For those who haven’t heard by now, a 24-year-old gunman armed with gas canisters, a rifle, a shotgun, and a pair of handguns opened fire in an Aurora movie theater early in the am, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more.
A tragedy in what was, it turns out, a “gun free zone”, where CCW wasn’t permitted.
I mention this for a reason, because believe me, I had no desire to politicize this tragedy. Until, that is, I read the comments to news reports (and some of the “news reports” themselves) — where it became clear to me that many of our fellow citizens are not only morally reprehensible and intellectually vapid, but they hope and plan to act on both those traits and, in so doing, bring harm to the rest of us by institutionalizing their morally reprehensible vapidity and self-righteousness.
Here, let me put it plainly: If your first thought, when you hear of a tragedy like this, is that a “right winger” — most likely a Limbaugh “Dittohead” or a TEA Party-type — “must” have been the culprit, you’re an abomination, so filled with partisan hatred that you can’t even recognize how poisoned and black and corrupted your soul has become. If your first thought, when you hear of a tragedy like this, is that it “proves” that the Second Amendment is a hoary old bit of misconstrued text, and it’s time to take from people their rights to self-defense and self-protection (as one liberal cunt chided, wingnuts will react with, “y’all kint take my gun because of the Constitution!! Herp derp” — her willingness to stereotype responsible gun owners as hickish backwood fringe kooks a mark of her own grubby and hateful bigotry), you haven’t the ability to reason, and you’ve simply thrown in with the ranks of the emotional kneejerkers who routinely rob us of more and more of our liberties in order to protect us from ourselves. If your first thought, when you hear of a tragedy like this, is how can I use this tragedy politically, well, you’re most likely a “progressive” or one of their useful idiots.
Again, I’ll point out that the theater chain doesn’t allow responsible citizens who’d gone through gun training and applied for carry licenses to bring their firearms into the theater. At the same time, they clearly didn’t stop someone committed to shooting up the theater — regardless of its prohibition on firearms — from doing just that. In fact, the shooter entered through an emergency exit — another sign he ignored.
I’ve already heard the argument that the gunman’s body armor and the power of his weapon makes the CCW argument moot: one old redneck with a revolver isn’t going to stop a man armed and prepared for a spree kill.
True enough. But what about 15 law abiding citizens with revolvers or semi-autos? Or one or two citizens with substantial ammo? Could they have stopped the gunman?
Moreover, does a gunman target a place where he knows that the people there may themselves be armed?
I suspect the left and Obama, in the run-up to the small arms treaty vote (we all must surrender our Constitutional rights to unelected UN bureaucrats, for the children!), will demagogue the hell out of this tragedy, because it’s what they do. They want to take your guns away, because it is the knowledge that you have them that keeps Utopian statists up at night.
My advice? Stock up on guns and ammo. And do not let them get away with the kind of post-Columbine crackdown on the Second Amendment they’re most certainly already planning to angle for.
In fact, if some liberal shitheel who begins arguing that a spree kill in one of his promoted “gun free zones” is reason enough to take away guns from the non-spree killers, don’t even argue: just ask him if he can say with absolute certainty that this gunman didn’t in fact get his weapons from Eric Holder his own self.
Spit.
Bastards on ABC have already-incorrectly -reported that the shooter James Holmes was associated with a Tea Party in Colorado. Turns out at the name is fairly common and, whoops, wrong guy. Fuckers.
Yes. He was also not in the Military as previously reported.
I’ve already heard the argument that the gunman’s body armor and the power of his weapon makes the CCW argument moot: one old redneck with a revolver isn’t going to stop a man armed and prepared for a spree kill.
Put a couple major calibre rounds centre mass and he will not like it, armour or not; put one in the melon, and he will stop.
Obama is in Ft. Myers today and on the radio here now, explaining why he’s cutting his political campaign event short. I’ve just heard him opining how Malia and Sasha like to go to the movies: modeling his children for the crowd as though they too could be murder victims, without saying a word about the Secret Service protection they receive when they do go see films, in contrast to the utter defenselessness of the movie goers last night.
Guy was apparently wearing a gas mask while firing. Aurora cops & firefighters have evacuated 5 buildings because they believe his apartment is booby trapped. [live reporting via 850KOA radio in Denver]
Dude’s apartment is supposed to be booby-trapped. Bomb Squad is on it.
If it’s a .45 it is. Body armor or not, you’re getting knocked on your ass and it’s going to be a few minutes before you’ve got your shit together.
