Colorado...

[cob]

First and foremost, my heart goes out to all of the victims, their families, and everyone who was there. For those who don't know.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html

This always brings me to my point that we need to preach gun intelligence. it's not about restriction, it's about intelligence. Gun purchasers should submit to psychological profiles or everyone should be required to learn or... just something.

I just keep thinking, if even one person in that theater had a gun, it wouldn't have been such a massacre. One shot to the arm, the leg, or the head, would have stopped this nutbag. Failing that, we need to come up with regulations that don't only stop law-abiding citizens from having a weapon. There's a joke-ish my buddy made in English class when we had a classwide debate about gun control. someone said "we should just ban guns period." his response was "Yeah! I'm sure all the criminals will follow that law!"

I'd also like to point out that this guy was ARRESTED not put down. Now, i know we have laws and regulations and everyone has the right to haebius corpus etc but... at what point do you just go "This one needs to be put down"? How on earth can you walk into a theater, kill 10 on site, wound 40 more and still get arrested Just because you didn't shoot at the police.

This was a significant and horrifying event and I really feel overcome by sadness and disgust. But, the question i'm asking you is... if we can't stop these people from making the decision to commit such violence, what can we do? It's easy for me to say i would have tried to stop him. First because I wasn't there and second because how do you let someone get away with that? Obviously, in the moment I don't know but, I just can't reconcile in my mind allowing someone to do that. I can't imagine watching all of that happen and just running while this guy plugs anyone he wants. If nothing else, I'd be a good bullet blocker for a second. Again in the moment, the sheer chaos, who knows what they would actually do?

But, my question is what can the individual do to stop madmen like that and what can society do? As uncommon as it is, we tend to just ignore it as though it won't happen again or it wont happen to us. If we aren't going to pre-empt it how can we handle it in the moment? What are your thoughts?

[aj_rock]

Gun legislation stuff aside, my heart goes out to all the nerds seeing a midnight screening of a new super hero movie that got caught up in some sicko's crazy scheme.

[SeanOfKelley]

I don't really feel like expressing my opinions on gun control here, but my heart broke when I read this story this morning. All I could think about was how horrified the people in the theater must have been, and how the world is now diminished because of the loss of life that took place.

I will say, that I am not looking forward to some of the conversations that will inevitably take place once more information comes out about the shooter. You know that in trying to understand what causes someone to do something like this, people will over-analyze the shooter's taste in music, movies, video games, clothing, politics, etc. and then, in some cases, blame whole swathes of the population because they also like those things.

This guy was a lone psycho. A human parasite. I think the best thing we can do for the victims in the coming days (besides donating blood, money, etc.) is to focus on the lives of the victims- both the tragedy of their deaths, and the triumph of their lives.

[Wicked Pixie]

I don't really feel like expressing my opinions on gun control here, but my heart broke when I read this story this morning. All I could think about was how horrified the people in the theater must have been, and how the world is now diminished because of the loss of life that took place.

I will say, that I am not looking forward to some of the conversations that will inevitably take place once more information comes out about the shooter. You know that in trying to understand what causes someone to do something like this, people will over-analyze the shooter's taste in music, movies, video games, clothing, politics, etc. and then, in some cases, blame whole swathes of the population because they also like those things.

This guy was a lone psycho. A human parasite. I think the best thing we can do for the victims in the coming days (besides donating blood, money, etc.) is to focus on the lives of the victims- both the tragedy of their deaths, and the triumph of their lives.

AMEN!

[Jcannon98188]

There are laws in place that prevent police from killing him. If they tried then THEY would be charged with murder themselves. My heart does go out to the victims of this, as well as the entire town. I don't know if you guys realize, but this took place only a few miles away from the Columbine Highschool shooting that happened a few years back. Praying for them.

[NukeTheUnicorns]

I'm really shaken by this. It happened 20 minutes down the highway from me.

NFers, I really love you guys. You're an amazing community. Everybody here is a fantastic person, and everyone has something wonderful to offer the community and the world.

Please, folks, take a second today and reflect on how lucky we all are to lead the lives that we do, even when things seem awful, it's amazing that we're here. Today, please, tell your friends and loved ones how much they mean to you - you never know what could happen.

[JPAN]

The theater is 10ish miles from my house. It is such a tragedy.

I am eligible to donate blood and will probably try to make that happen. The good news/bad news is all of the donation centers are full up.

[ICB]

Any time something like this happens, I always say the same thing: You can't plan for crazy. There's no level of absurd security or gun restriction or whatever that would stop this kind of thing from happening, so it's better for all concerned if we honestly don't try. Take care of the victims and celebrate their lives. That's all we can do. More guns, less guns, more security - none of that would have stopped it.

In 2008, I was traveling in Japan when a young man slammed a stolen truck into a crowd of pedestrians, then jumped out of the vehicle and began stabbing randomly. Any attempt to plan to stop something like that would have simply failed, because none of us would have thought of it. We can't. So we shouldn't.

[smedly]

I agree with cob. This is such a tragedy and we could debate all month about it and such but this is not the time. Keep the victims in your thoughts and if you are in the area I'm sure they would appreciate any help you can provide. Crazies are always going to happen. Many times their plans fail and we never hear anything but it's the tiny percentage that succeed that bring us to these tragedies. Is total prevention possible? No but the smallest things you do can help. A smile given to someone who looks like they are having a rough time or a random compliment to a complete stranger could in some way stop something like this happening. Will you ever know if it did help? Probably not but it never hurts to try.

From what I've read this guy wasn't a criminal but a graduate student in neuroscience who had just withdrawn from school but seemed to be normal. Even if there was someone with a concealed carry weapon there it would have been difficult to stop this rampage since he popped tear gas canisters making it very difficult to get a shot off to incapacitate someone wearing body armor including a throat guard. I would like to think that personally in a life or death situation like this that I would do my best to go down fighting. Tackle the guy, wrestle a weapon from him or at least something. Talk is cheap though and unless I was really there who knows what I would have done.

[rumtiger]

The theater is 10ish miles from my house. It is such a tragedy.

I am eligible to donate blood and will probably try to make that happen. The good news/bad news is all of the donation centers are full up.

I'm a bit further away, but its a theater I've been to a couple times.

I think it is great so many people are willing to donate blood; I'm what they call a hard-stick, and it's usually difficult enough just to get enough of a sample for lab work. Since the donation centers are maxed with volunteers right now, maybe you can make an appt on your calendar to donate later after the media dies down.

[Pat G]

As an outsider looking in all i see is pain, a sad day for your nation.

I'm glad we've got a bunch of nerds who are willing to help out. Good stuff SeanofKelly and JPAN.

[evilbob]

I wish the media would not give the shooter any coverage. No pictures of him and never mention his name. He does not deserve to be immortalized. The people that do are Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn, Alex Teves. Both gave their lives in order to protect people that were with them.

That being said, I wish more people would use this as a learning point and start playing "what if" more often. I don't speak poorly of the dead or injured as you never know how you will react in such circumstances, but you can truly see a difference in mindset with the interviews. That EMT student Jessica knew she needed to escape and help others. While others that were interviewed stated that they just "waited to die." To me that's the wrong answer.