Aurora
Adding to the cacophony at this point seems pointless. Deepest condolences from everyone at LGM to the victims of the shooting.
Update: (PC)
- Dave Brockington
- Paul Campos
- Erik Loomis
- Robert Farley
- SEK
- Scott Lemieux
- Website
- CV
- Wishlist
- Blog Posts
- Blogroll
- Whiskey Fire
- Unqualified Offerings
- Well Timed Period
- The Talking Dog
- The Sideshow
- The Mahablog
- The Comics Curmudgeon
- SCOTUSblog
- Sadly No
- Rob Neyer
- Puck Prospectus
- No More Mr. Nice Blog
- Making Light
- Julian Sanchez
- Hit and Run
- Hendrik Hertzberg
- Glenn Kenny
- Faux Real Tho
- Charles Pierce
- Carrie Brownstein
- Balkinization
- Alicublog
- ACSBlog
- 11D
- My Other Blogs
- B. Spencer
- Dave Noon
- DJW
-
-
-
-
-
Links
Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney
Sarasota Law Firms
Need Cash? Sky Loans can
help you! quick and easy money loans.
Bridging Loans-
Recent Comments
- Hogan on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- Manta on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- thebewilderness on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- thebewilderness on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- bexley on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- Hogan on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- Woodrowfan on An Impressive Acheivement, In A Way
- tyciol on EXTRA! EXTRA! FEMINISM DEBUNKED! RAPE NOT REAL!
- bexley on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- Bijan Parsia on Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
-
Recent Posts
- An Impressive Acheivement, In A Way
- On the Cincinnati IRS
- Elvin Jones: Gunslinger
- Stop Oppressing Men, Meanie Skeptic Women!
- …and she had a Pandora bracelet!
- A World Less Evil
- Weekend Beer Notes
- “Strike raises crop of stubble, cuts, safety-razors.”
- Capital Mobility and Corporate Whitewashing
- Mother of a Honky Tonk Girl
Tags
2008 democratic primary 2012 Republican Primary academia barack obama baseball bloggingheads books china civil liberties constitutional interpretation constitutional law education environment film food football foreign policy free dahlia lithwick gay and lesbian rights hacktacular health care human rights iran i see dead people kentucky labor libya military procurement movies music NCAA football nonsense nukes Obama administration racism reproductive freedom russia Sarah Palin soccer Supreme Court the arbitrary executive The War On (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs This Day in Labor History wingnuttery Yuck the FankeesMeta
-
Awards
Paul Campos, Above the Law 2011 Lawyer of the Year
Erik Loomis, HNN Cliopatria 2011 Best Series of Posts
-
-
LGM Store
Make Custom Gifts at CafePressWho are We?
For administrative, advertising, or other inquiries, please e-mail here.
-
-
Archives
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- November 2004
- October 2004
- June 2004
blogroll
-
Agreed, Mr. Farley.
Much of this is hard to understand. I suspect that there will be many aspects of this individual’s life that will surface in the next few days. I hesitate to make any judgements at all other than he was a batshit-crazy mass murderer. Of that there is no doubt.
And that there are too many guns, and they’re too readily available, and way too readily available to people who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a gun.
My thoughts and condolences to all of the people affected by this tragedy.
The theater chain is owned by Cinemark, headquartered in Plano, Texas. They have a NO GUNS policy in all of their theaters nationwide.
You can see how well that worked out.
Here’s what might have happened had different policies been in place.
You’re a fucking moron if you think that additional shooters in a crowded, dark theater full of people in costume would have been a good thing.
Mr. Farley,
Ask yourself if you would have liked to have had an off-duty police officer armed in the crowd or not.
Because in my state the only difference between a policeman and a licensed armed citizen as far as training, knowledge of the law and proficiency is whether he/she is a government employee or not.
What state is your state? Enquiring minds would like to know so we can check on whether or not you’re feeding us bullshit.
I’m just going to add, because in the coming weeks this shooting will be linked to the film it occurred at, that advocating “everyone should be armed” at a Batman film can only deliberately miss the point. If you want to garner a gun control policy from any Batman film, it’s “the fewer guns, the better.”
