Another Massacre in Colorado

Zinq, the population of the US is 331+ million. How many police would be needed to protect 331 million from crimes BEFORE they happen? And that's just one the street. This isn't Denmark, we have cities 2x's as large as that.
Police are here to capture the person that comits a crime, and prevent them from continuing that crime; and to a lesser extent prevent the mass population from committing crimes to begin with. It would be near impossible to stop a crime before it happens.

Alarms should be put on all those emergancy exits to prevent this...make them LOUD too; w/censors to the ticket box, managers office and police/firestations.

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Originally Posted by little bear

Glad to hear you're okay, Soul. Actually you were the first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the shooting.

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Was thinking the same. First the fire then this

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Originally Posted by little bear

Glad to hear you're okay, Soul. Actually you were the first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the shooting.

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Thanks lb. Happened miles away from where I live but there's another large multi-screen complex five minutes from me where they were showing these very same midnight debuts. It could just as easily have happened there.

I don't often go to a first run movie. Spending $8-$12 just to get my ass into a seat doesn't thrill me when I can wait a few months and either rent the DVD or see in online. My own popcorn tastes better anyway and I can buy a dozen paks for what one large one with a drink costs at the theater.

What bothers me more is that my daughters and their boyfriends to go to movies often and if this happens just once you know there are other lunatics out there who will get ideas from it and within a matter of months it may happen all over again somewhere else. Clearly there is no place safe to be any longer. The streets in every major city in America are killing zones and if it's not "gang bangers" doing it then it's lunatics like this guy who want life to mock a comic book.

For the very first time in my life I'm serious about getting a handgun. There are times when I'm walking home after dark through areas that aren't all that safe and I often use the Light Rail here for public transportation. There are times when those stations aren't policed late at night and some are not in great neighborhoods. In some cases I may be leaving a music gig in the wee hours and loading expensive gear along with having the nights pay in my pocket in cash. Thieves and thugs are cowards who like to prey on the weak. They don't like it much when the odds are even.

I saw a YouTube vid where two punks are caught on camera walking into an internet cafe with a gun and a baseball bat to do some crime. A seventy some year old guy with a gun stood up and walked straight up to them firing from the hip. They dropped their shit and tripped over themselves getting their punk asses out of dodge. The guy had a permit for the gun and he wasn't charged.

I may not be 70 years old but I'm sure as hell willing to get well trained on the care and use of a handgun and I'm not gonna be shy about using it in an instance like that. After all Denver is the Old West and if we need to go back to "going heeled" as they used to call packing a six gun. My kids are grown so there's no longer a fear on my part about one of them getting at one I own and hurting themselves or others. I've never felt like this before but this shit disturbs me deeply in a not too nice way. That could have been my kid's in that theater.

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Originally Posted by Jimmors

ZifanQ, if you want to debate gun control, take it to the bar scene. This is the general forums, we are just discussing this horrific tragedy here, theres no need to involve political discussions here.

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Sorry my bad, you're right. I apologize.

Waouw Soul didn't knew you where that close to the massacre, thought it was a witness statement or something the first thing you posted. Glad you're okay, you're not a batman fan are you? I sure as hell I'm glad you didn't get tickets for that movie if you're, and I feel sorry for those that got..

Incidents like this are the reason EVERY state needs to allow people to open carry.

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Originally Posted by soulman

I saw a YouTube vid where two punks are caught on camera walking into an internet cafe with a gun and a baseball bat to do some crime. A seventy some year old guy with a gun stood up and walked straight up to them firing from the hip. They dropped their shit and tripped over themselves getting their punk asses out of dodge. The guy had a permit for the gun and he wasn't charged.

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I was actually up early when the news first broke, so i was browsing various news sources online during the reports, commenting on some, and most of the pro-gun people kept citing that same instance as reason why we should all have more guns. And yes, there are instances where people save the day with their guns. Unfortunately, that is only one side of the coin, and for every positive storty about a gun owner doing the right thing, there are plenty more stories that are tragic. A good example is the Giffords shooting, there were a few people in attendance who had CCWs and were armed, and yet none of them stopped him from killing people, he was only stopped when he paused to reload.

Instances like this are difficult or near impossible to prevent by simply having more guns. For starters, this guy planned it ahead of time, and went in prepared: body armor, riot helmet, assault rifle and shotgun. Also, it was a dark theater filled with gas and mass panic and confusion. That right there adds up to a situation that very few, if any, would be prepared to deal with. CCW holders like to fantasize wbout what they wouldve done had they been there, but the truth is...NOBODY wouldve been prepared to handle this situation, especially if you were there with a loved one, your spouse, kids, etc. A person's first priority would be the safety of themselves and their family.

While yes, vets and off duty cops would be more prepared then most, there is still a big difference in state of mind...when a cop is on duty or a soldier is training or at war, they are in a different state of mind, they expect danger, and are more aware of their surroundings and situational awareness, because they EXPECT danger and to be in harm's way. In this case, people are NOT in that state of mind, they arent anticipating danger or something like this to happen, so their reaction time would be different.

