The Aurora Shootings

http://nydailynews.com/news/national/dark-knight-rises-screening-shooting-leaves-20-injured-deaths-feared-reports-article-1.1118289

Oy. Talk about tragic. We should extend healing thoughts to the families and victims.

And, we should reflect on death. Put yourself in the gunman's situation and in the victims' situations.

This is very scary and extremely tragic. Personally, I'm a movie theater guy who watches movies on the big screen all the time, so this is very relevant to my life. I can only try to imagine the chaotic and fearful thoughts of those movie watchers who just wanted to see the movie, but were instead faced with a life-or-death situation.

Moreover, I can't understand why the shooter did what he did, because there is absolutely no justification for his actions. Depressed? Anger management problems? There are moral ways to deal with these issues, and do not justify killing random people and picking them off like bugs. Furthermore, even if he had mental disabilities, there are medications and support services for that - mental disabilities are still no excuse for what he did.

I personally have no empathy for that shooter. Let the courts decide his fate, and lock him up or lock him down.

I agree. What's more important than his fate, which is pretty much set even now, is how WE conduct ourselves.

Murderers and heroes are sometimes synonymous, even in their delusion.

We must always, always keep our ideals and motivations in check, and take the responsibility to ensure the safe application of those ideals.

What's funny to me is that he might have thought himself to be a "jedi".

Sacrificing himself, and many other people along the way, for "greater good".
Maybe he thought that such despicable act would finally open the eyes of the society, make it realise that something is very fundamentaly wrong?

Sad thing is, it always fails.

I have been following this story live on the BBC news website today, and whilst I of course feel huge sadness about the lives that have been lost, I also feel sadness for the shooter. I have no idea what would cause a person to act in such a way, but no person should have to find themselves in a situation where they think that needless slaughter is the answer to their problems.

Pakislav wrote: What's funny to me is that he might have thought himself to be a "jedi".

Sacrificing himself, and many other people along the way, for "greater good".
Maybe he thought that such despicable act would finally open the eyes of the society, make it realise that something is very fundamentaly wrong?

Sad thing is, it always fails.

Why a Jedi?

Your example could just as easily, and perhaps more likely, apply to a fundamentalist from one of the larger world religions.

But you're right: it always fails.

---

MTFBWY,
LTK

A friend of mine went to the movies last night at one of our more popular venues. He said security was pretty tight. 2 Police officers at the entrance and exit on the front end, another officer patrolling around the whole building, and inside, the management and the staff were constantly walking around with 2 way radios in their hands going in and out of the different rooms.

It's kind of scary to see such a thing, but at the same time, it's nice to see the managers of these theaters taking things so seriously. I'm sure not all theaters are doing this, though. Out of the 4 theaters I drove past on my errands today, 3 of them had at least one police officer driving and walking around.

I do have to say, though, that the people in that theater were actually pretty lucky. In case some of you didn't know, the shooter had a plan. He rigged his apartment on the other side of town with explosives. The plan was to have a set up where at a certain time, his stereo would kick on and blast loud music, causing the people in the apartment to call police. At that point, the police would come, end up knocking down his door, triggering an explosion which would send all available units and medics to the apartments, which would give the shooter more time at the theater instead of only the 30+ seconds that he actually got.

Divine intervention? Luck? Either way you look at it, it's good to see that things didn't get as bad as was originally planned. I believe it was his early capture and confession that stopped the police from busting into his apartment.

Divine intervention? Luck?

I can't answer that with 100% certainty, but I'm still pretty confident God/Goddess/Deity had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Because if I were to give deity credit for stopping a circumstance leading to more death at the suspect's apartment than I must also give said deity the same credit for willing the murders in the theater in the first place.

If deity got off his/her/it's duff to stop the rigged apartment from exploding but couldn't manage to get off the couch to do a thing about the theater, then what a pathetic deity.

It reminds me of a story that just happened in Utah a few weeks ago where a poor, helpless little 6 year old was raped, strangled and then drowned by a kidnapper after being abducted from her own bed in what she probably thought was her safe room in her safe house.

The statement given by the West Jordan, UT police chief about the later capture of the suspect is asinine, "Miracles do happen. I'm not going to say it's not divine intervention. I myself believe it is divine intervention."

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=21194209&nid=148&title=neighbor-arrested-in-murder-of-6-year-old-sierra-newbold&s_cid=featured-1

So, god will let a little girl be strangled, raped and drowned, but god stepped up to catch the abductor after the fact! Great job god!

Remember: you can't count on god to intervene during the crisis, but after the horrific act takes place, THEN god may do something about it.

Divine intervention? No. Just some bad sh** that happened in Aurora, CO and West Jordan UT.

So sad. So incredibly sad.

My heart goes out to the victims and the innocent. I hope they find peace and comfort in this terrible tragedy, even if it is from a god I just lambasted. I don't care where people find peace, I just want them to find it.

-LTK

(p.s. This is nothing personal to Hadi Apollos, whom I think very highly of as a Jedi.)

LTK, these are strong sentiments you speak but one I happen to believe also. I have been telling people for years that as a parent, if my child does something bad, I may scold him or punish them is some way, BUT, there is always forgiveness and return to the fold. SO, OK GOD, GET OVER IT! I DIDN"T EAT THE APPLE!

It seems to me that when the collective consciousness of many being come together there is nothing they cannot accomplish. The "energy" of the Force that exist in each one of us is mightier when combined to a single goal.

As we say in the fire service...Complacency Kills! So we go about our lives as individuals not caring about the world around us until something like Aurora Colorado happens. It is only then do we work together for the common good, and good things happen.

We are all in this together!

Religious people believe in divine intervention, and not in good luck. They like to integrate events with their existing beliefs. Therefore when something good happens, people think god did it for a reason... And that is the start of ritualistic behaviour.

It's in our nature (even that of pigeons) to "understand" things. People much prefer misunderstanding things than having no clue.