12 killed, 50 wounded at Aurora movie theater

My mother owned first one handgun, then two, for all the years after we emigrated to the U.S. She kind of fancied herself as a tough guy, loved Westerns. The only concrete result of her gun ownership was that she accidentally killed the neighbors’ dog while shooting in his general direction to run him off. That, and it put some emotional weight behind her constant threats to kill herself.



One of my unlamented former brothers-in-law was a gun enthusiast. He had quite the collection (which has undoubtedly been enlarged), ranging from a blow gun to a modern approximation of a Gatling gun. He enjoyed hosting large Hallowe’en costume parties, at which he dressed up as a cowboy, to give himself the excuse to walk around with his six shooters in a gun belt. For verisimilitude, they naturally had to be loaded. My sister always had to keep a close eye on him, because he would invariably take the gun belt off at some point in the evening and leave it lying somewhere – she had to grab it and put it away before one of the dozens of kids running around got their hands on it. He also enjoyed passing around his guns and showing them off to guests. One time, my sister asked him whether he was sure they were unloaded. He said, “Of course!” and demonstrated by pulling the trigger of the one he had in his hand. Fortunately, the only things that ended up with bullet holes were a couple of books and the bookshelf itself. His profession, you may ask? Safety engineer.



Then there was my stepson who, as a kid with learning disabilities, got picked on and compensated by developing a love for guns. When he was 27, after an argument with his mother, he waited for her to go to bed, then walked into her room and emptied a clip, a lot of rounds. He was a terrible shot, even at that close distance, and most of them missed her, but enough hit to kill her quite dead. He then called 911 and reported that people had been shot at the address. By the time the police arrived two minutes later, he had reloaded and was dead from a gunshot to the head.



Are all gun owners like this? No. But how many incidents like this, or much, much worse does it take before the price is too high to counter the speculative, security blanket, *advantage* of gun ownership?
 
It's weird that he didn't kill himself. Normally they kill themselves. It's not like he was trying to hid. And it was carefully planned, so he know what he was doing. It's all so weird.

And horrible. :(
 
I'm just going to say about this that every time that guy's name is brought up, and people (whether the media or private individuals) talk about his history, his personality, his motives, there's a likelihood that this is what he wants, and what others like him in the future are envious of. (Well, I guess this is kinda obvious.)

And by saying that, I'm in no way excluding myself from all the people who are interested in how someone could be so fucked up and who spend time discussing it. But I think it's a problem. In an ideal word, a news report about an incident like this would talk only about the victims and refer to the perpetrator as a coward, and not in any other way (not through picture of his/her face, not through what he/she was wearing, what political message he/she was trying to convey, etc.). But obviously that's never going to happen, unless the vast majority of humanity became the Borg, and made that decision collectively, right there and then and for the rest of time.
 
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hmmm.

i don't have any stories like that. not that they don't occur.

did you say that you have a glock?
 
Yeah he does. Maybe the reality of the pain he's caused and the lives he's irrevocably destroyed is sinking in. I hope he lives out the rest of his life in mental hell.

Well, if he did experience a psychotic break some months ago, he's been living in a hell and, if he receives appropriate treatment, to the extent that he becomes cognizant of what he's done, that hell will undoubtedly be worse. And if that's what happened, I for one cannot hold him accountable.
 
Although in this case, if you could limit him to revolvers, he might have just decided to use bombs instead, since he seemed rather fond of those as well.

Yeah, as I said earlier, he seems to have had the intelligence to cause mayhem in other ways. He's not your *average* mass murderer in that respect, though.
 
I feel really sorry for the public defender sitting next to him.

She's fulfilling a valuable public duty in her job, but it must really suck to be forced to represent someone who appears to be so obviously guilty. Probably a lot of people will hate her.
 
hmmm.

i don't have any stories like that. not that they don't occur.

did you say that you have a glock?

Yeah. My ex bought it, anticipating a global meltdown as a result of the financial crisis. :p I haven't done anything about it for the reasons stated above.

Although if I'm going to keep it, I should probably figure out how to reload it. :p The only thing I know how to load is a revolver.
 
Yeah. My ex bought it, anticipating a global meltdown as a result of the financial crisis. :p I haven't done anything about it for the reasons stated above.

