# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/81 "2012-07-20T17:00:31Z")
What a senseless waste. Suspect recently withdrew from college at U of C - Denver. Well, thank gawd he had the sense of mind to withdraw instead of just failing to show up for classes because he’s incarcerated. I’d hate for him to be tormented by nightmares later. ---
**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 20, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/82 "2012-07-20T17:02:02Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > You’d prefer that the news stations … \*\*\*not \*\*\* report on current events? 😕 And I’ll refer you [to this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=657803)in the hopes that you see that life is better now, not worse, and that there IS no downward spiral. Yes, that’s exactly what I said. :rolleyes: Those cultures reached a pinnacle for their times before beginning the slide into depravity and superstition. This cycle repeats itself throughout history. I’m not sure why anybody would think we are immune. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/83 "2012-07-20T17:02:14Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Yea, I don’t really see the point. Unless the political ads were specifically about gun violence or something, I don’t see why an Obama ad is anymore upsetting then the Geico ad or whatever that will replace it. I presume neither wishes to be associated with a political attack ad in a state that is reeling from this crime - an astute decision I would think. People already upset from the violence would likely find themselves angered by the vitriol in a political ad and it would backfire on the advertiser. I don’t see it as a move of respect (so much - perhaps a little), more like a move of political wisdom. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/84 "2012-07-20T17:15:26Z")
> [@2gigch1](#): > > I believe he kicked in the emergency exit. I was kind of wondering about this. Aren’t emergency exit doors usually hinged in such a way that they open from the inside-out rather than the outside-in. Makes it easier for everyone to get out. He would have had to have practically busted the frame loose to have kicked it “in.” Not an easy feat, especially considering that those doors are usually made out of metal. ---
**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 20, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/85 "2012-07-20T17:16:54Z")
My condolences to the dead and wounded… ☹ Apparently some are saying there was a scene in the movie where there’s a shooting in a theater. Is this true or just another rumour? ---
**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 20, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/86 "2012-07-20T17:20:08Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Yes, that’s exactly what I said. :rolleyes: Those cultures reached a pinnacle for their times before beginning the slide into depravity and superstition. This cycle repeats itself throughout history. I’m not sure why anybody would think we are immune. Without getting into a debate over cyclic history, note that all “cyclic history” theories are affected by the fact that unlike in the West, none of them experienced mass literacy or industrialization. Most of these theories are just the historical and philosophical equivalent of emo or goth or punk. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/87 "2012-07-20T17:20:17Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > How did he get in with a rifle, a shotgun and two pistols? I’m usually sweating like Billy Hayes in _Midnight Express_ because I have a Cadbury in my pocket Supposedly, he entered unarmed along with everyone else, then went to the exit door, propped it open, and went to get the guns from his car. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/88 "2012-07-20T17:27:27Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Supposedly, he entered unarmed along with everyone else, then went to the exit door, propped it open, and went to get the guns from his car. Well that works. He appears to have given his plan some considerable thought, which befits a med student. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/89 "2012-07-20T17:28:18Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > How did he get in with a rifle, a shotgun and two pistols? I’m usually sweating like Billy Hayes in _Midnight Express_ because I have a Cadbury in my pocket That raised a smile, which is saying something given the thread’s subject matter. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/90 "2012-07-20T17:34:38Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > Also in the WTF department, one of the dead was a [Texas woman](http://globalgrind.com/news/aurora-movie-theater-shooting-jessica-ghawi-12-people-killed-wounded-james-holmes-shooter-photos) who recently [wrote about narrowly avoiding last month’s mass shooting at Toronto’s Eaton Center](http://jessicaredfield.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/late-night-thoughts-on-the-eaton-center-shooting/): What are the odds that one person will be at the location of one mass random shooting in their life? What are the odds that a person will be at two? At two ~5 weeks apart? The odds against that poor woman dying the way she did had to be astronomical. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/91 "2012-07-20T17:45:45Z")
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) ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/92 "2012-07-20T17:49:34Z")
Is this the thread for unfounded rumors and conjecture? I’m wondering, because I ran across a snippet of Laura Ingraham’s idiotic ramblings … I mean radio program … and she was finding all sorts of ways to shit on lefties over this (mostly in the form of accusing Obama of politicizing it by cancelling campaign events; yeah, I don’t get it either) and she rambled on about the Fort ICantRemember Shootings and how _no one_ in the media would mention that the shooter was a Muslim (even though \*everyone \*in the media mentioned that he was a Muslim), but that the media had no compunction conflating this Holmes guy with some Tea Party outfit. Short version: Has anybody heard that this guy was involved with some Tea Party outfit? Or is Laura Ingraham as unhinged as I think she is? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/93 "2012-07-20T17:52:31Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I was kind of wondering about this. Aren’t emergency exit doors usually hinged in such a way that they open from the inside-out rather than the outside-in. Makes it easier for everyone to get out. He would have had to have practically busted the frame loose to have kicked it “in.” Not an easy feat, especially considering that those doors are usually made out of metal. I was about to post the exact same thing. How do you kick “in” a door that swings “out”? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/94 "2012-07-20T17:52:46Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Short version: Has anybody heard that this guy was involved with some Tea Party outfit? [ABC did, wrongly.](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/20/abc-news-brian-ross-apologize-for-report-suggesting-shooting-suspect-tied-to/) They said the suspect had a webpage on a Colorado Tea Party site, but that turned out to be someone else with the same name. ---
**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 20, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/95 "2012-07-20T17:56:31Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Short version: Has anybody heard that this guy was involved with some Tea Party outfit? Or is Laura Ingraham as unhinged as I think she is? There is also speculation that he might have had links to OWS and anarchist movements. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/96 "2012-07-20T17:57:03Z")
I see. Color me unsurprised that they jumped the gun and were wrong – that seems SOP for news orgs these days. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/97 "2012-07-20T17:57:09Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > There is also speculation that he might have had links to OWS and anarchist movements. By whom, and on what basis? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/98 "2012-07-20T17:58:06Z")
And are those speculations wrong as well, or just sauce for the goose responses to the Tea Party thing? ---
**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 20, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/99 "2012-07-20T17:58:17Z")
Live press conference: [http://video.foxnews.com/video-live-streaming.html?video\_id=1155606218001](http://video.foxnews.com/video-live-streaming.html?video_id=1155606218001) ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835/100 "2012-07-20T17:59:15Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Makes me rethink not carrying most of the time. Why? What would you have done? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-people-shot-dead-at-batman-movie-screening-in-denver/628835.md?page=6)