…it’s “the fewer guns, the better.”
Guns, themselves, are morally neutral and it entirely depends on who has them.
I think everyone wants good guys to have guns and bad guys not to have guns.
How to accomplish this is certainly worthy of discussion, but to childishly say “the less the better” is a really stupid, stupid statement.
Why do you hate Batman?
Obviously the real lesson to be drawn here is that government should have and utilize universal warrantless surveillance capabilities to stop crime before it starts.
Actually, scratch that. That’s insane. It might require a tax increase.
What I mean is that a billionaire* should have those things, along with a license to kill.
*A conservative billionaire, I mean. No Soros Allowed!
Guns, themselves, are morally neutral and it entirely depends on who has them.
Tell that to the Batman. Jesus, you’re so intent on capitalizing on this that you can’t even troll properly.
A conservative billionaire, I mean.
Take your pick.
Wow. That’s entirely beside the point. Guns can be sacred relics carved from pieces of the True Cross and shoot holy silver bullets with tiny angel wings, but if disarming the populace saves lives then disarming the populace saves lives, regardless of the weapon.
Jesus, you’re so intent on capitalizing on this that you can’t even troll properly.
It’s really kinda weird to have a Jew calling on Jesus, don’t you think?
Yet
JenBobDr.Doom sees nothing weird about someone named Dr.Doom making a pathetic attempt to police quasi-religious language?I too would like to know what community in this country only provides its law enforcement officers with training equivalent to a concealed carry class, so I can avoid the fuck out of it. There’s a hell of a lot more to being a police officer than knowing basic gun safety.
Also, it’s not like cops have never shot an innocent, unarmed person.
I’d like to know what state he’s in so I can stay the hell away from idiots like “Dr. Doom”.
Depends on the off-duty officer? If we’d had one who started returning fire randomly and hit more people, that’d have actually been worse. If the cop takes out the guy with a single bullet, then better.
Even in the U.S., things like this are so uncommon as to fall under hard cases make bad law.
If the cop takes out the guy with a single bullet, then better.
I hope he brought a gas mask, too. Otherwise he might not be able to see what he’s shooting at.
Yeah, but then another off-duty cop/well-trained citizen could stand up and shoot that guy. It would all be very neat and orderly, I’m sure.
I would just like everyone to remember what, you know, actual police do in situations like this. They don’t just draw their guns and run into the situation blindly. They establish a perimeter, figure out what the hell’s going on, gather intelligence, and so on. It isn’t hard to figure out why. When someone starts shooting, particularly in a dark theater, no one knows where the fire is coming from, how many there might be. The idea that having a bunch of armed movie-goers, or even an armed off-duty police officer, would have helped is either crazy or naive wishful thinking inspired by seeing too many action flicks.
Even if the second shooter felled the attacker with a single, clean shot, the third shooter, in the darkened, smoke-filled theater would have no idea who the hell that second shooter was shooting at. He’d likely shoot him thinking he was a second attacker, or he might even think he was the original attacker.
Poor, poor angels.
Gmack, I dont think it’s naive wishful thinking – it’s a definite active of malicious evil to assume that (or crazy, true).
They don’t just draw their guns and run into the situation blindly.
Your premise is the old familiar one that people are just stupid and a government paycheck makes you somehow smarter.
The people that I know are deliberate, smart and well trained, usually by instructors that are either police or ex-military.
But to the contemporary liberal, the sheeple are all dolts that need the guiding hand of a socialist government in all walks of life, even in defending themselves when the police are no where to be found.
I wouldn’t want a Special Forces operative armed in that crowd, exchanging fire in the dark with people running everywhere. Life is not a Jason Bourne movie, idiot.
The only off-duty cop that might have made a difference in a crowded, dark, and smoke filled theater with a shooter armed with an automatic rifle and wearing Kevlar is Harry Callahan. But here in real life, hitting what you’re aiming at becomes a lot harder when bullets are heading in your general direction.
