14 killed in mass shooting at Batman screening

[J. J.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_shooting

The shooter was James Eagan Holmes, 24, a graduate of UC, Riverside and a Ph D candidate at University of Colorado Medical.  Wow.

They say there is a thin line between genius and insanity.  Oh, God, those poor people. 

[J. J.]

Yeah, I'm angry at the shooter, of course. But the shooter knew what he was doing, and turned himself in voluntarily. The punishment doesn't phase him. Anger at him seems- impotent. Hence the search for other things that we could have done to prevent or at least mitigate this kind of thing, hence the turn to guns.

The fact of the matter is, the assault weapon (AR-15) the guy used would have been covered under the AWB of 2004. Whether, without this weapon, casualties would have almost certainly been less than the 40. The AR-15 is a very powerful weapon, the civilian equivalent of the M-16. It was by far the most powerful thing in his arsenal.

He had some bombs at home.

He used tear gas, not a smoke grenade.

[J. J.]

The shooter was James Eagan Holmes, 24, a graduate of UC, Riverside and a Ph D candidate at University of Colorado Medical.  Wow.

I suspect that there are few things more likely to push a man over the brink than being a PhD candidate.

I never suggested it did, just that he seems to have been quite brilliant.  That would make him dangerous.

[J. J.]

Good God, we've managed to inject antintellectualism in this debate.

No, merely stating fact.  He is less likely to make mistakes, and that makes him more dangerous.

[J. J.]

Holmes is no dummy.  Graduated college, a reasonably hard one, with a hard degree and with high honors.  Phi Beta Kappa.  In a hard doctoral program.  I don't understand what made him do it.

I also have no doubt that, with his apartment rigged, he probably could have devised another weapon, or weapons.