14 dead, 50 wounded in shooting at Colorado theater, police chief says

Here we go again! You can bet that when all the info is out this guy will be identified as a nut job who was allowed to roam our streets because the authorities did not want to unfairly adjudicate him as a wacko. No blame the gun, just as they have done in so many past years.
WC is correct, our society has deteriorated into near chaos. The PC thinking supporters choose the crazies over the hardworking honest who are paying for all this. So many are on the dole, on drugs, whacked out to the point that they will do such as this. Even his mother knew it was him and that tells you that he was a bomb waiting to explode, yet he was left to light the fuse and carry out his fantasy. So sad! America doomed if we do not say enough and return to what our original Constitution envisioned.

It would be nice if this wasn't turned into a defense of guns tread when it is about other societal issues which Gaffer hit upon.Let's leave out the AK47 defense if that is what he had.
It does nothing to address the issues involved here. Yes,maybe if someone had a weapon they could have stopped it etc. etc. those are not even in play here as of yet!
There is enough issues none of which should take precedence over the pain and suffering for those wounded the terror of others and the lost of innocent lives who did nothing but attempt to see a movie!

A horrible situation and no one deserves to be the victim of senseless violence. This movie was not a coincidence, the villain in this movie is Bane. This shooter probably thought he was a living fictional character and a terrorists. He gave up easy because Bane spent his life in prison where he learned all his skills, this wack'O probably wants to live out the roll.

Well, the worst thing that could happen is scheduled to happen at 11:20 Eastern time. The panderer-in-chief will speak about this event.

Place your bets, folks. Will he start "Before I begin, let me give a shout-out to ..."?

-- edit --

For the first time in his term, he spoke earlier than scheduled. And his remarks were atypically apolitical, but the audience wanted some Romney bashing.

I wonder how the media will describe this nutjob. After they described Zimmerman as a "white hispanic" nothing would surprise me.

The FBI is all over this case because he is a specimen of behavior science for them to examine. The media will wait and see what the POTUS sets for an agenda to see how to spin this man's profile. We may never learn the full scope of the FBI probe into his life leading up to this event.

I wonder how the media will describe this nutjob.

Here's your answer. With typical journalistic integrity, ABC has reported:

There is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, CO, uh Paige, on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last summer. We don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but it is Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.

What incredible incompetence and bias.

Yes,maybe if someone had a weapon they could have stopped it etc. etc. those are not even in play here as of yet!

Wrong, Bruce. That is always in play. Self defense is part of reality, and to ignore it is as wrong as the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth from the liberal intelligentsia that we are about to endure.

The police were of NO HELP in this situation, and the gunman surrendered after he did what he wanted.
The ONLY thing that could have stopped this would have been armed citizens.

Put that in your pipe Herr Bloomberg.

ABC has already retracted their "Tea Party" story. If only they could be sued.

The ONLY thing that could have stopped this would have been armed citizens.

Agreed, as Bruce mentioned above, but a Thursday night midnight movie crowd is less apt to include working people who are generally the individuals who are licensed to carry. Just my thought on the demographics of this.

UN small arms treaty? anyone up on this?

Posted on the 2nd amendment board

It would be my pondering/wondering if public opinion is being manipulated to accomplish a goal.

"The FBI is all over this case . . "

ABC: "The FBI said approximately 100 of its agents are on the scene assisting with the ongoing investigation."

Denver is probably a regional office so it's likely they had a few spare agents lying around. I can't help but wonder how they were earning their paychecks up until the time the phone rang.

The same story is reporting the shooter was dressed as and identified himself as the Joker. His picture is top left on Drudge . . looks a little loony.

I would also like to point out that, at the time this thread had 2 posts, sometime this morning, Drudge's top center, revolving ad, was a smack at Obama . . in joker face! My only proof would be if someone else saw it.

Reaganite you are correct except it is not in play here only to morning quarterback this event to affirm something that is OK legal allowed etc,. etc. etc. the entire gun issue, rights.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says hundreds of calls came in starting at 12:39 a.m. MDT Friday and officers were on the scene within 60 to 90 seconds.

Aurora police: Officers on scene in 60-90 seconds

So, he shot 71 people, went back to his car to surrender with 90 seconds? All this happened in the 90 secondes BEFORE the police got there?

I don't buy it. This guy did what he wanted, then went back to his car to wait for the police so he could surrender to them. The police would like us to think they were relevant, but the fact is they were USELESS as far as protecting the public in this case.

The madman had a Colt AR-15, a Remington 12 ga pump shotgun and a Glock .40, with him, plus he had another Glock in his nearby car.

Below is a link to a Daily Mail story that has dozens of pictures taken at the crime scene, including photos of some of the weapons, where he dropped them. The photographs tell the story very well. It is a very sad situation for sure. To me it is horror almost beyond imagination. One can probably never know what twisted thoughts drove this man to this act.

Daily Mail photo essay on crime scene

WC

NBC News reported he was a student of neuroscience. A peculiar field of study that might attract a sociopath. Much like psychology attracts many practitioners with illnesses of their own and by studying the topic they seek to find answers to their own questions.

Tom C maybe before your propensity to blame cops goes further, on yahoo.com, off from their home page there is a recording of Denver Dispatch covering first 20 minutes of response!

He was very smart if he was able to get into a PhD program for that.

Bruce, listening to the police tape, the tear gas completely froze the police response. This was very-well thought out. The police were reduced to triage of the wounded, of which they did a pretty good job on under a very difficult and chaotic situaution, but the law enforcement part was merely running around like chickens with their heads cut off looking for possible additional suspects.