Although if I'm going to keep it, I should probably figure out how to reload it. :p The only thing I know how to load is a revolver.

are you trying to say that if you own a weapon, being able to use it makes sense?

i shall never forget on VB the argument i had with someone who felt it was better to NOT be able to shoot well so if there was an intruder, you wouldn't be able to hit them. ah, the good ol' days.
 
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I'm actually a good shot - much better than my ex, who was infantry in Vietnam. It's kind of funny, since I am generally pretty physically uncoordinated, but I guess shooting is somewhat of a fine motor skill. As a kid, I was awful at dodge ball, but I was by far the best shot in the family.

But yeah, the biggest danger of guns is in the hands of idiots and/or emotional people. Really, during the course of my extremely nasty divorce, it's a good thing I didn't have access to a gun. (The gun is a remnant of the ex-SO, subsequent to the divorce.)
 
In contrast to the idiot who left his baby behind as a diversion so he could escape, are three men who stayed and protected their girlfriends. Sadly, all three of them died. How do you deal with knowing someone you loved died while saving you?

In the wake of Friday's devastating theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., President Obama remarked
that it will be the "good people"
-- the heroes who took action -- that remain in our memories long after James Holmes, the alleged gunman, has been forgotten.
And as stories from the darkened chaos begin to emerge, three among many share similar heroic stories: they all died shielding their girlfriends from bullets.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...l?utm_hp_ref=impact&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
 
In contrast to the idiot who left his baby behind as a diversion so he could escape, are three men who stayed and protected their girlfriends. Sadly, all three of them died. How do you deal with knowing someone you loved died while saving you?



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...l?utm_hp_ref=impact&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

And let's not forget the 19 year old kid who saw the idiot's girlfriend struggling to get the two children out of the theater and put himself between her and the shooter, and got shot in the leg in the process.
 
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I'm actually a good shot - much better than my ex, who was infantry in Vietnam. It's kind of funny, since I am generally pretty physically uncoordinated, but I guess shooting is somewhat of a fine motor skill. As a kid, I was awful at dodge ball, but I was by far the best shot in the family.

But yeah, the biggest danger of guns is in the hands of idiots and/or emotional people. Really, during the course of my extremely nasty divorce, it's a good thing I didn't have access to a gun. (The gun is a remnant of the ex-SO, subsequent to the divorce.)

what's Vietnam?
 
It was a war in ancient history, long before you were even a twinkle in your daddy's eye.
ancient history. LOL.

i was doing that to enlighten the younger tots on here.

and you are correct. my father was in Nam.
 
It's a shame that the idiot that ran got more news coverage than the many heroes who stayed behind.
 
I'm just going to say about this that every time that guy's name is brought up, and people (whether the media or private individuals) talk about his history, his personality, his motives, there's a likelihood that this is what he wants, and what others like him in the future are envious of. (Well, I guess this is kinda obvious.)

And by saying that, I'm in no way excluding myself from all the people who are interested in how someone could be so ****ed up and who spend time discussing it. But I think it's a problem. In an ideal word, a news report about an incident like this would talk only about the victims and refer to the perpetrator as a coward, and not in any other way (not through picture of his/her face, not through what he/she was wearing, what political message he/she was trying to convey, etc.). But obviously that's never going to happen, unless the vast majority of humanity became the Borg, and made that decision collectively, right there and then and for the rest of time.

Agreed.

I actually try to not remember the names of these guys. If I remember any names, it should be the names of the victims.
 
To simplify even further, a little part of you lives on from every person you come in contact with. Subconsciously your traits imprint within them over time.

My issue was with a study about souls and how everyone anyone comes in contact with develops traits from the other.

Obviously, you are you and no one else will be exactly you but I believe you are you because of things you've seen, traits you've picked up speech patterns, habit etc. I don't know that I believe in the whole soul thing. I think it's more about billions of neurons zapping around that create you and you aren't quite as original as you would like to believe because we've all seen, think and express many of the same things. I suspect what makes you uniquely you are the memories you form and over time even those can become distorted and change. The brain is fascinating.

I suppose this makes more sense out of the previous statements.

We do take on personalities traits from other people, but I interpret that different than your original statement. :)

That is sort of the idea behind science isn't it? People do experiments and test theories while other people sit back and say they think it's junk science etc.

I don't think so. People do experiments, test conjectures/ideas/claims/hypotheses that can develop into theories and laws. There's also a political aspect and monetary aspect.

However science requires nothing from other people sitting back to say what they think.


/off topic :shrug: