Colorado Tragedy - 12 Killed, 59 Injured in Theatre Massacre

For those of you going to see the latest Batman release, it may be hard to keep this off of your minds. At a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises outside of Denver, Colorado, in Aurora (this was just 12:30 am in Denver) James Holmes who is reported to have acted alone in this heinous act, threw smoke canisters into a sold-out movie theatre and then proceeded to open fire on the moviegoers.

How a man can smile for this mugshot is beyond me.

In total there were 12 fatalities and 59 other individuals wounded in the attack. Holmes used an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a Glock handgun that were ALL purchased legally in the States, which is an issue for another post in itself. One of the victims was a broadcaster named Jessica Ghawi who narrowly avoided injury in the recent shooting at the Eaton's Centre in Toronto.

The gunman, Jason Holmes, painted his hair red, wore body armour, and proclaimed during the attack that he was the Joker... A very sick individual indeed although why he chose to paint his hair red is beyond me. I'm not trying to make light of the situation but if you are going to commit an act in the name or while portraying some other person or character... Most would get the distinct hair colour right for the Joker. In any case Holmes was arrested and while investigating him the FBI found that Holmes had booby-trapped his apartment.

It never ceases to amaze me how completely fucked up people have become, or how cruel fate can really be. I am not sure what possesses an individual to do such a thing, nor do I understand how someone can be given the gift of surviving one disaster only to be brutally played by the fates and killed in another, but what I do understand is that all life as we know it is finite. We will all die at some point and we should value what we have, while we still have it.

I am not a religious person, far from it, however I would like to ask all of my readers who are of a specified faith to pray for the families of these victims and for the sake of humanity as a whole. To all of my non-faith-oriented readers, just send your best wishes and I mean that literally. Post your own online messages to those affected, I'm sure the city of Aurora is taking letters of consolation and mourning for the families and if not Denver will likely forward them on. Just do something to send the best vibes you can manage down to the victims of this tragedy. I know to you that it must seem like it is so far away that it doesn't affect us but human suffering on this scale affects everyone. The Queen herself, Elizabeth II sent a message detailing her, and Prince Phillip's condolences to Barack Obama and the American people in this troubled time. We should be able to muster the same composure and dignity and compassion to do the same.