EDITORIAL: A dark night leads to gun debate
By Editorial Board on July 25, 2012 8:00 am / 6 comments
When eager audiences poured into midnight screenings of “The Dark Knight Rises” Thursday night, no one could have imagined how the poor souls in Aurora, Colo.’s Century 16 Theater would soon be living out the madness of Batman’s comic book world.
No one, that is, except one soul filled with murder, a med-school drop out who came armed with tear gas and guns, dressed as Bane but calling himself the Joker.
James Holmes, with dyed red hair, his face covered in a gas mask and his limbs protected by body armor, gunned down 12 defenseless Americans while they were just trying to watch a movie.
He is nothing more than a man who just wants to watch the world burn.
The tragic irony of the case is how closely the narrative mirrors the Dark Knight’s story. Holmes turned the chaos of Christopher Nolan’s on-screen violence into real-life horror.
Parents who brought their children to see the terrifying villains Batman faces could always whisper comfortingly, “don’t worry; they aren’t real.”
But now, at least for one night, a real Joker did attack. And one wonders if he left any young Bruce Waynes in his wake?
National attention has turned to Holmes’ method, particularly the role guns played in his massacre. Batman himself said in the film, “One man’s tool is another man’s weapon.” That quote is now at the heart of a raging national debate on gun laws.
Some on the left have called for more government regulation on a citizen’s ability to purchase a concealed weapon, while those on the right have used it as cattle call for the National Rifle Association and other like-minded groups to scream government intrusion.
But the fact remains that, even with less access to guns, James Holmes would have found another way to enact terror. He knew what he was doing, evidenced by the meticulous booby-trapping of his nearby apartment.
Once you get past that, the question begs to be asked why a public citizen needs to own a semi-automatic assault rifle. News reports over the weekend said Holmes’ AR-15, purchased on the Internet, was capable of firing 50 to 60 rounds per minute. No citizen, not even those deer hunting on Opening Day, require that kind of power.
The Second Amendment argument can be made all day long, and rightfully so. Citizens have the right to own a gun and protect themselves, exemplified over the weekend in Detroit when a 72-year-old man shot and killed an intruder inside his home. That’s proper, responsible gun use.
But once you enter into a discussion of high-powered assault rifles, enough to kill a crowd in a short amount of time, the game changes. Do we want to allow that kind of power to fall into the hands of anyone?
That’s a discussion we should be having.
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6 Comments
It’s our right to keep and bear arms. Think the Spring Uprising against their tyrannical governments could have been accomplished with slingshots or Nerf guns?
It’s sad we have a very disturbed individual that also used tear gas and set bombs in his apartment. But he also used a car to get to the theatre. Unfortunately everyday someone’s dies from a car crash – so lets ban cars especially the fast ones because no one needs to go more than 70 miles per hour.
Please stop from trying to infringe on our constitutional rights. Remember that includes free speech too and I’m sure the editorial board doesn’t want to be told by the administration what they have to write about.
So… what’s the limit, then? The same people who don’t want any limit
on their right to carry whichever automatic weapon they favor are
opposed to other nations having a deterrent like an atomic weapon.
What’s good for the goose, ain’t good for the gander, huh?
This massacre was accomplished through semi-automatic weaponry and
ammunition. Should the response to it be to allow automatic weapons?
RPGs? A bazooka? The Bill of Rights doesn’t expressly forbid the
ownership of a tank or a battleship with rockets or biological weapons.
So should I be allowed to purchase and own them? Point them at your
house?
The debate isn’t ever about whether guns should be allowed– almost no
one argues that guns for hunting and home protection and target practice
should be limited. The debate should be over whether the laughably
simple procurement of guns again and again and again by lunatics should
be checked. How do we check it without capricious and subjective (and
potentially corrupt and dangerous) methods? We limit the type of gun
that can be purchased to reasonable weapons that are useful for
something other than slaughter.
This isn’t Patriot Games. There aren’t bands of armed men coming to
steal your family. There might be a home invasion, and the remedy for
that is a shotgun. There might be a deer, and the remedy for that is a
rifle. There might be a paper silhouette, and the remedy for that is a
pistol. What is unnecessary, no matter how aroused you get by the sight
of it, is an automatic weapon or a semi-automatic weapon capable of
practically unlimited ammunition clips and a rate of fire that is suited
to the battlefield… not a movie theatre.
