[News] Shooting at Batman Premier: Colorado

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GasBandit

Staff member
Like others have said, a huge queue to go through metal detectors would also just move the target-rich environment from inside the theater to inside the lobby. It's a wonder some nutjob hasn't figured out how much damage he could do with a bomb at the line OUTSIDE an airport TSA checkpoint, and movie theaters aren't exactly built to be fort knox.[DOUBLEPOST=1342798211][/DOUBLEPOST]
It's a culture issue, but Japan also has made guns illegal and their gun crime is nearly non-existent.
And Canada has a metric fuckton of guns and not even close to the level of violence. It's not the guns, it's the American culture of violence and paranoia/fear.
I'm all ears for a way to change american culture, and not just on that topic.
 
And Canada has a metric fuckton of guns and not even close to the level of violence. It's not the guns, it's the American culture of violence and paranoia/fear.
We do have a lot of guns in Canada but gun control laws are tighter. Frank could talk about the details.. it's not perfect but it's not anywhere close to the ease you can acquire a gun in the US.

But it's all about the culture.. it's pathetic. Really really pathetic.
 

Dave

Staff member
Looks like the guy told cops that he had stuff at his apartment. He does. The whole fucking place is booby-trapped. Cops looked inside from the outside windows before entering and it's a damned good thing they did or more people would have been hurt.

They are trying to disarm the stuff as we speak. This dude wanted to take a lot of people out with him.
 
Also, who the fuck brings a 3 month old, 6 year old and 9 year old to a midnight showing of Batman?
 

Dave

Staff member
I'm all ears for a way to change american culture, and not just on that topic.
  • Take money out of politics. This would lessen the need for lobbyists or super-PACs who do nothing but negative ads trying to sow fear and resentment towards a rival politician.
  • Encourage a third party. This would have much the same effect as #1 but would (hopefully) lessen the deadlock vitriol we are currently seeing in Washington and around the world.
  • Revamp the controls on the media. As it stands, all media can say anything they want without much fear of reprisal. FOX News and NBC are the two that spring to mind with their agenda and slanted reporting. FOX is the worst, though, as they will blatantly make shit up. We've gotten away from reporting the facts and gotten into a "must report first and find out stuff later" mentality.
  • Bring back shame and personal responsibility. I'll only cite one example here and that's public schools. In the past when a kid failed the parents would back up the teacher and punish the kid as well. Now, though, the parents get in the face of the teacher/administrator and complain or threaten to sue. And administrators back down nearly 100% of the time. My kids knew if they fucked up I wasn't going to blame the teacher at all. Every kid thinks he or she should be the next American Idol and their lives are shattered when they do not meet their fucked up and unrealistic expectations. Kids need to learn how to lose again.
This is not a complete list and I don't see any of them happening because the people who benefit the most from them are the ones who make all the money - they don't want it stopped because it would hurt them.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
It may surprise you to learn I don't really have much problem with anything you just posted. Unfortunately, I also think it would be difficult as hell to introduce, especially 4, and 2 would practically require a revolution.
 
I've seen news reports / tweets from agencies saying the shooter was a med student who withdrew in June.

Also I'm kind of scared from the reports of his booby trapped apartment as "chilling" and "very complex / sophisticated" :(
 

Dave

Staff member
Bomb making like that is very difficult to learn. I'm not sure you can get that from the internet. I wonder where he learned it?
 
Also, who the fuck brings a 3 month old, 6 year old and 9 year old to a midnight showing of Batman?
That was my first thought too when I read that. "MANS I GOTS TO SEE THIS MOVIE AND I CANT WAIT TO FIND A SITTER SO COME ON KIDS!" Dumbasses.
 
...I took Jet to Up when he was about, oh, 3 months old? I timed it during his nap, when he would be asleep for two or three hours. It worked like a charm. :p

Also, I think I was 8 when I went to my first midnight movie...for The Lost World: Jurassic Park. I think it's kinda uncool to get mad at parentd for bringing their kids to the movie. If the kids were well behaved it's fine...and they didn't know the place was going to get shot up.

This whole thing is...not as baffling to me as it should be. I often wondered why people who just wanted to 'kill, kill never stop' didn't just walk into movie theaters or Boxing Day sales to do their thing.

Still sad though.
 
Not me.

Then again, I live in a place that really doesn't have a lot of gun crime or murders so my sense of safety maybe justified.
 
