<p>According to ABC Nightly News, gun shops in Colorado had their “best day ever for sales” yesterday, Monday. That’s just plain stupidity at work and I am sick of hearing men say that “If there had been people in that theatre with guns, they could have taken the shooter our”. Seriously? That guy had on more body armor than the officers on the SWAT team who responded to the call. Where would they going to hit him? He had FULL body protection, including throat and groin protectors, arm and leg armor, chest protection, full helmet and face gear. Short of hitting him with a bazooka shell, nothing was going to down him! And just think of the addition people who would have been hurt in the crossfire in a dark theatre.
The answer is not more guns but rather laws to keep automatic and semi-automatic weapons, high capacity magazines and teflon-coated ( aka cop killer) bullets off of the market entirely.
Bravo to Christian Bale- his visits today must have been very difficult for him, and he certainly didn’t need to do that. Class act, sir.</p>
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<p>Maybe what we need is a stigma attached to gun ownership. It’s obviously not enough that I judge people who own them. Yes, we’d end up with bad people who still have guns, but we still have bad people who drink and drive, bad people who text and drive and bad people who blow people up with C-4. We don’t throw our hands up and surrender the effort. We have to at least stop going backwards regarding this issue. </p>
<p>Colorado is pathetic when it comes to even making an effort. The citizens of Colorado should be ashamed of themselves and this is the time to shame them. Is it too soon? No It is too late. </p>
<p>[Gun</a> prevention advocate says US does ‘very little to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people’ - The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur // Current TV](<a href=“http://current.com/shows/the-young-turks/videos/gun-prevention-advocate-says-u-s-does-very-little-to-keep-guns-out-the-hands-of-dangerous-people]Gun”>http://current.com/shows/the-young-turks/videos/gun-prevention-advocate-says-u-s-does-very-little-to-keep-guns-out-the-hands-of-dangerous-people)</p>
<p>As much as I wish we could get a handle on guns, I just don’t think it will happen in our lifetimes. I think the most I could hope for is that we can make some small strides towards stemming the tide, but painting law abiding gun owners grasping desperately for a way to protect themselves against evil is not the answer, imo. I think we need to first at least make some real headway with regard to assault rifles, and then chip steadily away at the rest. Baby steps…the 2nd amendment is too ingrained to make any swift, sweeping changes.</p>
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<p>I do agree.</p>
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<p>All around the world you see that there is more crime where the law isn’t enforced or there are no laws (not just referring to guns here). For example, in some less developed countries where the law isn’t enforced well (and the police are corrupted) there is more theft, murder, etc. If you get rid of guns, then there would be less gun violence. Making things illegal does have its effects. Here’s an account from an Ireland resident:</p>
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<p>The US has the most lenient gun control laws in the developed Western world, and it has a significantly greater amount of gun violence, even if you adjust for population differences.</p>
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<p>** My point: unless you see all this as a coincidence, there is no logical way to say that the same amount of gun violence would occur if there was more gun control. **</p>
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<p>I agree. Personally, I think we should just add some more background checks needed to be able to obtain guns for now. I think one of the main reasons that the gun control argument has been so ineffective is because those in favor of gun control aren’t joining together and uniting for one action. Instead, everyone has different ideas as to what “gun control” should be.</p>
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Alright, let’s use your examples.
Children killed by drunk drivers - there’s not a law banning all vehicles but rather, a law banning driving while drunk. The majority of drivers who don’t drink and drive still have their cars and the offenders face legal consequences. </p>
<p>Children killed by drivers on cell phones - there’s not a law banning all cell phones but rather, a law banning using them in certain ways while driving a vehicle (in some states) and the offenders face legal consequences.</p>
<p>Children fall into a pool with no fence - there’s not a law banning all pools but rather, a law (in some areas) to improve safety by requiring a fence around the pool.</p>
<p>Children killed by people who use guns - guns at this time aren’t banned altogether but rather, there are many laws surrounding the purchase of guns including background checks, types of guns that can be owned, criminals not permitted to possess them, etc.</p>
<p>What there isn’t is the lack of noise such that a pin can easily be heard dropping. For virtually all of these events there are vocal people like you and some others on this thread and many elsewhere as can be seen in the media, who speak up and want guns banned. Of course there are others who don’t want guns banned and others who think a ban of guns will be ineffective in achieving the goal being sought by the people who want them banned.</p>
<p>cartera45, Calling Colorado pathetic and stating that the citizens of Colorado should be ashamed of themselves is incredibly cruel.</p>
<p>Perhaps gun control should go in a different thread - that topic seems to dominate here.</p>
<p>GladGradDad- He stopped shooting because the large capacity magazine on the semi-automatic rifle jammed and he wasn’t able to fire enough rounds with his other weapons. The unsung hero of the night was a quick-thinking guy who, when the shooter was going to his car to grab another weapon(the other Glock 40mm?), ran to the door that had been left ajar and closed it, locking the shooter outside.
Shooter applied on-line to an area gun club and when the director of the club tried to call him to invite him to a mandatory orientation session, he heard a very disturbed-sounding message on the answering machine and subsequently told his staff (after he called twice more) not to allow the guy in if he showed up. It’s highly unlikely that the shooter would have taken the assault rifle to a gun club anyway because such a weapon would have attracted a lot of attention and would most likely have been banned from using it there (which negates the idea that he bought all of that ammo for “practice”).
On the news tonight, it was said that he was looking at new apartments the week before the carnage and that he’s been spitting on guards to such an extent that they stick a face mask on him when he has to be out of his cell for that one hour/day. Since everyone who came in contact with him in the days and weeks prior to this said he was acting just fine, I’m still willing to bet that this whole staring/spitting/sleeping thing is an act to try to get off on a psych call.</p>
<p>+1 GladGradDad. </p>
<p>This guy is certainly well educated enough to feign a variety of mental illnesses. I hope he gets a VERY unsympathetic judge.</p>
<p>You can search which gun ranges that allow rifles, like the AR15 he had, here. There’s a whole industry out there that caters to those people who use guns or have a fascination with weapons. [Range</a> Locator - AR15.COM](<a href=“http://www.ar15.com/ranges/]Range”>Range Finder)
Forums on that site also for people to talk about weapons.</p>
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<p>And if is unacceptable to say that it is asinine to react to gun violence by buying more guns, then absolutely nothing will change. Colorado happens to be the poster child state for unregulated gun purchases. Citizens are massacred with a gun that, based on any shred of common sense, should not be available for purchase and they react by buying more guns. Yes, IMO, that is shameful.</p>
<p>Mezzo’sMama, where did you see the report about someone locking James Holmes out of the theater? I hadn’t heard about that. </p>
<p>One expert apparently thinks there is about a 5% chance that Holmes was faking his behavior in court.</p>
<p>[Former</a> Secret Service Psychologist Says Only 5% Chance James Holmes Was ‘Faking’ In Court | Mediaite](<a href=“http://www.mediaite.com/tv/former-secret-service-psychologist-says-only-5-chance-james-holmes-was-faking-in-court/]Former”>Colorado Shooting | Mediaite)</p>
<p>My guess is that he’s used psychological and psychiatric services in the past and that prosecutors will be able to get a hold of his medical records in this area, either through a court order or voluntarily from the parents (assuming that they have the medical billing and pharmacy paperwork). This stuff doesn’t spring out of nowhere.</p>
<p>NJTheatreMOM, I heard that reported also. The guy said he was trying to hold the door closed for a few minutes (I guess the gunman was trying to break in), but then decided that since the gunman might decide to shoot through the door that it was smarter to run out of the theater.</p>
<p>There are plenty of Colorado citizens, including me, that think it is crazy that sporting stores (and internet) can sell such dangerous gun equipment. Some of my friends have guns for hunting. Perhaps there are others that have guns for protection and don’t talk about it.</p>
<p>I think I found the story. If it is the same story, it is not about Holmes going back out to his car, but about his trying to get into Theater #8 and being prevented by the guy who slammed the door.</p>
<p>[Moviegoer</a> comes face-to-face with gunman in Colorado theater - latimes.com](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-colorado-shootings-witness-gunman-20120720,0,2586663.story]Moviegoer”>Moviegoer comes face-to-face with gunman in Colorado theater)</p>
<p>It does seem plausible that Holmes returned to his car for another gun or more ammunition. </p>
<p>What doesn’t seem to fit…considering other, unfortunately similar stories…is that he didn’t either shoot at the cops or shoot himself.</p>
<p>^ I read that they thought he may have felt powerful being able to tell the police of the booby trapped apartment. It surely isn’t clear what his plan was, he protected himself so well, he didn’t seem to want to be killed by police. </p>
<p>I found his facial expressions and apparent drowsiness to seem overly dramatic, I’ve worked with people having psychotic breaks, and what I’ve seen when someone is in the throes of a delusion, is someone who may look anxious, or paranoid but still able to talk, express their distorted perceptions, etc. My immediate reaction was that it didn’t seem authentic. really frightening, I certainly would have thought he was schizophrenic, but who knows…</p>
<p>Maybe telling the cops about the booby trapped apartment made him feel powerful…or conceivably Holmes wanted to make sure he survived the theater massacre so that he could find out whether his diabolical booby trap setup had worked.</p>