You know what definitely isn’t going to stop him? Your warm and fuzzy desire that it be so.
My thoughts exactly. In normal society this guy would have been terminally stopped a dozen times in the first fifteen seconds.
In the time it takes to clear leather.
Applying for my CCP next week. Daughter too.
Something found in the foreign press that, if true, will get somehow blamed on Romney.
Yup. I have a streamlight TLR-2s with a disorienting strobe at like 200 lumens and a laser, and I have a Trijicon amber dot site, to go with 45 APC rounds. Provided I’m not hit before I know what’s happening, I guarantee he’d have felt what it’s like to be shot — likely 12-15 times, depending on which firearm I had with me.
Or not. Since I was forced to lock the gun up in my car, while he didn’t much care about the posted rules.
What Pablo said. Body armor isn’t magical. The bullets don’t bounce off. All the energy in the bullet has to be dissipated, and it’s going to be dissipated on your flesh, just over a larger area than it would be if the bullet went in.
Body armor may slow down a slug, but you’re going to get one hell of a bruise and broken ribs.
They’re starting to take first person reports from the people in the theatre, so Imma go run errands.
Has anyone heard what sort of gas he was using? Tear gas?
a post on WZ references a potential association with “LE 9GAG Army” …anybody know what that is?
He was in med school at U of Colo until a month or so ago.
The Mozambique, or Failure, drill is exactly why the “But he’s wearing armour” is irrelevant.
“Here, let me put it plainly: If your first thought, when you hear of a tragedy like this, is that a “right winger” — most likely a Limbaugh “Dittohead” or a TEA Party-type — “must” have been the culprit, you’re an abomination, so filled with partisan hatred that you can’t even recognize how poisoned and black and corrupted your soul has become. ”
And by black he doesn’t mean “african american” or negroid or whatever the hell it is called today. This is not about race and culture. We are not saying that you have a black soul in the way that some people might say Ray Charles had a black soul. He’s saying that you are a sick, evil, reprehensible, dishonest, ‘bastard piece of shit’. You are a vile, odious, despicable, rotten, decayed thing stuck on the bottom of God’s shoe. You are a dim, vulgar little heel of a twerp standing on the shoulders of giant assholes.
That was the intention.
So, fuck your opportunistic, stretched, calumny of a misinterpretation.
Cheers.
Looks like a pack of trolls and knuckleheads, Dave J.
One notes that the article linked by Physics Geek ends with speculation about the shooter being an Occutard. Which, nice to see some sauce for the gander, but still out of line. Speculation for speculation’s sake is just stupid at this point.
“Put a couple major calibre rounds centre mass and he will not like it, armour or not; put one in the melon, and he will stop.”
It can be damned hard to shoot at tear gas though and I think I heard a reporter say that he was behind the screen at some point?
If the reporting is correct then this was planned out for some reason. Of course initial reporting is usually pretty shitty and full of nonsense that gets cleared up later..
True. Unless there are, say, 15 armed citizens, at least one or two of which at any time might have had an open look at the shooter.
That Brian Ross action is grounds for termination (of employment); it is wanton, egregious malpractice, and the private citizen TEA Partier James Holmes should be contacting a defamation attorney.
Apparently ABC already took a swipe at blaming the shooting on the Tea Party.
Then that TEA Party is pretty damn inclusive, palaeomerus.
@JeffG @palaeomerus
The term “ghoul” fits the sort of person you both describe.
An undead creature that feeds on corpses.
Did they wait until the bodies cooled this time?
Now, apparently, its Rush Limbaugh’s fault. I only heard a little of him having fun with the Bane/Bain stuff but my impression, based on that short period of time I was listening, was Rush was saying he thought the Liberals were going to try to draw the comparison, not that he thought there was any kind of connection. He was saying it mostly in jest but I recall seeing an article at the beginning of the week, mentioning that liberals were trying to make the connection to the Bane villain. As was mentioned, my understanding is he’s an anarchist in the movie (in the comics, he was in a foreign prison before coming to Gotham to “break the Bat”) and is trying to destroy Wall Street (seems to be more of an anti-Bain type to me).
The thing with ABC this morning was terrible- the douchebag that implied Holmes was a tea party guy, based on freaking facebook, should be fired, loudly and publicly. It won’t happen but it should.
