# 12 people shot dead at BATMAN movie screening in Denver. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2012, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835 "2012-07-20T09:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/241 "2012-07-21T12:42:23Z")
Most mass killers off themselves-they have enough of a conscience to realize that life after murdering 20-70 strangers won’t be pleasant. Bt not this guy-why? ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/242 "2012-07-21T12:52:32Z")
a smart thing to do is to bring back the projectionist or have a monitor in the room. this has someone on scene to deal with minor disturbances and film breakdowns. or in this case be able to hit a panic button, call 911, stop the movie, bring up the lights a bit (or not depending on if it would help the gunman), be able to direct people and rescue. these days even to get an annoying talker to stop you have to search for quite some time to find an employee to remove them. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/243 "2012-07-21T12:52:44Z")
And … the conspiracy theories are already out. Something called [Natural News](http://www.naturalnews.com) is saying that the only way that Holmes could have gotten the equipment he had was if the F.B.I. had supplied him. I’ve never heard of this Natural News before. Anyone have any background on it? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/244 "2012-07-21T13:23:14Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > $25 that an anti-comic book movement is born from this. I’d take that bet. If anything, I think people will be less afraid to admit they love comic book movies because “it could have been me.” ---
**Author:** ![oreally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ab992/32.png) [@oreally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oreally)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/245 "2012-07-21T13:27:41Z")
> [@MostlyClueless](#): > > Off a cliff? Thank you for demonstrating the whole ‘warped perspective’ thing. It’s called an exaggeration and I thought a rather obvious one. For some apparently not. > [@Beastly\_Rotter](#): > > Yes, how could the subject of gun control possibly be germane to a discussing a nutbag with a handgun going on a shooting spree in a crowded movie theatre? …and a shotgun. And a rifle. And tear gas. And I didn’t say it wasn’t “germane.” I’m just sick of people using a horrible tragedy - esp immediately after it happens - to push their well-worn political agenda. > [@cochrane](#): > > Then wouldn’t they be useless if people had to use them during like, oh say, an _emergency_? Isn’t it state law that they remain unlocked during business hours? I’m talking about from the outside going in, duh. > [@](#): > > And he didn’t kick the door open from outside. He opened it from the inside, and left it propped while he ran out to his car. Just saw that; this wasn’t what they were saying initially. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > No, I’m hearing this one has shot to No. 1 with a bullet (heh). . Poster child for the warped perspective I’m talking about. Hilarious joke. Stay classy. ---
**Author:** ![oreally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ab992/32.png) [@oreally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oreally)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/246 "2012-07-21T13:35:42Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Also, if there isn’t much else going on why not send a lot of cops to the One Big Event? You’re right. Cops don’t need to patrol areas; they should all sit in the precinct and wait until something happens. Reactive, not preventative. Good idea! > [@](#): > > Someone whose sitter didn’t show up? I don’t think this brilliant response needs explanation. > [@](#): > > Usually the worst danger from taking a 3 month old to a theater is that the kid will start crying and annoy the crap out of the rest of the audience, Well if THAT’S all, by all means, people should taking the crying/screaming kids to a movie. If it’s convenient for you, to hell with everyone else. And libraries and restaurants (etd etc) while they’re at it. Dude you’re a wealth of brilliance! > [@cochrane](#): > > Also, does an exit have to be alarmed to be considered an emergency exit? They should be and this would have screwed up his plan right out of the gate. I know it’s hindsight but I’m all for eliminating such exits which are non-emergency. > [@rocking\_chair](#): > > these days even to get an annoying talker to stop you have to search for quite some time to find an employee to remove them. Yep. And that’s pretty much every movie I’ve been to in recent years. The screaming babies are the most fun. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/247 "2012-07-21T14:35:44Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I just finished watching the news. A whole hour of this, not counting weather and sports. Jesus, didn’t anything else happen in the world? Anywhere? > > . Let’s just say that Fred Willard just joined the Gary Condit club. > [@oreally](#): > > - I read that hundreds of police offiers swarmed on this place after initial reports. I don’t know how many are on the force but that sounds like a VERY high percentage and a ridiculous overkill. But this is nothing new for cops. Mostly nothing happens so when something does, they all “flock” like ants at a picnic. Hello yahoos, do you realize the open invitation this gives other criminals? Maybe a dozen or so is plenty and the rest of you should keep monitoring the rest of the city? Too dumb for words. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/248 "2012-07-21T14:54:05Z")
> [@oreally](#): > > - I read that hundreds of police offiers swarmed on this place after initial reports. I don’t know how many are on the force but that sounds like a VERY high percentage and a ridiculous overkill. But this is nothing new for cops. Mostly nothing happens so when something does, they all “flock” like ants at a picnic. Hello yahoos, do you realize the open invitation this gives other criminals? Maybe a dozen or so is plenty and the rest of you should keep monitoring the rest of the city? I don’t understand this. You have a location where fifty people are shot and more than ten are killed. Is there something more important going on in Aurora at that particular time where the police need to be? Is there someone speeding or drinking liquor in public? ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/249 "2012-07-21T15:10:35Z")