In my state, while working as a paramedic many years ago, I was on standby while PD traded gunfire with a barricaded gunman. When it was over (with no casualties except for the person the gunman had executed to precipitate the event)it was discovered that one of the cops had put a couple bullets through the hood of his car by reaching over the car with his head down and firing blindly.
I’m reminded of the shooting of Amidou Diallo. Four cops fired 41 shots at an unarmed man at short range and missed 19 times.
They hit him 19 times.
I know for a fact that a fire fight in a darkened, crowded theater is the last thing that I, as well as every cop I have ever known (which is quite a few), ever even wants to contemplate. Indeed, most police departments have long established policies against firing under those circumstances. You, sir, are a loon and a moron.
Yeah and Trayvon shoulda been packing too, right, or wait he was the wrong kind of shooting victim my bad
Of course he’s a fucking moron.
Archie Banker made this very same argument in an episode of All In The Family in the early 70′s and the entire country laughed at him. Now right-wing politicians make it, and its taken seriously. Pathetic.
Archie Banker made this very same argument in an episode of All In The Family in the early 70′s and the entire country laughed at him. Now right-wing politicians make it, and its taken seriously.
Sadly, I had the exact same thought this morning when I heard the news.
Yep. That used to be funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68xSoecsoq0
Liberal Hollyweird just makes those things sound buffoonish by giving them a working-class accent and a dirty shirt. They’d sound perfectly reasonable coming from, to choose randomly, a law professor at the University of Tennessee.
“Here’s what might have happened had different policies been in place.”
Guys, if I may, can I stop you right there? One of the main things I took away from David Cullen’s “Columbine” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_%28book%29) was that almost literally nothing the media reported in the first few *weeks and months* was correct. With the exception of basic facts like ages and names, they got it all wrong, and often in ways that made the trauma worse for those directly affected. The internet has come a long way since then, so there are many more tools for pushing back against that kind of hysterical misinformation, but unless you know someone directly affected, there isn’t anything to do but go about your day. There may be policy and legal conclusions to draw from this incident, but we won’t have clear information for doing so for quite a while.
That’s frustrating, but it’s all there is.
Reasonable people can agree with this, but the gunhuggers will be screaming MORE GUNS WOULD HAVE STOPPED THIS! because that’s their core cult belief.
I’m interested in knowing what these people should have done if not fought back.
70 shot, only because the AR-15 jammed.
No resistance. That’s what you want?
What’s your answer?
How about, for starters, not letting every random idiot buy an AR-15 with a 100 round drum magazine?
Hey now, I’m on the internet and I’m going to express my ill-informed opinion on this matter like all the others!
Let’s just hope no Congressmen are spending the day drafting gun control laws.
That darned NO GUNS policy! If only every man, woman, and child were allowed to carry a concealed gun AT ALL TIMES nothing bad would ever happen.
The first 2 minutes of this, pretty much says it all.
What a shitty month for the people of Colorado.
Yea, and it’s not like people would ever do something against movie theater corporate policy!
Well, Colorado is a fairly gun-liberal state, and shit happened there. I know that the gun nuts are postmodern in the sense that their solution to every problem is MORE GUNS, but I don’t know. It’s not like this happened in Manhattan or New Jersey (where YOU KNOW they would be out in force talking about the evils of gun control if it did).
I wonder how many yahoos will be attending Cinemark theaters this weekend, all fluttery at the thought of finally being a hero. Quite frankly, that would make me hesitate going this weekend all by itself.
Yes, that no guns policy is clearly the only reason people don’t carry weapons to a crowded movie premiere.
It seems the shooter was unaware of the theater’s NO GUNS policy.
If Doombots are outlawed, only outlaws will have Doombots.
You’re right, Guns Don’t Kills People, People Kills People. Crazy, maladjusted, disturbed motherfuckers who should never be allowed to obtain weapons except for the loopholes advocated by the NRA assholes who think they are going to lead Revolution II 2076.