Bill O’Reilly, not a generally reputed moron, contrary to fact, will soon appear on television in order to tell the world what a fine man Brian Ross truly is, what a fine reporter, and a man of the highest journalistic caliber. O’Reilly won’t insist we bear in mind that the highest journalistic caliber is classed somewhere in the neighborhood of the phylum Annelida, with an intelligence to match.
Yes, I really am that horrible. Don’t feel bad for me — I’ve long since learned to live with myself.
Is this a key piece of info, or has Ray Kelly lost his mind?
Kelly: Colorado Movie Theater Shooting Suspect Claimed To Be Batman Nemesis ‘The Joker’
For the fuckwitted cuntbag’s information, the wife and I are getting a rare “date day” sans children tomorrow. Our first stop will be a gun shop/shooting range where we plan to select, try, and purchase a firearm. Been looking forward to this for weeks.
We will likely not be wearing threadbare bib overalls, nor chawin’ terbakky.
Where’d that come from, Squid? That lone gunman bit?
The article linked by Physics Geek has been quietly changed to drop the accusation that Holmes is a member of Occupy. I know this is considered breaking news, but this should not be changed without some kind of attribution or a seperate update. Unfortunately I do not have a sreen cap of original version.
My first two thoughts about the shooter were: 1. Terrorist attack by Islamofascists or 2. Crazy nutjob. (okay, so, there’s some overlap between 1 & 2)
I denounce myself as a racist.
Anyway, the leftists rushing out with their political crap over these shootings is one of dozens of reasons I don’t worry about being civil with leftists. Leftists are stupid jackasses on a good day and I’ve no time for their crap.
Where’d that come from, Squid? That lone gunman bit?
I’m not Squid, but the “lone gunman” is from the Daily Mail in the UK.
Body armor isn’t a magic shield. His legs and head were unprotected, as well as his arms.
A .45 isn’t a magic bullet either, against armor you’re dumping about the same energy as a hot 9mm, and through armor it’s not enough to stop you, though that’s more dependent on psychology than anything else. It’s not enough *energy* to knock someone down – not even close.
Handgun bullets simply do not have anywhere near as much energy as people think they do, and the .45 is a middling one on that score.
But it shore do have mythology!
Having a gun is the most important thing. Being willing and able to hit your target is next. Caliber is somewhere down the list from there.
Also, someone needs to publish a list of the crap Ross has pulled. Very openly.
It’s always a pattern, and the “mistakes” always go the same direction.
Ok.
The 1911 and the .45 ACP were brought into military service because the .38 revolvers they were using were insufficient to stop angry attacking Phillipinos. The 1911 ended that problem.
I will agree, however, that having any gun is better than having no gun, and that gun must be one you are fully capable of shooting without flinching and also be willing to carry. I would say caliber comes directly after those things.
From the looks of many of the moviegoers, there seem to be some rather stocky folks in the crowd. If the guy was firing straight ahead of him and walking up the aisle from the screen to the entrance, couldn’t some of these people have tackled him from behind? Or does that kind of thing only happen in the movies (no pun intended)?
Only if they hadn’t learned the extremely valuable and necessary lesson that violence has never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever solved anything.
Ever ever.
Huh. No one ever told that little nugget of wisdom to my brothers. I had the Indian burns and half my allowance to prove it, too.
I was thinking that if movie theatres still had ushers, this kind of shit wouldn’t happen. Hell, you couldn’t make out on the mezzanine without one of them telling you to break it up.
“Body armor isn’t a magic shield. His legs and head were unprotected, as well as his arms.”
Hmmm. I heard on the radio that he had a neck protector, a ballistic vest, ballistic helmet and ballistic leggings and tactical gloves.
I agree that some hand gun round on all that ought to make you stop shooting for a bit and will hurt like hell but he was pretty well outfitted. Also his apartment seems to have been booby trapped.
I agree that some hand gun round on all that ought to make you stop shooting for a bit and will hurt like hell but he was pretty well outfitted.
The proof of the pudding would be for some curious soul to dress up likewise, pop down to the gun range, stand in front of a .45 and see how one got on.
Where’d that come from, Squid? That lone gunman bit?
Sorry for the delay; I was doing some actual work for the people who pay me (on a Friday! Sheesh!).
That speech came out of my ass. Which is why it sounded so presidential.
I was catching up on Iowahawk’s Twitter feed, and ran across his comment to the point that we’ve gone from “Wingnuts did the shooting” to “Wingnuts couldn’t have stopped the shooting.” Progress!