S

Soliloquy

YES. THAT IS WHAT I AM DOING. HOW GOOD OF YOU TO NOTICE. :facepalm:
You kind of are, though. Just sayin'.[DOUBLEPOST=1342802000][/DOUBLEPOST]
So will this color how you look at premiers? Will it stop you from attending one?
I'm actually a bit frightened now, not going to lie. Though to be honest I don't go to premieres that often anyway.
 
The Bath School Disaster was nearly 100 years ago, and people still send their children to school.

The Luby's shooting was 20 years ago, and I still eat in restaurants.

The McDonald's shooting was nearly 30 years ago and I still love fast food.

9/11 was 10 years ago, and I still live in America.
 
Huh. Apparently this guy with withdrawing from the graduate program in neuroscience.

How do you get that far in life...and then do this? It's crazy!
 
So will this color how you look at premiers? Will it stop you from attending one?
Not at all. Just like Columbine didn't stop me from going to high school, Virginia Tech didn't stop me from going to college, and workplace shootings don't stop me from going to work.

That's one thing that definitely bugs me about this - we here in the USA seem to overreact to tragedy. Every lone nut with a gun dominates the 24-hour news cycle for days and the whole country (figuratively speaking) starts worrying that they're next. Two camps of blame shooters form - those who blame the media for turning a normal person into a shooter or for giving a nut ideas (bullshit) and people who blame the government for the "obvious" false-flag operation (bullshit). New security measures are proposed, debated, and sometimes enacted but they always fail to prevent the next lone nut because a whacko with enough determination to kill people will find a way. Seriously, would it kill us to just say "This is a tragedy and our hearts go out to those suffering because of it, but this man was very likely not well in the head and unless the police investigation turns something up we can assume he acted alone" and go on with our lives without the irrational fear?
 
We do have a lot of guns in Canada but gun control laws are tighter. Frank could talk about the details.. it's not perfect but it's not anywhere close to the ease you can acquire a gun in the US.

I think it may vary slightly province to province, but as I understand it, handguns are damned near impossible to acquire, and illegal to carry. If they are being transported from home to the gun range, they need to be kept in a safety lock box for the duration of the trip. Rifles I think are slightly less restricted, in that you can transport them without a safety box, but otherwise the rules are the same.

I'm fairly certain the laws change province to province only because my friend and his family were able to walk into a shooting range in the West Edmonton Mall and just pay to fire a selection of guns, whereas I've looked into shooting ranges here and every one of them requires you to be licensed, even on their "public" day where members are allowed to bring friends who are not members
 
You kind of are, though. Just sayin'.
Apparently I didn't communicate something I though was obvious. My comment had nothing to do with the shooting and everything to do with having sat through movies where people bring kids that scream through the entire thing because either it scares the crap out of them or thats just the age they are at. That clear enough?
 
S

Soliloquy

Apparently I didn't communicate something I though was obvious. My comment had nothing to do with the shooting and everything to do with having sat through movies where people bring kids that scream through the entire thing because either it scares the crap out of them or thats just the age they are at. That clear enough?
Fair enough, but considering this is the thread where we discuss how these children were shot to death, I don't think movie etiquette was the first thing on our minds.
 

Necronic

Staff member
Why do people care about what his reason was, as though it's something that, when you hear it, you'll go "ohhhhhh"? I mean...here's his reason:

1) Life sucks
2) I can't or am not willing to fix it
3) I'm a coward and mentally ill
4) ?????
5) Killing a bunch of people will fix this.

It really doesn't matter. He's a piece of crap. This isn't George Zimmerman or someone who there is even the slimmest shadow of a doubt that there was a good reason behind what he did. This is a crazy guy who murdered 12 random people because he wanted attention.

Dude was a coward. Screw him.
 
I think it may vary slightly province to province, but as I understand it, handguns are damned near impossible to acquire, and illegal to carry. If they are being transported from home to the gun range, they need to be kept in a safety lock box for the duration of the trip. Rifles I think are slightly less restricted, in that you can transport them without a safety box, but otherwise the rules are the same.

I'm fairly certain the laws change province to province only because my friend and his family were able to walk into a shooting range in the West Edmonton Mall and just pay to fire a selection of guns, whereas I've looked into shooting ranges here and every one of them requires you to be licensed, even on their "public" day where members are allowed to bring friends who are not members
The only places in Canada with laxer gun laws than Alberta are the territories I think.
 
You know, my first thought wasn't "What does Patton Oswalt think?"...but I'm sorta glad he exists.

patton.png


He certainly makes more sense than some people on my twitter right now.
 
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