Thoughts On A Tragedy
It's been just over a week since that horrible tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, and pretty much everything that could be said about it probably has been by now. I've actually been debating whether or not I should add my two cents to the discourse, since in the grand scheme of things, my opinions on what happened really aren't all that important at all. I mean, who cares what I have to say about it? But I've been thinking about it off and on at different times during the past week, so I figured I might as well do something to collect those thoughts.
I don't know how closely any of you reading this have been following the case, if you even have been at all, but it's sparked a number of arguments about it. The big one has been gun control. One side says the shooting is proof that guns need to be kept out of the hands of citizens, from the biggest machine guns to the tiniest pea shooters. The other side argues that doing that would be a violation of our Constitutional rights. My opinion tends to skew towards the middle of this argument. Don't make gun ownership illegal, just make the bigger weapons harder to get. If a guy walks into a gun store and wants to buy an Uzi or AK-47 or something, then make him jump through some serious hoops before he can get it.
The other argument regards violence in media and how it affects violence in real life. This argument has been around seemingly forever. Go back to 1999, and you'll see Marilyn Manson and the video game Doom get the lion's share of the blame for the Columbine massacre. Because Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold couldn't just be two psychos that killed everyone at school one day, no sir. It had to be because of heavy metal and video games. Ever since the Aurora shootings, I've heard people blaming the Batman movies for what happened. Really. I can't even begin to comprehend just how unbelievably stupid that sounds.
Blaming music, movies, and video games for violence is one of the most preposterous things I've ever heard. I've been a fan of the Friday the 13th movies since adolescence, but you don't see me running around in a hockey mask hacking people up with a machete. I will confess to thinking it'd be neat to try backyard wrestling at the end of the '90s when that sort of thing was in fashion, but my friends and I at least knew pro wrestling was fake and would go out of our way to avoid intentionally hurting each other. And even then, there's an enormous gap between imitating pro wrestling in your backyard and walking into a crowded public place and opening fire. If violent media really influences you so much that you want to go out and kill a dozen people in real life, then you're probably already mentally disturbed to begin with.
And of all the things to make the Aurora shooter go crazy, it's friggin' Batman?! Really? Batman? The shooter had his apartment booby-trapped with explosives, so maybe he was hoping to become a supervillain and fight Batman in real life or something. Combining that with the shooting, this guy should probably be locked away for the rest of his life, whether it be in an asylum or a regular prison. Because he's completely bonkers.
No matter what was running through this psycho's head, if anything, it won't change the fact that twelve innocent people had their lives ended for no good reason. If movies really did inspire this guy to be a supervillain, I wish they'd inspire a few superheroes. Because the world could use some right now.
I don't know how closely any of you reading this have been following the case, if you even have been at all, but it's sparked a number of arguments about it. The big one has been gun control. One side says the shooting is proof that guns need to be kept out of the hands of citizens, from the biggest machine guns to the tiniest pea shooters. The other side argues that doing that would be a violation of our Constitutional rights. My opinion tends to skew towards the middle of this argument. Don't make gun ownership illegal, just make the bigger weapons harder to get. If a guy walks into a gun store and wants to buy an Uzi or AK-47 or something, then make him jump through some serious hoops before he can get it.
The other argument regards violence in media and how it affects violence in real life. This argument has been around seemingly forever. Go back to 1999, and you'll see Marilyn Manson and the video game Doom get the lion's share of the blame for the Columbine massacre. Because Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold couldn't just be two psychos that killed everyone at school one day, no sir. It had to be because of heavy metal and video games. Ever since the Aurora shootings, I've heard people blaming the Batman movies for what happened. Really. I can't even begin to comprehend just how unbelievably stupid that sounds.
Blaming music, movies, and video games for violence is one of the most preposterous things I've ever heard. I've been a fan of the Friday the 13th movies since adolescence, but you don't see me running around in a hockey mask hacking people up with a machete. I will confess to thinking it'd be neat to try backyard wrestling at the end of the '90s when that sort of thing was in fashion, but my friends and I at least knew pro wrestling was fake and would go out of our way to avoid intentionally hurting each other. And even then, there's an enormous gap between imitating pro wrestling in your backyard and walking into a crowded public place and opening fire. If violent media really influences you so much that you want to go out and kill a dozen people in real life, then you're probably already mentally disturbed to begin with.
And of all the things to make the Aurora shooter go crazy, it's friggin' Batman?! Really? Batman? The shooter had his apartment booby-trapped with explosives, so maybe he was hoping to become a supervillain and fight Batman in real life or something. Combining that with the shooting, this guy should probably be locked away for the rest of his life, whether it be in an asylum or a regular prison. Because he's completely bonkers.
No matter what was running through this psycho's head, if anything, it won't change the fact that twelve innocent people had their lives ended for no good reason. If movies really did inspire this guy to be a supervillain, I wish they'd inspire a few superheroes. Because the world could use some right now.
posted by Matt Sutton at
1:01 PM
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