Mass murder at The Dark Knight Rises premiere in Aurora, Colorado

Live stream of Denver television news here: http://www.9news.com/video/9newsonline.aspx

15 confirmed dead now.

fucking hell. awful.

I clicked on that live stream just in time to hear some Howard Stern douchebag call in posing as the Aurora police chief.

Holy shit! I heard that too... just need to know I wasn't crazy.

jesus fucking christ

turned on that news stream. heard anchorwoman introduce a new interviewee: "you actually have an interesting take on all this because you were watching 'the dark knight' at another theater in denver as this was all happening...." turned off the news stream.

it's a horrible world.

good argument for movie piracy

this shooting is super disturbing. body armor? smoke grenades? multiple weapons? 14 dead and 50 injured. never heard of a spree killing at a theater before. more dead now than columbine. this is fucked.

the smoke granades/flamboyant movie villain/guy waiting until a shooting scene in a movie thing is so disturbing

i wonder if chris nolan will do a stanley kubrick, or is the world a different place now ?

Totally random victims too, sounds like his target was just people in general

^ generally how spree killings work.

worried about copycats in the coming months/years. Most of the school shootings of the 90s/early 00s happened within a few years of each other. this is going to be very damaging to theater business.

apparently bullets went through the walls and hit people in other theatres

the gas grenades were particularly sinister as they kept police and responders from coming in to help until they had gas masks

^ generally how spree killings work.

Yeah, I was just comparing it in my head to columbine or the breivik shootings where there was some sort of defined target.

wonder where "ready availability of weapons" will come in the list of scapegoats that'll be trotted out for this one

about 500 places after "movies are too violent" and "Obama"

Yeah, I was just comparing it in my head to columbine or the breivik shootings where there was some sort of defined target.

In HIS head there will have been some sort of defined target

maybe stretching a lot of definitions here

love how news outlets are falling over themselves in stressing that this is NOT a terrorist attack, just a good old fashioned american mass shooting

Phew, that's a relief, eh?

So horrendous. Would be nice not to have people of various persuasions instantly pouncing on it to support their political arguments but, well.

http://boingboing.net/2011/01/09/why-the-shootings-me-1.html

It'd be great if this lead to changes in attitudes towards guns in the US, but realistically, this is more likely to accelerate the death of movie theaters in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7sIiqq66rk

It'd be great if this lead to changes in attitudes towards guns in the US, but realistically, this is more likely to accelerate the death of movie theaters in the US.

about as otm as one could be really

omigod @ local anchor saying last night's screening of TDKR in Colorado "went off with a bang not a whimper."

love how news outlets are falling over themselves in stressing that this is NOT a terrorist attack, just a good old fashioned american mass shooting

― dayo, Friday, 20 July 2012 12:07 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this always blows my mind. like when it turns out that a guy sending envelopes full of white powder is just some office worker no-one gives a shit anymore.

I think it's possible to be firmly pro-gun control without believing anything less than a total ban will have much bearing on the kind of determined lunatic who procures body armour and tear gas for a paramilitary-style assault. There are thousands of deaths every year which gun control could realistically prevent but, on the (admittedly limited) evidence so far, I don't believe this is one of them.

I'm not talking about the gun issue until it is revealed that the shooter got all his weapons legally, at which point I intend to become insufferable.

I agree to an extent, but our culture sure makes these kinds of assaults easier than they should be. XP

"James Holmes"

never heard of a spree killing at a theater before.

A shooting at Northern Illinois University in '08 had a similar setup, as far as the gunman entering a lecture hall from a side door at the front. Nightmare situation of a place to be trapped, as this is.

xp - yeah, just heard this as well - James Holmes, born December 13, 1987

the really trivial aspects of this seem interesting 2 me

like @ what pt he thought of this & was planning, etc. i guess the release date for tdkr has been set for a long time

or just like him sitting in his car behind the theater deciding when 2 go in

fuck

"Buckets of ammunition" found inside Aurora suspect James Holmes' apartment - @CBSNews

will take all of another 10? minutes 2 find his facebook cuz of such a generic name

There is a James Holmes profile with no other public info than this profile pic:

https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/27481_100001082945984_5790_n.jpg

xpost: indeed, Johnny Crunch. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4998473/

vol 11 is recognized as the best of the series fyi

this is so, so sad

Has anyone argued on TV yet the reason this happened is that cinemagoers weren't armed?