But, even past all that, lets say you had one or a few responsible gun owners that fire back and tried to stop this guy, the problem then is that if the police show up, they have no clue who is the "bad guy" and who are the "good guys," and if they see people shooting their guns in the theater, they most likely will not distinguish them from the actual culprit, and the responsible gun owners are just as likely (if not more so due to lack of body armor) to be killed by the police.

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Originally Posted by little bear

Glad to hear you're okay, Soul. Actually you were the first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the shooting.

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Originally Posted by short faced bear

Was thinking the same. First the fire then this

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Maybe I should have asked before. Did you think I might be a victim or the shooter. :confused: Just kidding. :smile:

Just a little black humor to cheer me up today. I'm is still in a state of shock over this. Nobody knows just what to think right now.

I lived less than two miles away from Columbine HS when that massacre took place and it left a whole lot of us with friends who lost their kids in that deal pretty unnerved. My own daughters were in schools only a mile away.

Now I feel for those folks in Aurora who just lost kids or other family members in this deal and I'm not sure how I feel except sad and angry that something like this should happen all over again.

This guy bought the weapons he used legally all within the last couple of months. Exactly what kind of game besides humans did the guy sold him that assault rifle think he's be hunting? How did he manage to buy tear gas canisters?

Jesus we have to be the dumbest people on the planet to let shit like this keep happening and these gun dealers go right on selling these massacre machines to any insane dickhead who walks through there door with cash.

Time to start charging them as an accessory to murder and let them spend the next 20 years or more of their lives in prison if they survive that long doing hard time the greedy conscienceless bastards. :badmood:

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Originally Posted by BigBadPapaBear

Incidents like this are the reason EVERY state needs to allow people to open carry.

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We have legal concealed carry here and I swear I'm gonna think real hard about getting a license to do something I've never done before and that's to own a handgun and carry it.

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Originally Posted by Jimmors

I was actually up early when the news first broke, so i was browsing various news sources online during the reports, commenting on some, and most of the pro-gun people kept citing that same instance as reason why we should all have more guns. And yes, there are instances where people save the day with their guns. Unfortunately, that is only one side of the coin, and for every positive storty about a gun owner doing the right thing, there are plenty more stories that are tragic. A good example is the Giffords shooting, there were a few people in attendance who had CCWs and were armed, and yet none of them stopped him from killing people, he was only stopped when he paused to reload.

Instances like this are difficult or near impossible to prevent by simply having more guns. For starters, this guy planned it ahead of time, and went in prepared: body armor, riot helmet, assault rifle and shotgun. Also, it was a dark theater filled with gas and mass panic and confusion. That right there adds up to a situation that very few, if any, would be prepared to deal with. CCW holders like to fantasize wbout what they wouldve done had they been there, but the truth is...NOBODY wouldve been prepared to handle this situation, especially if you were there with a loved one, your spouse, kids, etc. A person's first priority would be the safety of themselves and their family.

While yes, vets and off duty cops would be more prepared then most, there is still a big difference in state of mind...when a cop is on duty or a soldier is training or at war, they are in a different state of mind, they expect danger, and are more aware of their surroundings and situational awareness, because they EXPECT danger and to be in harm's way. In this case, people are NOT in that state of mind, they arent anticipating danger or something like this to happen, so their reaction time would be different.

But, even past all that, lets say you had one or a few responsible gun owners that fire back and tried to stop this guy, the problem then is that if the police show up, they have no clue who is the "bad guy" and who are the "good guys," and if they see people shooting their guns in the theater, they most likely will not distinguish them from the actual culprit, and the responsible gun owners are just as likely (if not more so due to lack of body armor) to be killed by the police.

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I hear and understand what your saying brother but it's not making me feel anymore rational today anyway. That's why I'm only reflecting on what I should do.

Would owning a hand gun make me feel any safer? No, not really. I seldom feel threatened but I also don't back down from danger and I'm a guy kind of like that guy in the internet cafe. I'd be more likely to tell them to fuck off when the asked for my cash and my wallet then to hand it to them.

I'd wish I had a gun just so the odds were evened out and I wouldn't be afraid to use it either. I guess I'm think more about the other lives saved than I'm thinking about my own. Maybe I think that since I've dodged enough imaginary bullets that I could dodge real ones too but damn it's time somebody shot back at these bastards and like you all have said. The cops never arrive until it's too late.

If this asshole knew that half the people sitting in that theater were armed would the gutless bastard have been so bold? If he knew that just one person was armed and had the presence of mind to shoot his ass before he started killing everyone in sight would he have planned a little differently?

Maybe it's my Old West mentality that says if someone pulls and gun around me or a bunch of innocent people and one of us may die that day and I'm gonna do everything I can think of to see that it's the other guy. Guns to don't scare me. Idiots who have them for the wrong reasons do.

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Originally Posted by soulman

We have legal concealed carry here and I swear I'm gonna think real hard about getting a license to do something I've never done before and that's to own a handgun and carry it.

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Soul you shouldn't even think twice about doing it. I'm telling you man...a lot of people are acting whacky these days. Then there are those turning to crime because of how the economy is and police tend to arrive when someone has already been victimized and the perp is long gone.