The Year of the Gun

Case O’ Guns (Photo credit: Gregory Wild-Smith)

One of my father’s hobbies was collecting firearms, so I’ve been shooting them for as long as I can remember. And he made a point of teaching me gun safety not only so I wouldn’t hurt myself, but also so I wouldn’t hurt others. I have lots of respect for guns as a result, but have to say I am appalled by their abuse in our society. Case in point: all the terrible shootings over the past few years.

From 2011 to today, there seem to have been more mass shootings in the world than I have witnessed in my 41 short years on this planet. I use 2011 as a starting point because that’s when Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, 33, murdered 77 people in cold blood. He began by destroying the Oslo government headquarters with a fertilizer bomb on July 22^nd, followed by the killing of 69 more people during the ruling party’s summer youth camp. And in case you haven’t heard, Breivik just received the maximum sentence for his crimes: 21 years. This alone is pretty disgusting and I have to wonder about the effectiveness of the Norwegian justice system.

James Holmes (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

On July 20, 2012, 24-year-old former neuroscience student James Holmes entered an Aurora, Colorado movie theater during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” With his hair dyed bright orange and referring to himself as the Joker, he opened fire on the audience, killed 12 people and wounded 58 others. Holmes then exited the theater and immediately surrendered to police. Further investigation of Holmes’ apartment revealed it was rigged with all sorts of explosives, as if he was hoping to kill any officers who entered the premises later. As if this wasn’t bad enough, it now appears there were all kinds of warning signs that could have prevented this tragedy from happening in the first place.

How sickening is that?

A few weeks later—on August 5, 2012—white supremacist Wade Michael Page walked into an Oak Creek, Wisconsin Sikh Temple and murdered 6 people, wounding another 4 in the process. After being shot in the stomach by police, Page turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

Today, a disgruntled women’s accessories designer named Jeffrey Johnson, 53, murdered his former boss outside the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan and injured as many as 9 others. Thankfully, police shot him dead before he could hurt anyone else.

All of these incidents happened in only one year’s time, which worries me because I know there are more shootings to come. Before anything else happens, though, I have a request to make of any would-be shooters out there:

Do us all a favor, grow some balls and just use the gun on yourself. No one else needs to die because you’re too much of a coward to remove yourself from your pathetic life.

Accused Colorado movie theater gunman charged with multiple counts of murder | The Lookout – Yahoo! News

Accused Colorado movie theater gunman charged with multiple counts of murder | The Lookout – Yahoo! News.

James Holmes, the killer in the Aurora movie theater massacre, was just charged with two dozen counts of first-degree murder as well as more than 100 other violent offenses. This brings his grand total to 142.

Prosecutors have not yet decided if they will seek the death penalty in this case, but here’s hoping they do.

Yes, I am a liberal Democrat, but capital punishment is something I fully support. To me, if you take someone’s life in cold blood, then you should expect to sacrifice your own since let’s face it, that’s the only fair thing to do.

Granted, I don’t necessarily find it best to respond to one death by adding another, but sometimes you just can’t avoid it. And when someone like Holmes so flagrantly disregards the lives of his victims and their loved ones, I certainly feel the death sentence is warranted.

Or should Holmes be forced to live with what he did? There are some pretty good arguments for that side, too. And I can see it’s appeal.

I’m very curious to see how this case plays out. And this seems like a pretty good start. We simply cannot allow people like this to walk among us. The world is a dangerous enough place already.

Booby-trapped Colorado apartment building losing tenants – Yahoo! News

Booby-trapped Colorado apartment building losing tenants – Yahoo! News.

I guess it was only a matter of time before the residents of James Holmes’ booby-trapped apartment building decided to head for greener pastures. If things had worked out as Holmes planned, after all, most if not all of them would already be dead.

What I find disturbing about this is that the Paris Street building has now become something of a macabre tourist attraction. People keep driving by and taking pictures of a structure that, if this killer had his way, wouldn’t even be standing today.

Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems in bad taste to do this kind of thing while the victims struggle with their losses and the survivors are still recovering from their wounds. There is time for all this once the case has been closed, after all.

Women Who Survived Theater Shooting Grieve for Hero Boyfriends – Yahoo!

Alex and Amanda

Women Who Survived Theater Shooting Grieve for Hero Boyfriends – Yahoo!.

As if the murders in Aurora weren’t heartbreaking enough, now comes a story of heroism that brings tears to my eyes if I think about it for too long.

On that fateful night in the movie theater, as James Holmes was strolling down the aisle and shooting everyone in sight, four men acted selflessly and protected their girlfriends from harm.

One such hero was 24-year-old Alex Teves, who blanketed his girlfriend Amanda Lindgren, told her not to worry and sustained injuries that ended his short life. Fortunately, she was unharmed.

People like Alex remind me not only of the brevity of life, but also of the sacrifices we make to protect our loved ones. For every James Holmes out there, intent on hurting as many people as possible, there is someone like Alex who restores my faith in humanity.

Thank you for showing us the true meaning of love, Alex. The world is a much emptier place without you in it, but at least you have given us hope.

The Mad Pollster: Is James Holmes faking?

3 arrested in separate Dark Knight incidents – Yahoo! News

3 arrested in separate Dark Knight incidents – Yahoo! News.