I’m struck by how much this event mirrors [NIU’s own shooting in 2008](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIU_Shooting). In both cases, the shooter was a graduate student who was off his meds, had numerous guns obtained legally, walked into an auditorium and started shooting. …I don’t know. Stuff happens. You can’t protect yourself against everything. Some people are just not all there, and they can get guns. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/250 "2012-07-21T15:18:35Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > About the same odds as one man being present in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki when they were nuked. [Which happened](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/25/hiroshima-nagasaki-survivor-japan). Or being on an airplane that was hijacked to Cuba, and then, when released, getting on another plane for home, which was also hijacked to Cuba. Which happened. Or the same airline pilot getting hijacked to Cuba. [Which happened.](http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2005-03-30/news/0503290524_1_hijacking-flight-attendant-cuba) Or for that matter the thousands of Iraqi refugees who fled to Syria because of the Iraq War and now are having to flee there… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/251 "2012-07-21T16:22:49Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > If he left his junk in the car, how would a metal detector have stopped him? After all, according to the news accounts, he didn’t smuggle his weapons through the lobby. He propped open a door to the outside in the particular theater in which he entered without his weapons. Would people propose we have metal detectors at all of the exits, too, where most people normally go out instead of coming in? **Unimportant!** When hysteria is your decision-making tool, little things like facts & common sense are discarded, like unto a bale thrown upon a fire. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/252 "2012-07-21T16:28:36Z")
> [@oreally](#): > > - speaking of idiotic, why do they rush to get some meaningless token statement from the President about stuff like this? Why the frick do we care what Obama (or Romney for that matter) think about this? And did you really expect anything other than a predictable “it’s a terrible tragedy let’s keep the families in our thoughts blah blah blah” - their statements about this are about as interesting as statements from Lance Armstrong or Oprah Winfrey. ie not in the slightest. Because if they hadn’t, you and people like you would be whining about how heartless they are. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/253 "2012-07-21T16:32:18Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > And … the conspiracy theories are already out. Something called [Natural News](http://www.naturalnews.com) is saying that the only way that Holmes could have gotten the equipment he had was if the F.B.I. had supplied him. > > I’ve never heard of this Natural News before. Anyone have any background on it? It’s Mike Adams, anti-vaccine lunatic extraordinaire. He doesn’t limit his conspiracy theory ramblings to health-related issues these days. Alex Jones is also weighing in that it’s a staged psy-op by Obama to begin the process of taking away our guns. These conspiracy theories will fit right in with the people who think that Fast and Furious was used to create gun mayhem in Mexico so the U.S. government could begin the process of repealing the Second Amendment. I am beyond disgusted and infuriated at these people. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/254 "2012-07-21T16:42:07Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > It’s Mike Adams, anti-vaccine lunatic extraordinaire. He doesn’t limit his conspiracy theory ramblings to health-related issues these days. > > Alex Jones is also weighing in that it’s a staged psy-op by Obama to begin the process of taking away our guns. These conspiracy theories will fit right in with the people who think that Fast and Furious was used to create gun mayhem in Mexico so the U.S. government could begin the process of repealing the Second Amendment. > > I am beyond disgusted and infuriated at these people. Alex Jones I always find particularly disgusting because I don’t think he is crazy. I think it’s all just part of his schtick. He’s basically doing it for the money. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/255 "2012-07-21T17:16:22Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Would it interest you to learn that there does appear to be a documented, witnessed, verified, heroic act by a member of the military? That’s not really the point, is it? Talking about a witnessed, verified, etc. heroic act is actual reporting. **Farmer** is complaining that the reporter she was watching wasn’t talking about a witnessed verified anything, just making stuff up on the fly. If the reporters speculation turns out to have been right, that doesn’t really make it any better. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/256 "2012-07-21T17:21:57Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > And … the conspiracy theories are already out. Something called [Natural News](http://www.naturalnews.com) is saying that the only way that Holmes could have gotten the equipment he had was if the F.B.I. had supplied him. > > I’ve never heard of this Natural News before. Anyone have any background on it? I have seen them before, they are big woo woo proponents, on past occasions I have seem them publish anti-vaccine screeds and even published global warming denial crap. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/257 "2012-07-21T17:25:20Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > That’s not really the point, is it? Talking about a witnessed, verified, etc. heroic act is actual reporting. **Farmer** is complaining that the reporter she was watching wasn’t talking about a witnessed verified anything, just making stuff up on the fly. If the reporters speculation turns out to have been right, that doesn’t really make it any better. Or it was the first report of something that did happen. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/258 "2012-07-21T17:29:01Z")
Ah yes, I missed the edit, \*\*Acsenray \*\*when you see a “Natural News” article, remember that it is coming from the same bottom of the barrel “Alex Jones territory” as others pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/259 "2012-07-21T17:33:02Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Would it interest you to learn that there does appear to be a documented, witnessed, verified, heroic act by a member of the military? It wouldn’t surprise me at all. But why not wait until the story is clear before making some vague, general statement that some members of the military “may have acted heroically”? It’s symptomatic of the Rush To Be First that is so prevalent among the 24-hour news organizations, and that was also responsible for CNN getting the recent Supreme Court healthcare decision wrong before they got it right, simply because they couldn’t take an extra ten minutes to read the summary properly. It’s shitty journalism. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/260 "2012-07-21T18:03:25Z")
A friend just posted [this](http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/media/2012/07/how-media-shouldnt-cover-mass-murder) on Facebook, and I wanted to share with you lot. The video clip is from Charlie Booker’s ‘Newswipe’ from March 25, 2009 and the article is from today’s New Statesman. The most interesting part is a (sadly, unidentified) forensic psychiatrist describing how NOT to report on a mass shooting, because to do otherwise can cause copycats. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835.md?page=14)