If only they'd downloaded the movie illegally instead of going to a cinema, they'd still be alive.

... and that includes toddlers (xp)

stickin' to Euro art theaters for the foreseeable future

Every time some shit like this goes down, I am surprised/relieved that shit like this doesn't go down more often.

Uhhh, from the outside looking in, it seems to go down fairly often

apparently bullets went through the walls and hit people in other theatres

― Listen to this, dad (President Keyes), Friday, July 20, 2012 10:58 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Anthony Lane's hasty New Yorker blog (presumably written under duress because who really knows what to say at this point?) concludes by suggesting a ban on midnight screenings.

xxpost yeah I guess so compared with, like, every other place on earth... still, it could be a lot worse! #america

"eh that's not an excuse for anything, even if takes 50 years for restrictive gun control legislation to become completely effective then that's still more worthwhile than sitting around pissing on our belts"

no i don't think its an excuse just the facts. guns are normal for a whole lotta people in this country and they have always been there. i was actually gonna mention that you totally would need to change things slowly if you were gonna change things. don't know about 50 years but maybe that's about right. as long as you have a govt sympathetic to the idea for 50 years. if we are still here in 50 years.

Man, this is so sad:
http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/double-tragedy-colorado-shooting-victim-mother-youngest-fatality-165900852.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0
^you guys already done this?

Was expecting the 'Would You Like To Know More?' from Starship Troopers at the end of that video.

Seriously this world feels more like a Verhoeven sci-fi dystopia every minute.

http://www.wusa9.com/images/640/360/2/assetpool/images/120802121749_Kyle%20Tanner.jpg

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-ar-movie-theater-finger-pointing-gun-20120802,0,3774557.story

25-year-old was arrested after he pointed at moviegoers, pretending to have a gun, while shouting expletives at an Annapolis theater Wednesday, Anne Arundel County police said.

Several witnesses described to police how Kyle Nolan Tanner, of no fixed address, walked into a showing of "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," taking a seat in the front row and began yelling expletives toward the screen and audience at the Bow Tie Cinemas on Solomons Island Road just before 4 p.m. He left the theater twice and the last time, he began "pointing at people in the audience simulating that he had a gun" and yelling expletives at them, according to a statement from police.

So this is the closest theater to my house. This happens after processing the whole goddamned Aurora thing and talking to my wife and assuring ourselves that we'd probably still be fine going to the theater down the road to watch matinees with the kids.

Can't wait til we start blaming the Madagascar flicks for our decaying society.

I even suggested going to this theater more often instead of our usual trips to the bigger cinema at the mall because it's way less crowded and easier to sit by the exits.

of no fixed address

Yeah, that's pretty key. Pretty sure that Aurora guy would have been of no fixed address also if he hadn't been riding on student loan money.

latebloomer otm

Although I can understand genuine concern about copy-cat behaviour, I don't think this should put you off going to the cinema.

How often does this minor kind of disturbance, caused by someone with mental health issues acting in a threatening manner, occur? I doubt this incident would have been reported a month ago.

I'm slightly dubious about 'simulating that he had a gun' - he could have just been pointing.

if that pic is any evidence, that dude has lived a rough 25 yrs

Does Holmes really have teen internet fans who dress in orange and paint their hair red called Holmies or is this another Daily Mail type "let's rile up the easily riled up again" ruse?

some of both i imagine

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/aurora-colorado-theater-shooting#fandom

Know Your Meme: The Aurora Colorado Theater Shooting Meme

worse than rickrolling

This happens after processing the whole goddamned Aurora thing and talking to my wife and assuring ourselves that we'd probably still be fine going to the theater down the road to watch matinees with the kids.

Am I missing something, or are you not still fine to go to the theater down the road?

not if the pleasures of the experience of going have been compromised by the associated baggage, inability to relax, &c? no-one's saying man it sucks that you can't go to the cinema without being killed anymore. you're not gonna die in an aircrash, our brains aren't quite logical enough to be able to dismiss that in an orderly, statistical fashion, simultaneously resigning ourselves to heart disease. to have had 'jeez just imagine' thoughts & then have anything remotely play into those thoughts locally is terrifying!

look dude, if you want peace of mind go get a sidearm and learn how to use it!

lol

Am I missing something, or are you not still fine to go to the theater down the road?

― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, August 2, 2012 10:54 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No, no. We're still going to the movies. But two of the main things that we thought about while coping with the tragedy in CO is that a) statistically, given the number of theaters in the nation, it was pretty unlikely that another shooting spree would happen in one of the theaters we go to, and b.) we mostly go to kids movies and those just didn't seem like likely targets! Now this guy's not a serious threat to our health and safety. Likely just has severe mental problems. But it touched enough onto two of the main rationalizations that we used to comfort ourselves about all this bullshit.

if the kids know about the shooting at all, then a crazy guy coming in and yelling or otherwise making a scene in a movie theater could be pretty scary/traumatizing to them tbh. sadly that is p likely to happen everywhere.

yeah. not to be all 'won't somebody think abt the children' but it extra sucks that he did this at madagascar 3.

When officers approached Tanner, he had 3D movie glasses on top of his head that he told officers were given to him by an employee of the theater.

There was no evidence that Tanner bought a ticket to the movie, Mulcahy said.

Tanner told the officers that he did not actually watch the movie and left the theater to speak with his psychiatrist on Route 2, according to charging documents.

when i went to the theater wednesday afternoon, I caught the tail end of what was pretty clearly someone on the sidewalk giving shit to someone buying tickets at the window. I missed whatever shooting reference the passerby had made, but the response - "it's the quiet ones you have to look out for" got a real TOO SOON look from his wife.

while statistically i know it's absurd to be afraid to go the movies, I'll admit I went to the mom'n'pop theater in the middle of a weekday rather than the mega-multiplex down the street during a busier time (though there was still a decent sized audience). It's not that I was scared of anything, per se, but considering that the movie is already full of gun-driven chaos, I didn't feel the need to stack the deck if my mind wandered from the film.

i know we're like *not supposed to play into this* and *its what he wants* and whatever, but the whole holmies thing could be straight of out frank miller's dystopian neon-teenage-gang-plagued 'dark knight returns'

its eerie

i started that columbine book today. pretty good.

@hoos

http://www.examiner.com/article/first-trailer-of-movie-version-of-classic-comic-the-dark-knight-returns

If only Holmes had seen a chiropractor, we could have avoided all of this.

holy shit

Yep. Can you imagine, two seconds before hitting "send," thinking, "This is a great idea!"

Update: no actual news, I guess

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/24/james-holmes-threats-aurora-colorado_n_1828616.html

^ am wondering what the article's point is, if any

LaPierre never ceases to be entertaining:

"I'll tell you what the N.R.A.'s for: Indict, incarcerate violent criminals. Get them off the street. Indict people that are having mental problems; get them into treatment. Enforce the federal gun laws. If there's a drug dealer with a gun in Chicago breaking federal law, Eric Holder, prosecute them. Fix the mental health system and let's get our fiscal house into order so that we can stop releasing the bad guys back to the street"

the NRAs faith in mental health practitioners never fails to astound me

like what exactly does "fix the mental health system" mean, wave a magic wand and all the crazies disappear?

Whatever it means I'm guessing it doesn't involve large state funded mental health programmes, so those in most need - the homeless, impoverished, addicted etc. - are still going to fall between the cracks.

it means "we're not going to talk about gun control"

I suppose mental health services are maybe the area where the case for socialised treatment is greatest; even if they don't care about people dying of easily preventable illnesses they might see the value in keeping us crazy folks healthy.

LaPierre has no real interest in solving any type of thinly defined "mental health problem", he's just interested in people focusing on things other than guns.

If any legislators said "Hmm, we're inspired! We're putting together some bills to help curb mental illness, and we thought you might want to serve on our panel?", LaPierre would be like "Hey look over there, a Branch Davidian" and turn running in the other direction.

I love that his whole screed boils down to "we just have to lock up bad guys". About the equivalent of when your 9 year old asks "if the economy is so bad, why doesn't the mint just print money and throw it in the street?".

because of hyperinflation, you'd say

BUT WHAT IF WE DON'T TELL ANYONE WE HAVE PRINTED UP THE EXTRA MONEY??

Guilty verdict delivered this evening.

Life.

Gov. John Hickenlooper: "Today's verdict proves again that the death penalty is arbitrary. The only people on death row in Colorado are black. It has no place in Colorado."

I got fired from my last full-time/benefits job a couple hours after I started this thread. I hate that synchronistic bullshit that wants to make it all about you. sigh.

Hickenlooper otm