(Mugshots.com, 2012)
Run. Run, hide, or get ready to die. Thoughts like this shouldn’t be going through someone’s mind as they are munching on popcorn and watching a movie. Yet that is exactly what happened early this morning at a screening of the latest Batman flick, “Dark Knight Rises”, in Aurora, Colorado. Twelve innocent people perished and nearly 60 were wounded, some severe. The smallest victim was just a baby. All shot by a madman named James Holmes who called himself the “Joker”. Guess he wasn’t joking.
For weeks people have been talking about zombies with the incident in Florida that left a homeless man, Ronald Poppo, bloody and half-dead with most of his face gnawed off. His attacker was a naked psycho high on God knows what. People, wake up! Zombies aren’t what we should be worried about in this day and age. The real crazies are those like James Holmes, who plan and prepare to viciously murder scores of theater goers, including children. At least a zombie is a mindless killing machine. It’s murderers like Holmes who frighten me to the bone.
I’m not very political but I do have some strong beliefs and one of them is Second Amendment of the Constitution and its core stance in the right of all Americans to bear arms. Sadly, when a tragedy such as the shooting in Aurora happens, it just gives more firepower to those in favor of gun control. Guns don’t kill people, raving lunatics holding the guns do. Imagine if someone in the audience was armed and able to get a shot off at Holmes before he was able to hurt so many? Gun opponents will say that would only cause more injuries. Sorry, I disagree. Too bad someone wasn’t able to cap that bastard in the head and maybe some of this catastrophe could have been avoided.
However, today isn’t about the right to bear arms or the argument against gun control. Today is about the about the lethal actions of one man and the massacre he left behind. Fortunately police were able to subdue Holmes and he surrendered only seven minutes after the attack began (Pearson, 2012). Still, seven minutes must have felt like an eternity to those involved.
I haven’t thought of Aurora, my birthplace, in years. It used to bring me cheerful, happy thoughts because I spent my earliest years there, now it just brings a deep sadness for those sacrificed by James Holmes. It will take years, if not an entire lifetime for those who survived and the family members of those who didn’t to overcome the horrific events that unfolded today. My thoughts and prayers to all.
Frightening cellphone video from inside the theater.
(Roman, 2012)
Reference:
Mugshot.com. (2012). James Holmes. Retrieved from http://mugshots.com/Current-Events/James-Holmes.20091896.html
Pearson, M. (July 20, 2012). Gunman turns batman screening into real-life . Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Michele Peterson-Rufener
Michele Peterson-Rufener is Secret Laboratory’s Home & Health Editor. Michele is a former advertising sales representative and a freelance writer; she is currently seeking a degree in marketing and is a columnist for Examiner.com. Read Michele’s blog at http://happyblonde.wordpress.com/.
Email Michele at michele@secretlaboratory.org.
I don’t mean to be insensitive — honestly, my heart goes out to everyone involved in this tragedy — but upon reading your article my only thought was “who the hell brings a baby to a midnight screening of a PG-13 movie?”
That said, I’m trying to avoid hearing much about this incident. These things make me want to cry and I don’t have any answers on how to prevent them in the future. I wish people were decent.
I understand completely. It’s events like this that make me sick to stomach with worry about my family every time they go somewhere. As for the baby, I agree.