marriage, illegitimate children, same sex pairings, character, drugs, and work ethics.

Have any of you seen some of the trash being distributed? Life has no sanctity. Ive read that this particular movie involves a lot of extraordinary sadistic and violent acts. I understand this movie has a scene in which a victim has a bomb sewn inside him & I also understand that one of the latest James Bond movies shows the hero stuffing a bomb in the villain's rear end before setting it off.

The gun is only the tool, the "can opener" if you will. The honest questions are, just what motivates this sort of violence and just what reduces the regard for humanity & life?

Eating with a Spoon makes me Fat.
Buying Firearms makes me dangerous.
Being ex-Military, and SPEC-0 at that, makes me incredibly dangrous.
Buying high-cap "clips" means I want to kill people.

You get where I am going with this? Batman, or any other movie didnt make this guy do anything. All violent movies/etc. did, if anything at all, was give a theme to whatever motive he already had. This guy wanted to kill people and make a mess of things anyway, Batman just provided him a theme-the Joker.

I can say that ...... I want to drink beer. Coors Light commercials give me a theme to go by... and I choose Coors Light.

People are responsible for their own actions, buddy. The media, movies, artists, songs, parents, and teachers are not responsible for other people's evil actions.

[philip964]

I have been thinking all day about how I would have responded if I had been there. To be honest after thinking about, this is the doomsday tactical solution.

The guy was armored from head to foot so even if you got an open shot, and hit him center mass, he may have been bruised but probably not stopped. If you hit him anywhere in the head other than his face, his bell might have been rung but he probably he wouldn't have been stopped. And given that he came armored up, he probably expected to be stopped but had decided he would not let that stop him from killing. So even if you had a clear shot, you would have had to shoot him in the face, a shot that I, and I dare say most of us, probably could not have made given the circumstances.

Beyond that, I normally sit halfway up in a theater. So at the beginning I would have had at least a 20 yard shot in the dark. At that distance, I could hit a stationary target on a range but a moving target in the dark? I don't know. And I doubt I would have even taken the shot given all the people who would have been between me and him.

Add to that the tear gas and/or smoke grenades he threw out and I doubt I could have seen him well enough to take any kind of shot.

So I would have probably gone to ground and tried to crawl, scrabble to an exit just like everyone else.

Then you think about how this could have been prevented and again it seems incredibly difficult if not impossible. This guy had a clean record with no known mental treatment. Frankly he probably could have qualified for a CHL in Texas. So I don't see how you could predict him doing this, although apparently his mother wasn't surprised.

Gun free zone obviously wouldn't work, since the theater was post as no guns and they never do in any event.

Limiting gun purchases wouldn't have helped since he had a clean record.

Limitations on "assault rifles" wouldn't have worked since he also had a shotgun and handgun with him.

Limiting magazine size wouldn't have worked since he had prepared by bringing 3 guns with him.

And if you had a complete gun ban, given the way he apparently wired his apartment with bombs, he probably would have resorted to bombs.

The police response was about as fast as you could want one and a half minutes but the police who arrived couldn't get into the theater. And even if they did, they would have had most of the same problems a CHL would have had.

So concealed carry, gun control and fast police response all would have failed or did fail.

Frankly given this guy, his planning and execution, I am not sure anything could be done to produce any better result.

Have I left anything out? Kind of disturbing.

I agree.

I sit like most people about 2/3's back. Apparently since he was facing the back of the house, he could see very well as the audience was lit by the movie screen. People have reported that as people stood up to leave, he shot them as they became really good targets. Apparently everyone wised up real fast and no one stood up again, everyone went below the seats.

What is really bad is that a CHL would be in a gun fight with someone with a rifle. Sorry but with an BG in full body armor and an AR-15 with a drum magazine, you have lost before you started.

Plus I would probably be with my wife. I have a duty to get her to safety, not make her a target.

Watching the TV news is upsetting. The whole thing is upsetting. I was in Walmart this evening, they have Batman this, Batman that. Big displays everywhere. It all seems now so crass. Its not there fault, they did nothing wrong.

It is this one smart crazy evil guy's fault. His alone. And yes he could have killed more people with ten gallons of gasoline and a match. But he didn't, he used my hobby.

[pbwalker]

Just found out one of my former coworkers had a sister that was shot and killed. Jessica Ghawi.

What a senseless tragedy.

[philip964]

Mr. Cotton was quoted in a story.

http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Tex ... 41606.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[philip964]

Just found out one of my former coworkers had a sister that was shot and killed. Jessica Ghawi.

What a senseless tragedy.

Story on her. http://www.click2houston.com/news/Woman ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Very sad.