I really hate the DISINGENUOUS disingenuous argument “the crazy bastard ignored gun restrictions” and that proves a point. There are so many guns available now because of years of creating loopholes and blocking efforts to register firearms that any shithead can get a gun. Why can’t we apply the registration and training rules required to obtain Conceal-Carry permits to all handgun ownership? That would at least give us a CHANCE to weed out SOME of the assholes.
Oh, that would limit our FREEDOM and lead to tyranny. (Please note the intended heavy sarcasm) Well now I can’t go the fucking movie theater without getting a pat-down from a TSA agent. Let me revel in my Freedom.
Why can’t we apply the registration and training rules required to obtain Conceal-Carry permits to all handgun ownership?
Mmmmmm……the Constitution?
Wait you care about that now?
They will pry Jennie’s stupidity, and his manhood substitute, from his cold dead hands.
They will need an electron microscope to locate his “manhood.”
Why do you hate private enterprise?
In a movie theater with a sold-out crowd of about 300 people, there are two individuals, A & B, who are carrying concealed handguns. A is sitting near the middle of the theater on the right-hand side in an aisle seat and B is towards the back of the theater, sitting near the middle of a row. Thirty minutes into the movie, a gunman enters the theater from the emergency exit on the left-hand side, tosses two gas canisters into the audience, and begins firing indiscriminately. The members of the audience panic and attempt to escape the dark, noisy, gas-filled theater. A and B draw their handguns.
Questions:
1a. What prevents A from mistaking B for the shooter’s accomplice and vice versa?
1b. What prevents the other audience members from making this mistake?
2a. This movie theater is not like the pistol range. It is poorly lit, loud, filled with obstructions, and both A and B’s lives are legitimately in danger. How confident are you in an average shooter’s ability to hit a moving target under these conditions?
2b. How confident are you that neither A nor B will hit another patron of the theater?
3. Remember that A is sitting in an aisle seat on the opposite side of the theater from the shooter. B is sitting at the rear of the theater in the middle of the row. If A and B attempt to move towards the shooter or stay stationary to engage him, they are blocking the quickest means of exit for a number of patrons placing them in greater danger. Is this greater danger justifiable?
4. All patrons of the theater saw that the shooter was armed. Some saw that the shooter and A were armed. Some saw that the shooter and B were armed. Some saw that the shooter, A, and B were armed. How do three conflicting reports of the number of shooters in the theater and their locations help law enforcement officers accurately assess the situation and formulate their response?
Gunhuggers have Superhero Mindreading Powers and can infallibly tell good guys from bad by just listening to the voices in their heads. They also never miss when they shoot, no matter what the weapon or the circumstances. They could plink a swift in flight at 100 yards in a howling blizzard with a snub-nosed .38.
Does that answer your questions?
Excellent post, sir. Your analysis is thoughtful and insightful.
If the cops in that town are anything like every other cop I’ve ever known, the off-duty cops bring their guns into those theaters. If there is no metal detector, cops assume “No Guns” does not apply to them.
Unless the heroic John McClane was one of the first ones hit in the gunfire. Then it wouldn’t have changed very much.
Also, in a crowd of, say, 250: do you really think that NO ONE there was armed? I carry, and I would have run the fuck out of the theatre. You’re in a scenario with no idea at all, zero, of what the hell is going on. We call that a “disadvantageous position”.
Beyond that, you’re going to get into a shoot out against a guy with an 30+ round AR-15 .223, with a hand gun? You’re a moron. Good luck using the foam and aluminum for cover.
See, you can play the What If? game all day long, and that’s fine and good. But when you disregard all other outcomes save for the Optimal one, you’re an idiot.
RE: body armor vs handgun rounds: it depends on the quality of the armor and the type of round being fired, plus range. Handgun ammo is universally wide and slow, and highly ineffective against decent body armor. Beyond that, a .380 or a .38Sp HP doesn’t carry much kinetic energy with it, so even the force of the hit wouldn’t do a lot to slow down a pumped-up gunman.
