Shooting at movie theater in Aurora, Colorado

A tragedy here with something like 15 dead and 14 wounded including children.

The odds of a nut case striking anywhere are slim of course and to my knowledge this is the first case of any magnitude (at a movie theater) since shootings (gang related) in 1988 at showing of the movie "Colors".

My real question is this:

A wounded six year old is in the hospital. What parent takes a 6 year old to a midnight showing of a movie that features violent action sequences and violence toward other human beings?  No one deserves to experience the real life violence that (regrettably) takes place on a regular basis in our country (more than other countries) and of course no one could anticipate that such violence would take place at any given moment in any given place, but I don't think I've ever heard of an attack at a showing of "Toy Story" or "Finding Nemo".

My sympathies go out to all those affected by this tragic event.

Regardless of age, everyone should be able to go out and enjoy a movie without having to worry about some lunatic walking in and laying down a spray of bullets. This whole thing totally disgusts me.

Regardless of age, everyone should be able to go out and enjoy a movie without having to worry about some lunatic walking in and laying down a spray of bullets. This whole thing totally disgusts me.

Sure, everyone should be able to go about their business everyday without having to worry about such a  thing happening. My comment (I think) still speaks to the lack of judgement used in taking a young child out at such a time of night (prior to going home and going to bed at 2:30 a.m.) to a movie that as a given is going to have a lot of violence and scary things happening. Just bad parenting in my opinion and nothing to do with whether a live gunfire experiece would be run into.

It is not as bad as the mother who drove her kids over to someone's house to beat them up, or the cheerleader mom who committed murder so HER daughter could get on the cheer team, but it still was a bad call in my opinion.

This incident will lead to a new round of gun control calls (none of which will succeed and none of which would prevent future bad things from happening as there are millions of guns in the hands of American citizens.)

Before any of the more fervent members here get in a twist about any statement I am making here, let me say that I am a gun owner but I wouldn't object if another gun wasn't manufactured or sold in the U.S.A. I could also say the same about tobacco. It has taken decades, but I think the death rates from smoking are going down...though young people still seem to be lighting up despite evidence of health care consequences.

Police investigate. They don't protect.  Conceal carry.  With training in class room and range.  And range should be urban, not straight line.  I don't need to be a good shot at 50 feet.  If yor 50 feet away your not a threat, I'll run.  You need to learn to protect yourself and others without shooting innocents.
I say more people should carry guns as long as they are background checked and trained.

It's amazes me how many shootings there are yet at none is anyone conceal carrying.


Here's my hero:
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It's amazes me how many shootings there are yet at none is anyone conceal carrying.

Well, it sounds as though if there is ever a shooting wherever you are, there will be at least one person
carrying a concealed weapon. I hope you are close enough and able to distinguish among the smoke, running patrons and one or more bad guys when to take those critical shots.

I read on another forum the comments of a Navy Seal who is trained in such situations and his comment was that in that kind of situation it would very difficult to score a headshot hit though 5 or 6 to the main body mass might create enough time to get in closer and deliver the final shot...that's if one can get across the crowd, etc.

No matter how you cut it, it's a bad situation. The instigator has the element of surprise and many other factors in their "favor".  

You're right police can't be everywhere and neither can those who carry concealed weapons. If a madman wants to take some lives, they are going to be lost. Flight was the only option to those innocents in the theatre.

Consider the brave souls who decided to tackle terrorists in one of the planes on 9/11. Those people were true heroes who undoubtedly saved many lives by cutting short the airplane's flight.

We were at the range last night practicing for an upcoming IDPA match and of course the talk turned to the Colorado shooting. All of us are CCW permit holders and 4 are LE, so I was very interested in hearing what they had to say since this type of scenario is something we always hope we would never encounter.

The general feeling amoung us was that due to the fact that the shooter had used some sort of smoke cannister and your vision would be limited in a dark theater plus there would have been many other people moving into your line of fire....the only recourse would have been if you were close enough to try to get a heart or pelvis shot off - do it, otherwise flight and try to help as many as you can to get out also. Ultimately, trying to shoot him would have been futile since it turned out he was wearing ballistic gear.

Passing more restrictive gun/ammo laws would not have prevented this nutjob from killing as many people as he could. He would have just used plan B or C or D. More laws only apply to those of us that abide by them and have no effect on a lunatic who is hellbent on destroying as many people as he can......he could  have used a vehicle to run through the line before the move started.

As to your original question Movie......the Batman movies are not something I would take my young child to see regardless of the time.

My prayers and sympathies go out to the families of all the victims.

I hope you are close enough and able to distinguish among the smoke, running patrons and one or more bad guys when to take those critical shots.

I've actually been in that situation.
Club I worked at had a gang member come in looking for rivals.
He started shooting. Killed a guy about three feet to my left.

Now since I was IN the club I wasn't armed. But got to car and by the time I was armed it was to much.
Over 1000 people, just flashing club lights and fog machine.  But he dropped the gun and ran.....


Had it been same situation but not a bar (maybe a theater?) then I would have returned fire.  Darkness, fog and people don't matter as much since It's close quarters.
 And if he had continued shooting after I was armed? 

By the time id gotten to my gun, I was wasn't going to fire thru a crowd with smoke and flashing lights in my eyes. Just like the theater.  Even if someone was armed they would have to be close. Otherwise, run like hell.  You conceal carry to protect yourself and your family, not others.  If a situation arises where you can safely save another, great. But don't put yourself in harms way. 

I was generalizing more than citing this particular event.  Just how more of these shootings are being reported, how there are to many guns out there. But no one ever returns fire....seems only the criminals carry.  So how is restricting my ownership and carry rights going to help the situation. 



Do I know the answer to the problem? No.
Am I personally doing anything about it? No.
Am I going to try and do anything about it from his point on? Probably not.
But I'll exercise my right to b*tch about the way others are going about it.

 

 

  But he dropped the gun and ran.....

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

The rest of the story and your conclusions ring true as well. Bad things are going to happen no matter what; it might just be a matter of degree as much as anything else.

As to your original question Movie......the Batman movies are not something I would take my young child to see regardless of the time.

Even better !