The fact is the police did NOTHING to stop the killer, and the efforts that they did make, looking for "suspects with backpacks dressed in black" were more likely to result in additional civilian casualties.

The best thing the police did, and I think this might get incorporated into future respose protocols, was when they broke the standard response and took the initiative. The emergency response was overwhelmed, they couldn't get enough rescue personnel in place fast enough. Rather than wait for the ambulances to get into the location and positioned, some of the police put the wounded into their own cars to drive them to the hospital. That falls into the "good job" department.

Should we take this to another level? Blame the people that made the steel that made the gun?

In the West of the 1890s if someone walked into a saloon and shot the place up, including killing a few he would either have been shot on the spot or arrested that day, tried the next and hung the following dawn. Ask yourself who benefits from it now taking a year or more to try this individual and IF confvicted will languish in jail for an average 14 years before being executed, if ever? It is the people who make the rules and who makes the rules? For the most part theey are lawyers who benefit the most from the long drawn out process they themselves have brought about by being able to make the rules.

I tend to agree with Pmcon. Our so called civil society gives the advantage to the bad guys via lawyers who do nothing at less than $200/hour. Our whole justice system is so biased toward giving the perps the benefit of time and lawyers. I understand that vigilance committees were and are not a good thing but the swift justice they performed certainly was better than todays ever so slow justice.

You can bet that these bad guys would think a bit longer about such shooting rampages if they thought that there would be someone there who would shoot back. That is the ultimate swift justice and many of the recent mass killings were perpetrated in locations where the shooter had good reason to think there would be no CCW. That alone shows that they are cognizant of that fact and choose the locations carefully. Cowards!

Bullets in the 1800' s had a marked target with personal reasons behind the trigger. They were swift in delivering justice, sometimes the wrong man was hanged, but it was a public event.
Todays random gunmen set out with evil intentions and society as a whole becomes the target. This latest shooter is going to relish in the media coverage of his evil deed, he will probably collect the headlines of newspapers that call him " The Joker". Something went wrong someplace in his research of the human mind and he became the thing that he was fascinated with. IMO

The fact that he did this awful deed, and let himself be arrested alive, narrows down his psychosis somewhat.

Northeastern University criminologist James Fox said: "Mass killers are determined, deliberate and dead-set on murder. They plan methodically to execute their victims, finding the means no matter what laws or other impediments the state attempts to place in their way. To them, the will to kill cannot be denied."

Or, as Michael Bane puts it, "there are too many rats in the box and some of those rats are badly broken" .

At this point, with this killer, nothing the criminal justice system is going to do will undo what's been done and no punishment is going to influence anyone contemplating a similar future killing spree because the broken people who do this kind of stuff don't think logically in terms of action-consequence.

You can only prevent future occurrences by locating and segregating the broken people from the general public through institutionalization. You can only limit the damage done when one of the broken people slips through the cracks by having competent people at the scene ready, willing and able to direct deadly force to eliminate the threat and limit the damage.

Truly effective preventive action by the government would require actions that are unpalatable to most. Like repealing some medical privacy laws and holding parents or guardians responsible if they don't institutionalize their children. Effectively limiting the damage done by future killers is a responsibility more of us need to assume through quality training, preparation and mindset.

I believe at best maybe jeffr that would have stopped this and that is a maybe a thin maybe.

A curious question that I haven't seen asked is, how come parents were so sure the police had the right man?????

His voluntary surrender was indeed calculated, just as his booby trapped apartment was prepared for the arriving detectives, he was a controler and manipulator. If he allowed himself to be killed rather then captured, his legacy would end. His work is not finished, the Joker had an army of criminally and there is no better place to be then prison to manipulate other criminals. Hopefully they never let him out to play.

Gaffer nails it with . .

" . . many of the recent mass killings were perpetrated in locations where the shooter had good reason to think there would be no CCW. That alone shows that they are cognizant of that fact and choose the locations carefully. Cowards!"

I would add that his body armor, multiple weapons and a packed house are indications that, even if he had encountered return fire, he would still be able to inflict a tremendous amount of damage before he was taken out. It's all about the sensationalism of the event and has nothing to do with it's consequences. Return fire had the potential, at least, to minimize the casualties and to deliver a swifter justice, The anti-gunners can't comprehend that.

Why did he stop shooting?

Everyone in that particular theater may have been down or out but he wouldn't have had to go too far to find more victims. I can't imagine he was out of ammo; in fact I heard a report to the contrary.

"His voluntary surrender was indeed calculated . . " I'm not arguing with you but I don't agree. I think his conscience kicked in, pure and simple. One look or scream from one of his victims might have been enough to throw the switch. I think the fact that he gave up his booby trapped apartment is further evidence of that. He certainly didn't have any plans to return there.

Even if there had been armed citizens in the theater, we need to remember that A) it was pitch black, and B) the gas canister he threw into the crowd produced smoke and irritating fumes. He was also dressed completely in black, and well-armored. It's likely the only way he could have been stopped was if several courageous people sacrificed themselves to tackle him, and take him down. They likely would have died, before others could have successfully disarmed him.

When it's pitch-black, there's clouds of choking smoke, and everyone is taken by surprise with no time to plan an attack (unlike Flight 93), it's unlikely anyone being armed would have made a difference.

I am not surprised he didn't commit suicide, because part of his pathology is all about "look at me, and what I can do." If he killed himself, he wouldn't be able to enjoy the "fun" and attention of a court trial and the hearings. The best thing they could do is keep him on complete media black-out, with no access to any media, of any sort. That would deprive him of the "glory" he was so clearly seeking. His attorney would likely find a way for that not to happen, but it would be the bare beginnings of "justice" for what he's done.