Something along a .44 mag, or a .45 ACP, in a FMJ might have enough oomph to slow him down, but you won’t find many conceal carry sized above .40 S&W.
Some Guy,
You are the first here to demonstrate some knowledge in this area so I am responding to your intelligent post.
You are correct if the vest was a type II A or higher which is unlikely. But you are wrong about the caliber carried in public. Many carry .45 and higher and many use defense specific ammunition such as hydro shock or steel core that are designed to defeat a vest.
I understand that it’s not a perfect scenario and maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference, but that’s not my argument.
My argument is the terrible NO GUN policies of the theater which obviously doesn’t prevent these events and only insures that there is no trained good guys that might have made a difference.
And it’s the stupid, stupid defense of these policies and the belief that a gun somehow pulls its own trigger and that guns are the problem that stuns me.
But, hey, thanks for the comment. It’s a breath of fresh air to hear someone talk about firearms that actually knows something about them instead of the ignorant comments that demonstrate the writers’ complete stupidity.
Well personally I only carry concealed handguns that chamber at least a .50 BMG, but that’s only for theaters that don’t let me take my M61 Vulcan with me to opening nights.
P.S. This means I have a bigger dick than you.
You used the wrong clip, its okay I got your back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ3ujsh_xC4&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLDFCE80A38AB3E567
My thoughts as well.
This just proves that my pre-existing position on gun control is absolutely right! Whatever it may be!
Alternatively, “Flimsy evidence suggest that the shooter was a member of the political party I oppose!”
Plainly, this goes back to what I’ve long identified as a major problem with our culture.
You know what I blame this on the breakdown of?
Society.
A lack if bipartisanship is to blame!
I prefer to assume (I don’t know the accuracy of these reports, but I’m going to analyze them ’cause I can!) because he dropped out of Med School recently he was in a deep depression. Obviously this could have been fixed if we had a strong enough universal income to make him realize that life goes on after wasting thousands of dollars in Med School.
That’s all today for useless comments! Happy Friday!
You pull the trigger….you’re responsible. It ain’t “society” and it ain’t the gun manufacturers. It ain’t the politicians and it ain’t your parents.
*YOU*
I’m sure that’s a great consolation to the victims. Hey, if only the theater had let them bring their 155mm howitzers to the movie, all of this bloodshed could have been avoided.
Good old Mayor Bloomberg, showboating on the issue by calling out the presidential candidates but scrupulously avoiding mention of the NRA, again fails to surprise.
Although I oppose any law that removes all discretion in sentencing and his stop and first stance is racist bullshit, Bloomberg has been pretty good with gun control.
Remember, guns don’t kill people. Lone morons who have guns becuase of the NRA kill people.
Don’t forget our generous social safety net for those suffering from mental illness, as well the lack of stigma attached to those who utilize such services.
Some guy coming in guns blazing is something I think about everytime I go to the theater. Something about being so damn vulnerable in a dark room with everyone looking the same direction. Until now it had never happened as far as I know.
I fear what this will do to my fear.
Speculation is such a slippery slope:
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings that took place in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater hours earlier were a result of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs”.
Louie Gohmert should be declared a national treasure. He’s so precious.
Next thing we’ll hear is that the cloud of tear gas looked like a fetus.
Got a robocall this morning, 11:30 EDT, from Wayne LaPierre….
I hung up. Life, like comedy, is mostly timing.
Campos’s piece at Slate says things which are rarely said in this country: ie, that tragedy is only tragedy when the upper class or upper middle class elites can imagine themselves in it.
The 9/11 attacks, for instance, were terrifying, but they were no reason to change EVERYTHING about America, except for the fact that terrorism finally mattered to rich people because rich people had just been killed.
Bond traders who went to Ivy league schools are just more important to the new media than Naval personnel or 200 Kenyans.
Now, I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t have gone after AQ or bin Laden, but, maybe, just maybe, that we wouldn’t have acquiesced to torture, wireless, illegal wiretapping, and a further militarization of everything had the elites of this country not been, for once, personally afraid.
12 people shot dead has pretty much been every weekend here in Chicago, but unless some little kid takes crossfire it’s pretty much treated as the scum taking care of the scum down in Englewood.
Turned on the TV this morning. Had this shit on about how we’re living in a violent world. Showed all these foreign places. How foreigners live and all. I started thinking, man, either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the ‘hood.
The NPR news reader read, without the apparent noted irony, that the UN Commission on Refugees noted Somalia’s refugee problem has not exceeded a million people, which makes it the third worse crisis in the 21st century, rivaling only Iraq and Afghanistan.
Let’s a do an SAT question of what Iraq and Afghanistan have in common. Just remember, we’re the good guys
Treacherous Mooslums who hate us for our freedom?
Gosh, you’re right! Halliburton doesn’t earn a nickel on support contracts in Somalia!
I’ll have our congressmen get right on this.
The second we discover oil in Somalia, we’ll show those bastards what a refugee crisis is!
A border with Iran, who we have always been at war with?
I’ve been watching the local 24-hour news repeat channel because we’re currently getting pounded with heavy thunderstorms and street flooding. This is, of course, the other story, and something the anchor just said struck me. This guy was wearing a bulletproof vest. From my sketchy remembering, vests or most any kind of defense is rare for the lone shooter, though I’m probably wrong on that.
I wonder if he had factored in people shooting back. From what I understand, if people are trained at all with handguns, they’re trained to make body shots, not head shots. I’m not familiar with pistols – rifles and shotguns, sure, but my old man had no truck with handguns – but I’m told head shots are tough to make in even an “optimal” panic situation. When you figure in a dark theater, some sort of blinding gas, and heavy panic, I imagine it makes things much more difficult.
That’s a little unsettling.
Even wearing body armor, if you survive a shot, its gonna take the wind out of you, force you to slow down or stop.
Well, not always. Adrenaline-fueled shooters have been known to be shot many times and continue fighting, like the infamous LA bank robbers a few years ago. The two of them were wearing homemade body armor and were collectively shot dozens of times, but continued the fight with the police for hours. One of them went down only when he shot himself.
My mistake, it was 44 minutes. Which is about 43 minutes longer than you expect to last after being shot dozens of times.
Nothing new about that. Ned Kelly did something similar in Australia in the 19th c.
Well yes, there are exceptions, but normally body armour isn’t supposed to allow you to just shrug off bullets and continue shooting like nothing has happened. Besides, how many gun massacres involved people that high on drugs?
You’re taught to shoot twice center mass and once in the head.
I’d like to add that the Campos article is right on. If we actually had a terrorist problem than every school bus in this country would have heavily armed guards in the front and back.
They don’t.
They don’t.
Cost/benefit analysis. Only proles’ kids rife the schoolbus.
RIDE, damnit, not rife.
F*cking edit function..
See, this is why we can’t have nice things, like edit functions.
Now they’re saying this guy claimed he was The Joker. And his hair was dyed green? Well, there goes that character for the next several years.
I blame Heath Ledger and most particularly, Brokeback Mountain.
That was the first possibility that occurred to me this morning, actually.
The Washington Post said his hair was dyed bright orange “like the Joker”. At least one part of the description is wrong.
Cesar Romero Joker?
The Salon piece said something that isn’t said nearly enough in modern discussions about public safety, so I’m not clear on why it’s “adding to the cacophony.”
I suspect Farley is being ironic towards his blogger-in-arms…
I think Paul did the edit, hence the “(PC)”.
What if something like this happened at an “adult” theater/strip club etc.? It would be interesting to see how the Rick Santorums of the world would react.
In all of this self-righteous bubble of anti-firearms zeal, Mr. Farley has forgotten that cars kill more than guns. Cars have legitimate uses and are necessary. So are guns.
The big difference is your constitutional right to keep and bear arms as an individual as recently affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
So, when you look for a solution, look for one that honors the Constitution so you don’t look like a socialist buffoon……K?
Given your strict adherence to the 2nd Amendment, I look forward to your equally spirited defense of the 4th Amendment.
Erik,
All ten amendments of the Bill of Rights dealt with restrictions of government when dealing with citizens.
Electronic chips that record every time the gun is loaded and how many times it is fired. Oh and GPS too.
Forgive me for being unimpressed with you name dropping the Supreme Court that has been less than stellar so far this century. I wish they were as generous with the Fourth and Fifth Amendments as they are with the Second.
I hope my own earlier comment didn’t leave the impression I’m anti-gun. I own guns myself and don’t think it’s unreasonable that any citizen who prefers is armed similarly to the cops that might bust down their door at 3AM after coming to the wrong address looking for drugs.
I’m always curious as to where other people draw the line at which arms they think we should be allowed to keep and bear. The weapons I own are far superior to anything envisioned when the Constitution was written, yet they are legal. However, I’m prohibited from owning the Avenger or Dragon Fire. How is this not a violation of my Second Amendment rights?
One might consider that guns have EXACTLY one purpose: killing — sometimes animals, sometimes people, but always killing.
So comparisons of deliberate killings with guns to accidental deaths by cars when cars are used for the purpose of going to the grocery store are not really apt, no matter how clever gun-humpers like our asshat troll thinks they’re being by trying to bring it up.
One also might wonder how asshat troll gun-humper would feel about regulating guns the same way as cars: you have to tell the state you have them every year and pay a fee to keep them, they’re subject to state inspection to make sure they’re in good condition, you have to pass a test to use them, you have to have liabilty insurance to have or use them, you can have your right to use them taken away if you are seen using them carelessly often enough.
Excellent idea, actually
Yeah, if the killer hadn’t had a gun, I’m sure he would just have driven a car into the theater and run all those people over. Amounts to the same thing.
I’m pretty sure some law-abiding citizen would have brought a car into the theater and stopped him.
Actually guns have very few legitimate uses. With the way cities are structured these days, cars are often a necessity. Guns almost never are. Gonna have to BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ you here and tell you to try again, gun-fucker.
What anti-gun hysteria? People are not advocating a total ban on guns. Some of us even own them, including me. What we are calling for is stricter oversight of existing guns and greater regulation of gun sales so that obvious loons or criminals cannot get them so easily.
For what it is worth, there is no way under the sun that you would not look like a blood thirsty cryptofascist loon.
The AR-15 used by the gunman had been banned in 1994, and should be banned again. And I, for one, would have no problem with a complete ban on handguns.
I have no problems with the assault rifle ban, though I have some reservations about a complete handgun ban. On the other hand, I have no problem with municipalities banning them. There is actually a very long Western tradition of that, as Wyatt Earp could attest.
I’m 90%+ certain that AR-15s weren’t banned under the 1994 assault weapon ban. At most, the magazine size was limited.
You are correct. Only Ar-15s with certain modifications were banned. The stock AR-15 has always been legal
Link? I read otherwise.
The ignorance of those who rant about guns is stunning.
You have no experience with guns and know nothing about them.
Apparently, that hasn’t stopped your gums from flapping.
You need to look in the mirror when you say that.
Pistol grips on rifles were banned when a flash suppressor is present.
Link
I have plenty of experience with guns and even gone to a range or two and stood beside surly people who looked like they were trying to work something out.
The problem with the ‘don’t regulate my guns!’ crowd is they want it both ways with these weapons. It is in one variation of the argument a blameless tool of psychotic madmen. On the other hand it is the ultimate patriotic bulwark against tyranny.
You can’t imbue them only with the positive qualities you like and then blame the people that use them poorly but as designed.
Internet Tough Guy is tough.
I’m willing to say all AR-15′s should be banned. Anyone huntin’ deer with a semi-auto M-16? Didn’t think so.
You don’t need to know what a TEC-9 to know it’s silly to hang out with anyone who own one.
You talk about guns like I ain’t got none. What, you think I sold them all?
… a decision which explicitly recognized the rightful authority of states and municipalities to regulate their ownership and usage in the public interest, short of outright bans.
