I don’t think they were emergency exits. They were just doors near the screen.
I’ll have to admit, that reading this, looking at the picture of a beautiful young man has completely reduced me to tears.
Just unbelievable. I’m truly sick to my stomach.
PS anyone using this as a platform to rant/whine about gun control, religion, race, blah etc on either “side” I wouldn’t mind also seeing pushed off a cliff. Speaking of warped perspectives.
Hi! I’m someone from Europe. He’s right.
Most people, even most criminals, don’t want to shoot people. It usually complicates things.
Off a cliff? Thank you for demonstrating the whole ‘warped perspective’ thing.
Also, in the whole ‘how could this happen?’ part of the discussion, the whole ‘because he could buy all the gear to commit mass murder freely and legally in a store’ seems relevant.
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?
Two handguns, an assault rifle, a shotgun and over 6,000 plus rounds of ammo actually.
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?
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.
No, I’m hearing this one has shot to No. 1 with a bullet (heh). Seems the number of people shot in this incident has reached a record even though there have been higher death tolls. Looking up just the ones you mentioned, I see Virginia Tech had 32 killed out of “only” 49 shot; Luby’s, 20 dead out of 43 shot; and Charles Whitman, 16 killed out of 48 shot (not counting Whitman himself).
Looks like it’s the high victim count they’re tallying, be they killed or injured. And the death toll is probably likely to rise, I’d guess.
Oh I absolutely agree, this country would be such a peaceful paradise if guns simply weren’t allowed. You know, like Norway.
Yeah, because shootings incidents are so common in Norway.
From what I understand - according to Wikipedia, so take it with a grain - he bought a ticket, walked into the theater, *exited *through the emergency door and propped it open so he could get back in. Then he went to his car to get his shit and there you go.
So he didn’t Hey Kool-Aid! the thing; he rigged it.
Like **cochran **said … missed the post.
It defeats the purpose of an emergency door to make them difficult to open. Also, the “kick one open” thing is just one of the many descriptions used, others have said he simply went out the door and propped it open as he did so.
Or maybe, it being a mass casualty event, having several dozen cops helps with the emergency response, first aid, and transport to the hospital. Supposedly, the cops were driving people to the ER instead of waiting for ambulances so that might have saved one or two lives.
Also, if there isn’t much else going on why not send a lot of cops to the One Big Event?
Someone whose sitter didn’t show up?
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, and one of the parents will have to take the kid out to the lobby until he/she settles down. It’s not like the 3 month old will be “harmed” by a violent movie.
But thanks for being judgmental.
Cultural custom. Why should hold funerals, it doesn’t do the dead guy any good and it’s just a predictable series of speeches. Same thing. It’s formulaic, but expected.
I’d be interested to know if it was actually an emergency exit door. I don’t know the design of that theater, but the Century I used to go to a lot was built as a stand-alone. Each theater has at least one, maybe two, exit doors at the front of the theater. These are not emergency exits but are meant to allow you to get from the theater to the parking lot without having to go through the mass of people caused by having 24 screens in a single building (this assumes you don’t need to get to the restroom.) Similarly, there are a number of non-emergency doors at the end of and off of hallways. Again, these let you leave without having to go through the main lobby (now that you’re out of the restroom but don’t want to deal with all those people) and are also used to make specific lines for specific screens for very high-demand showings. There are very few, if any, alarmed emergency doors that I can think of. The doors are built for one-way access, obviously, but it never surprised me when someone went out one of the doors at the front.
I guess the constant use of the term “emergency exit” is yet another example of the media not being able to find their ass with both hands. Apparently nuance and correct terminology gets in the way of the disaster porn. Which has given us a sadly dead-on Onion article.
$50 says that within a year, we have to walk through metal detectors to enter a theater, in at least 2 States of the Union.
$25 that an anti-comic book movement is born from this.
:rolleyes::smack:
Ah, putting the theater in security theater. Yes, because he came strapped past the ticket-taker after picking up his $10 popcorn.
Metal detectors would probably kill theaters. Waiting four months for Netflix is a viable option. Fewer idiots at home as well. Or I’d stick with the drive-in, though that’s only seasonal.
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?
It’s already the only place harder than a TSA line to sneak a bottle of water through.
Also, does an exit have to be alarmed to be considered an emergency exit? It seems to me that the quickest and most direct exit to the outside would also be the safest. I’m sure the exits were designed with both purposes in mind. Any exit that gets you outside in the least amount of time would serve in an emergency.
Would it interest you to learn that there does appear to be a documented, witnessed, verified, heroic act by a member of the military?
phila., pa already has metal detectors in movie theatres due to stabbings. they were put in about 15ish years ago. also most of the emergency exits are alarmed. so if you went out them security are alerted and they come around rather quickly. that was put in decades ago due to people sneaking in.
there are some that are not that high security, but the crowds are not as high at those theaters. most people do not camp out to see midnight showings of french subtitles movie.