Business
Thoughts On Movie Mass Murder Mania
July 20, 2012 
Early reports of the tragedy in Aurora point to a deranged madman entering a theater during a Batman movie and opening fire on the audience. No indication of foreign terrorist involvement.
–Sadly, one of the risks–and benefits–of living in a free society is people have access to guns and you can’t make every theater, retail store, and public building a secure fortress.
–There will be a ready market for increased security gadgets to check movie patrons.
–President Obama handled a Florida campaign rally perfectly when he spoke of the event, mourned the loss of members of “our American Family,” observed a moment of silence–and walked off the stage. VERY PRESIDENTIAL.
–Mayor Bloomberg of New York is a callout jerk. He challenged both Romney and Obama to support gun control…totally inappropriate to insert politics at a time of tragedy.
–Local theater operators should increase their vigilance of emergency exits to insure they are properly locked from the inside, but still operable for fire exits.
The big question surrounding the movie will now be whether or not it gets a thumbs up or thumbs down from patrons–especially parents who want their kids to make it home, even if it is after curfew.
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Comments & Discussion
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Jul 20, 2012, 4:40 pm
This fits the very definition of tragic. In our attempts to comprehend the actions of a single person we will probably lack perspective. Our thoughts, and if so inclined, prayers, should be directed to the survivors and the families affected; and, with the perpetrator and his family.
This is not about “society” or “community” or “our culture”. This is about a random group of movie attendees, and one mentally unbalanced person.
My heart aches for all.
Jul 20, 2012, 9:45 pm
The sad part of an act like this is it happened so fast, people had almost zero time to react.
Even if we had gun control, a deranged nut job like this cretin would find a way to carry out another plan using homemade explosives or Malotov Coctails.
Random acts of violence like this make no sense and we will probably never know the motivation.
Jul 21, 2012, 12:15 pm
I think the ridiculous amount of violence in gaming and movies, without any realistic frame of reference, is lowering the natural threshold for homicide.
Let me explain: In WW I, fresh drafted US troops were loath to fire on the “enemy”. This was in part because many were recent immigrants from Germany or had strong Germany heritage. But this initial unwillingness to kill was mostly from lack of experience, poor training, and a natural instinct not to kill other humans. These draftees overcame the problem as soon as it was clear to them that it was a kill or be killed situation at the front. By WW II the military had improved on this problem somewhat with improved training and a much better job of dehumanizing and vilifying the “enemy”. In later wars the statistic continued to improve with improved training. Now days the carefully designed military training can teach anyone to shoot humans without much thought.
What’s my point? Many aspects of the current military training are similar to violent video gaming and violent movies. Perhaps one need not need to join the military to become a trained killer anymore? Perhaps due to these violent games and Hollywood’s continuous stream of bloody movies, our population has become desensitized to the killing? Just last week a study showed teens are deeply impacted by the sexual content in movies, why not this problem too?
Let us not forget that since the time of this mass killing nearly as many individual killings have taken place in this country’s nasty city core areas. These other killings are just part of the daily news grind and we pay them little attention. This single mass killing event in a nice part of town has the media spotlight because it could have been us or out kids involved rather than the violent core city dwellers.
Since it was a white guy with an education in a white neighborhood we will now have an anti-gun push. It will be pushed hardest by those who make the violent blood filled movies and games. Anti-gun will not fix the problem, but it will get the current political focus off the bad economy.
Jul 22, 2012, 4:07 pm
zippo…. we finally agree… the desensitization that goes on in movies, games and tv shows coupled with a lack of parental involvement in a child’s life has a lot to do with this problem. You are correct about training… when cops go to the range they don’t shoot at a bulls eye target… they shoot at a target that looks like a person so they don’t freeze when and if the time comes to go to that level of force. Outlawing guns will do nothing to fix this problem one thing that would keep this kind of tragedy from happening is if everyone was allowed to carry a gun…. Then someone could have ended the situation before the perpetrator decided on his own to end it.
Jul 23, 2012, 7:10 am
something like this is inevitable, we are moving to a fascist state, and the people are angry, just because you are all lawyers, and you think that the world should operate as it does in your precious courts, does not mean that it does, sometimes people act out their frustrations with the government, or their schools, or society in general by doing something drastic, this is a sad day, but it is a symptom of a greater sadness, one that has been initiated and perpetuated by our country’s lack of morals, both in the government and the courts.
For better or worse.
Jul 23, 2012, 5:59 pm
Ronin, Your statement seems to lend rationality and purpose to the unwarranted, irrational, and despicable act of cowardice by an evil, and probably crazy, dirtbag. I’m not sure if this was your intent?
Americans and most Europeans have ample control of their governments, however 4 of 5 choose to snooze by not voting… and that is also a sad reflection on our society.
Jul 23, 2012, 9:23 pm
Whats the point in voting when the only ones to vote for are all from the same pile of filth, MOST Americans are the cowardice and evil and despicable, to single it down to one person is unwarrented. (unless it’s John Bujak)
Jul 25, 2012, 10:49 am
Well as we all know by now – the danger was in allowing costumes and masks to be taken into the theater.
That’s right. Since guns are sacred and protected by the NRA, it must be the fact that the man who did the killing put on a costume and mask before shooting. So – it must be obvious to all (but me) that if he had not had a mask or a costume he could not have harmed anyone.
So it will be interesting to see what is going to happen to Halloween. . . . . . .
really – perhaps they should outlaw movies.
Jul 26, 2012, 12:48 pm
I have to agree with Ronin and Zippo. I think video games and the introduction of more graphic violence on tv, movies and video games has desensitized society to the point that we are not bothered by it. I liken the effect to drug addiction. People are always using more and more of a drug chasing that initial thrill. What we see on the news today is much more graphic today than what was shown ten years ago. This desensitization will be the down fall of our society.
Jul 31, 2012, 9:24 am
Will the NRA come out and say that if all the moviegoers were armed this wouldn’t have happened?
Jul 31, 2012, 11:03 pm
bB: “Everybody” is probably a bad idea cuz 5% of people are just plain crazy, 15% are having a bad day, and 40% don’t know how and when to use it. So if a third to a half the people in there had a pice it may have been a lessor event. But then the cops would have turned up and started shooting anyone with a gun in their hand… so I do know?!?