Colorado Monster

My condolences go out to those who have been hurt in the recent Colorado shooting, as well as their family and friends. It is an unexpected, tragic event, and it is also unfortunate that "random" shootings have become more frequent in history. In the history of Colorado, Columbine also comes to mind... a tragedy frozen in time in the case of later Generation X (and beyond).

James Holmes is a monster. He is also a graduate of the University of California-Riverside, which is in the same area as I am in. He is described as being a highly intelligent man, and disgustingly enough, due to his growing fame, numerous people have requested being a "friend" of the wrong James Holmes on Facebook. It quickly reminds me of the 1990's movie "Natural Born Killers" in which the media glamorizes psychopathic, cold-blooded murderers. Our society isn't too far off from that scenario. And to think that the shooting happened in a movie theater in which innocent movie-goers were just trying to watch "The Dark Knight Rises". He had to pick a place where no one could see it coming, where it would be hard to escape.

Aside from the actual incident, Holmes reportedly purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition online. I wonder if such a finding would be distorted in the media, or in society in which gun control is still a fiery topic. It is not guns that kill people; it is those evil people who misuse guns. There are other people out there who are responsible with their weapons, and who would never harm another soul- yet there are a few token individuals out there who ruin it for everyone else, and our culture once again reverts to black-and-white thinking in which the right to bear arms becomes visibly reduced.  However, it also reported that "changes in laws are unlikely, partly because of a lack of support for new measures in Congress and among the public at large". The Trayvon Martin case has also come to mind, with issues going beyond Second Amendment rights and racial lines. Time will tell how tragedy affects everyone else's rights and perspectives as a whole. But regardless of the result, it doesn't make our country any less fearful.