It looks like the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado is starting to produce more potentially violent and disturbing behavior throughout our great nation.

In Maine, for instance, a man was arrested when he told authorities he had just seen “The Dark Knight Rises” and was headed to shoot his former employer. The cops searched his car and found a number of weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle, several handguns and plenty of ammunition.

He also had news clippings of the mass shooting in Aurora.

Several other moviegoers have been behaving strangely and have scared the heck out of the people around them. And the shooting in Colorado always seems to be mentioned.

I am hoping there won’t be any copycats looking to gun people down out there, but if you go to see the new Batman movie, I suggest you sit near an exit, preferably near the main entrance. Since the front of the theater is more crowded and closely monitored, this just might save your life if another James Holmes comes calling.

Mitt Romney Accused of Buying Twitter Followers | Trending Now – Yahoo! News

Mitt Romney (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mitt Romney Accused of Buying Twitter Followers | Trending Now – Yahoo! News.

Bad news seems to come from every turn for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. And now it’s coming from Twitter.

Over the weekend, Romney’s Twitter account gained an out-of-the-ordinary 135,000 followers. Prior to that, he averaged between 3,000 and 4,000 new followers per day.

To make matters worse, some of Romney’s alleged followers seem to be “Twitter bots” who have no followers of their own and misspell certain words. Basically fake followers.

Romney is being accused of buying followers, which would be a very sketchy move. If it’s actually true, that is.

I started thinking about this weekend, though, and remembered that James Holmes murdered all those people in Aurora late last week. Is there something about Romney that people might be drawn to following a tragedy like this one? Are people indicating that they don’t feel safe and now support a change in leadership?

I hope not.

And for Romney’s sake, I certainly hope he didn’t buy those followers. That could be the proverbial nail in his presidential coffin.

James Holmes goes to court

James Holmes, the shooter in the Aurora movie theater massacre, appeared in court for the first time today. It’s been three days since Holmes entered a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” and open fire on the crowd, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.

In court and sporting hair dyed red to symbolize the Joker, Holmes sat quietly with a dazed and confused look on his face. It was made clear to him that he is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, as well as additional offenses that could include aggravated assault and weapons charges.

A discussion about whether or not to employ the death penalty is underway, but no final decision will be made for weeks or even months to come. And if you factor in time for an appeal, it looks as if taxpayers will be footing the bill for keeping Holmes in custody.

This means that aside from killing innocent people, wounding others and instilling fear in moviegoers around the nation, Holmes will now require taxpayers like you and me to pay for his time in jail, as well as his eventual execution (which I’m hoping will come).

Talk about adding insult to injury.

Shooting suspect gun club membership rejected – Boston.com

James Holmes (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

Shooting suspect gun club membership rejected – Boston.com.

Details about 24-year-old mass murderer James Holmes continue to surface, and now we seem to be entering the “warning signs” phase of the investigation.

Apparently, Holmes tried to join a gun club last month but never became a member due to some “bizarre” behavior and a strange message on his answering machine.

Sounds like a potential red flag to me.

Of course, people witness strange behavior every day and never report it because, seriously, aren’t our police officers busy enough?

Then something like this happens and people start second-guessing themselves.

Since I’ve been thinking and writing about Big Brother recently, I can’t help wondering where all this could be leading. It’s feasible that we might see a kind of early warning alert system implemented in the future. Think of it as a tip line for potential crime, or even pre-crime like the kind described in Steven Spielberg‘s “Minority Report,” but available through some kind of nation-wide system. People who witness suspicious behavior could report it using this system, which would feed into a national database and be redirected to the appropriate authorities, who would act quickly.

Combine this referral system with the billions of cameras and other surveillance technologies available, all of which can be used to secretly monitor people’s lives, and you should understand why this worries me so much.

It’s bad enough that you can’t do anything without being caught on someone’s camera phone, but how much worse will it be when the government can keep tabs on you every single second? Granted, they can do much of this now, but I assume they focus on the most serious threats and not everyday Americans like you and me.

All this could change once a referral system is established. Now I have cause to worry if, during an off day, I act a little weird in public. If someone reports it, then I immediately become a target for government scrutiny. After all, no one wants things to escalate to the level of James Holmes again, do they?

Privacy is past. Welcome to the world gone public…

Cops may set off suspects booby traps today – CBS News

Bomb squad operator disposing bomb (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cops may set off suspects booby traps today – CBS News.

The plot thickens in Aurora, Colorado.

Following the largest mass shooting in US history, this one in a movie theater involving 24-year-old James Holmes, police are now faced with another challenge: getting into Holmes’ apartment, which is rigged with an assortment of complex and highly explosive booby traps.

Before I get ready to head to work on a Saturday, something I absolutely love (and yes, I am being very facetious), I want to say how much I respect these bomb disposal guys on the police force.

Imagine having a job where even the slightest miscalculation could result in you being blown to smithereens. I know I don’t want to do it.

And this Aurora bomb squad has its work cut out for it. Apparently Holmes was careful to booby-trap the whole place, which means the cops may have to detonate it all.

Say goodbye to any remaining evidence in the apartment. It’s about to be toast.

I suppose this is what you get when a former Honor student and high-achiever suddenly snaps. And I guess there’s no true way of knowing where the next attack will be coming from.

It’s a scary, mad world, peeps. Watch your backs.