Notes on the Shooting in Colorado

[gehayi]

In Aurora, bomb experts complete first phase of disarming apartment of James Holmes

On Saturday morning, local and federal bomb experts were able to safely disable a tripwire and an incendiary device rigged near the entrance to James Holmes’s 800-square-foot apartment, Aurora Police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson said. Those two things had been “set up to

Comments

[elanor_x]

//I'm not interested in his motivations

May be knowing them would help in the future. In some cases, at least. Otherwise, nothing can be done at all.

He's already getting all the attention anyway.

In Israel we have Arab terrorism, but during > 10 years, I've heard of 1 similar in nature attack, though much smaller. If, after taking into account US's great size & population, such attacks are more numerous there, why?

I wish his motives become known and, may be, something can be done to prevent or lessen the severity of next attack.

[gehayi]

May be knowing them would help in the future. In some cases, at least. Otherwise, nothing can be done at all.

I don't know that it will, that's the thing. Profilers have been studying bastards like this for about thirty years...and there hasn't been any decline in such incidents, as far as I can tell.

In Israel we have Arab terrorism, but during > 10 years, I've heard of 1 similar in nature attack, though much smaller. If, after taking into account US's great size & population, such attacks are more numerous there, why?

Easily accessible arms and ordnance, the glamorization of violence and violent individuals, and an increasingly angry population, especially on the far right--just to name a few.

[hoppytoad79]

I wonder if the fact that every Israeli over the age of 18 has to do a stint in the military might have anything to do with it. The adult population is going to have a much more informed attitude toward firearms, their use, and what they're capable of doing, and what percentage of those who served have seen battle and death firsthand, or been witness to the aftermath? How many who haven't been in the military have some kind of connection to those who have been victims of Arab terrorism?

[hoppytoad79]

But with a crazy guy, that probably wouldn't matter.

That's the key here: Holmes is severely mentally unbalanced. I went to the page that has the page from the graphic novel and found it to be quite tame in terms of depiction and description of violence. Also, how events unfolded in the graphic novel isn't how it unfolded with Holmes. He went in wearing a costume, left, changed into armor, and then came in with a gun. In the graphic novel, the guy went in the first time carrying the gun and wasn't wearing any protective gear.

The way I see this, if the graphic novel was gasoline that fueled Holmes' explosion of violence, there never would have been an explosion if a flame wasn't already present inside his mind. You can pour gasoline all over a pile of newspaper, but without a source of ignition, all you'll ever have is soggy newspaper.

[gehayi]

I'm honestly not sure if he's really crazy or if he's laying the foundations for an insanity defense. It's too early to tell, I think.

One thing that I am wondering is whether or not Holmes is color-blind. He dyed his hair red to emulate the Joker...and yet the Joker is always portrayed with green hair.

[hoppytoad79]

Interesting theory. Now I'm curious.