No one is trying to take your guns away. You’re being fed lies by a
trade organization that is run and funded by arms manufacturers. It’s a
neat trick to tell someone that they won’t be able to get something
anymore, because it makes them spend more than they otherwise would
have. Especially if it’s a neat product that makes people feel unique
and powerful. But the truth is that there are more than enough guns to
go around, and no one is going to flash a badge and try to take them
from you. It hasn’t happened in the first three years of the Obama
administration, and it won’t happen in the next five.
I agree Vince.
How about we try this.
Liberals won’t like it.
Get rid of the insanity garbage.
And, get speedier trials.
For example, in this case or the Congresswomen Giffords Case, there is no doubt who did the killing. There were many witnesses. So, you have the trial within 30 days. An appeal for 30 days and then you hang the individual in the town square.
Do you realize back in 1865, the people convicted for death and who were involved in Lincoln’s assassination were hung within 90 days.
That’s what we need to do. When there is no doubt who did the killing, hang them within 90 days and do it in a public square that will teach people, especially K-12 kids, not to murder.
The current system rewards the killer, the trial lawyers who will make millions of dollars in book sales and shrinks (psychologists). The loser is the victim’s family who has to sit there and watch all this garbage.
If I were president, the nut involved in the Gabby Giffords case would have been executed by now.
The Joker in Colorado would be gone in another 60 days.
We got to get back to tough law and order in cases where there is no doubt who the killer is. I don’t mean like OJ Simpson where there were no witnesses. I’m talking about this theatre massacre and the Gabby Giffords shootings where there is no doubt who the killer was.
Chicago has some of the toughest gun laws and more people are dying there than soldiers in the middle east! The criminals will always get guns.
Also, Vince, I read where this nutty PHD neuroscientist in Colorado was making grenades at the University of Colorado. So, when Liberals say increasing educational funding so college administrators and unionized, tenured faculty can pad their wallets with pay increases, doesn’t decrease the crime rates.
There were no guns used on September 11, 2001. No guns in Oklahoma City. So, Liberals, are we going to ban box cutters and airplanes and fertilizer since that was used in Oklahoma City. And, I guess we have to ban neuroscience departments on college campuses.
“firing 50 to 60 rounds per minute. No citizen, not even those deer hunting on Opening Day, require that kind of power.”
I would like to add that if the left leaning press thinks we should toss out or limit the 2 Admendment then maybe editorial boards and the press should limit their 1st Admendment rights by only only using no more than 10 words to state their position. They should not “require that kind of power” of using more words.
I suggest students be required to study the Constitution and the Bill of Rights along with the Federalist Papers to understand why they have freedom of speech, religion and besides the other rights, the right to keep and bear arms with an understanding of why.
Does the editorial board understand if they were in countries like Egypt, Libia, Iran, North Korea, etc. they would truly understand why WE have the second Admendment. The Liberal press and Editorial Board needs to rethink why WE have these rights and they should work to protect all of them.
Hey Vince, I agree the CM LIFE staff should read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
In fact, every CMU student should as long as the instructor isn’t some left-wing radical.But, go easy on the young people. It’s not their fault. They have been surrounded by tenured, unionized faculty who are the biggest contributors to the Democratic Party. They’ve been brainwashed! We have 4 far left-wingers on the US Supreme Court, lousy hires by Clinton and Obama, who have never read the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those 4 judicial hacks–Kagan, Soutemayer, Ginsberg and Breyer. If Obama gets to put one more left-winger on there if one of the 5 Republicans leave, then this country is finished. The first and second amendments will be gone. We have to elect Romney and get a Republican House and Senate and then they immediately need to start turning this country around. The good news—gun sales in Colorado are flying through the roof. People need to arm themselves against the bad guys. Look at Chicago, Vince. Another flash mob of inner-city youth ransacked a clothing store stealing $3,000 worth of clothes. Because of Chicago’s strict gun control laws, those merchants can’t have a gun to protect themselves and their property. You think the inner-city youth don’t know this. So, they get together as a group and commit crime. They know they can get away with it since they won’t see Smith and Wesson.If I was on the CMU Board, I’d have every CMU student required to take the FREE Hillsdale College online course on the US Constitution. They advertise on Rush, Hannity and Mark Levin, all great shows on WJR, Detroit. Hillsdale has the best course!
This comes up single time somebody is killed by another person with a gun and it is crap every time.
People are insane and deranged. Not handguns. There will always be unhinged people in society.
Making weapons illegal only prevents law abiding people from purchasing them. Criminals break the law no matter what.
Oh, and on a similar note, Holmes was a patsy.