It’s been years since I read any Fantastic Four comics, but wasn’t Dr. Doom supposed to be kind of, you know, smart and shit?
The larger picture is that violent crime has been plummeting in the USA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Violent_Crime_Rates_in_the_United_States.svg
Interestingly, this plummet correlates to a dramatic increase in income inequality. Also baffling experts is the lack of crime during this current recession:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24crime.html?_r=1&hp
Video games and the Internet. Thirty years ago, a bunch of bored kids could only hang out at the corner and throw around bad ideas. Now, they can look at porn or shoot aliens.
Remind me again which Court decision it was that made us a well-regulated militia of 300,000,000.
Bart…don’t be a dumbass.
One bill with ten amendments and you’re saying that they all dealt with individual rights *except* the second one?
Really?
In a historic 5-4 ruling, the high court says the 2nd Amendment protects individuals’ right to bear arms.
There is that whole first clause which you and the radical rightwing activists on the court insist on ignoring.
In Heller, there were plenty of amicus briefs pointing out that the second amendment was a collective right. And, although I don’t trust his movement toward rational thought, Justice Posner’s thoughts on Scalia bullshit decision are interesting
The Bill of Rights are not individual rights, they are a collection of negative rights on the government. Amendments which explain what the government cannot do to anyone, not an individual.
For instance, there is no collective right to not have soldiers quartered in your home; it is a prohibition against the government doing it.
Read something besides Drudge
As an originalist/textualist, I endorse the right of people to keep and bear the arms that the founding fathers had.
Analogy failure #1: What exactly are guns “necessary” for? People rely on their cars for their livelihoods, since many people live in places where there’s no reasonable alternative for getting to and from work; in this day and age, I would guess that the number of people who rely on guns for their livelihood is minuscule. And while I don’t dispute that we in the U.S. have a constitutionally protected right to own guns, there are plenty of perfectly good countries that do just fine without that right (Japan, for example, which has extremely restrictive gun laws).
Analogy failure #2: Cars have a use as something other than weapons.
Analogy failure #3: Automobile-caused deaths are simply a terrible basis for comparison (really to anything else, not just guns). Americans spend a lot of time in and around cars, which is a major contributor to the high death toll — that’s why you usually use some kind of norming measure, such as deaths per vehicle miles traveled, when measuring the relative dangerousness of driving among different geographical locales.
Aaaaand I’m not sure how that reply fell off of Dr. Doom’s original comment.
Defense of home and family against the inevitable slave uprising.
The national clock stopped back around 1850, and hasn’t moved since, in so many ways.
automobile deaths = state-sanctioned homicide
Was the tragedy inspired by a Sandman comic? Some sources say Frank Miller wrote such an act into a Batman in 1986.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/gallery/articleid/2502701/1/pictures/2512561
Frank Miller did not write Sandman.
And that’s a porno theater, so I’m not sure the comparison’s even apt. I mean, if it is, maybe John Wilkes Booth predicted it …
Hopefully, Paul Krugman has the decency to stay silent this time.
Would that you did as well.
I see a lot of people, but their comments show that they know little about firearms, concealed carry, training, etc.
It’s the stupid running their mouths. Anyone who has experience understands just how stupid they are.
Anyone who has experience understands just how stupid they are.
It’s safe to assume then that you have a great deal of experience.
their comments show that they know little about firearms, concealed carry, training, etc.
And your name is at the top of that list.
Rightwing wanker pretends only rightwing wankers know anything about firearms.
Oh noes some pundit called a semi-automatic a machine gun. You win the internets for calling them an idiot.
Anyone who suggests, as DerDumbAss has done, that having armed civilians in the theater open up on the shooter would be a good ide has proven himself a complete idiot on the topic. I know from conversations with cop friends that that is their worst fucking nightmare.
not to mention this particular moron believes that “police mans are supermen” who can see through DARK and SMOKE to drop a target in Kevlar and a throat protector.
Dr Doom is the single dumbest troll since Rick from COLONIAL HEIGHTS was here