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Go Home Aurora: How Sorry Are We?

PLANK JULY 20, 2012

Aurora: How Sorry Are We?

BY TIMOTHY NOAH

I’ve said it before. Now I’ll say it again. Innocent people will continue to die in random shootings as long as our society places less value in human life than it does in the untrammeled right of all Americans, including homicidal psychopaths, to purchase any and all deadly weapons. The new wrinkle in the Aurora, Colo., tragedy is that we now learn that the purchase of tear gas grenades is perfectly legal in Colorado, even though there is no legitimate need—none—for someone not in law enforcement or the military to engage in “control and disbursement of crowds,” to quote an ad selling tear gas grenades online for a mere $16.95 a pop.

We’re sorry that 12 people had to die in Aurora, Colo. But we aren’t sorry enough to lift a finger to prevent it from happening again. 

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16 comments

Well said. True, but futile

- gator27

July 20, 2012 at 11:59am

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Appalling. Tragic. And true.

- janus

July 20, 2012 at 12:06pm

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Politicians, especially Republicans and Southern Democrats, are terrified of the NRA, and as long as many of millions of Americans have a sexual love of guns, the NRA will remain powerful. I mentioned in another post here that I witnessed a couple military veterans this week agreeing that there are secret clauses in "Obamacare" that allow the president to confiscate the guns of every citizen in America. When you combine mentally-ill conspiracy theories with a love of guns, Auroras are inevitable. Americans, if you don't want your kids to be shot dead in movie theaters, get off your asses and into the streets to exercise your First Amendment rights. The right to own guns is only the second most important right. That's why it comes under the Second Amendment.

- magboy47.

July 20, 2012 at 12:23pm

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Well I just perused a few "gun forums" and they're already going off on tangents that this lone-shooter is somehow part of a plot that is either 1) Obama's doing to drum up a tragedy to take away our 2nd Amendment Rights and/or 2) some U.N. plant to drum up support for the upcoming U.N. Small Arms treaty. Sad as it is, it isn't simply a case of some mentally ill person using just a rifle but a clearly, lucid thinking person capable of legally purchasing an assault rifle, tear gas grenades, kevlar armor and booby trap his apartment. This isn't some guy that drew rants on the walls with chalk but someone who gave this a lot of thought. Tragic for those who died and were injured. My thoughts go to the families and victims. But I think we need to take a long hard look at what exactly is considered "reasonable" access to assault weapons by citizens.

- singlspeed

July 20, 2012 at 12:30pm

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It's only a matter of time before someone demands the right to own ground-to-air missile launchers under the 2nd Amendment. "Ground-to-air missile launchers don't bring down airliners -- people do!"

- ironyroad

July 20, 2012 at 12:35pm

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Lets consider the tragedy and pause. Then realize what has entered the psyche. Don't dismiss transcendental meditation too quickly.

- Doug12

July 20, 2012 at 1:29pm

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In the photo I saw of the shooter he had what looked like a schizophrenic smirk on his face. But legally, he is completely sane. He planned this thing like the Navy Seals would. I'm glad he survived. Maybe we'll get some answers. But that won't solve the bigger problem. Like singlespeed said, the NRA and other gun freaks see this as an Obama conspiracy to alienate Americans from guns. In three areas--finance, medical care, and guns, America is a very sick country.

- magboy47.

July 20, 2012 at 1:51pm

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Right on, all of the above and especially Mr. Noah. This is so pointless and we're all vulnerable too. How did these lobbies come to run the US government? Because apparently they do, I don't understand why people can buy tear gas grenades online? Also why do we need assault weapons? People are so paranoid? What? Yet we wind up with stuff like the GOP House attack on Eric Holder? Besides this love of guns there's real paranoia about the government, which I don't understand.

- Sophia

July 20, 2012 at 2:39pm

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according to Rep. Goehmert, it was the victims fault for none of them having the foresight to pack heat and take this guy out amidst the pandemonium, oh, and according to him, they are all probably atheists anyhow (as is the shooter) so it is all ok. If they weren't atheists than God would have put his protective cloak of invincibility all over them. And what I wrote above is the God's honest truth what he said.

- blackton

July 20, 2012 at 2:39pm

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I'm reading a newspaper article from February 6, 1769 about the "priviledge of possessing arms" by people in "a province where the law requires them to be equip'd". The criticism therein was made that the British, in preventing gun ownership, "impute the worst of motives to actions strictly legal (italics supplied)." There is nothing legal about murdering people at the theatre and I don't see why illegal conduct can't be regulated even if it means regulating legal conduct.

- Nusholtz

July 20, 2012 at 4:16pm

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Other publications are making the point that we can expect more of the same; the big question is, why. Other countries have a massacre and they try to prevent future massacres. The Brady Report has dozens of pages of massacres now. As for Rep. Goehmert and his friends including Bachmann, oy.

- Sophia

July 20, 2012 at 5:26pm

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"...according to Rep. Goehmert, it was the victims fault for none of them having the foresight to pack heat and take this guy out amidst the pandemonium..." Gohmert didn't do his homework, blackton. The shooter was wearing a bullet-proof vest and a gas mask, which would have deflected some unfriendly fire. Every time I see Gohmert speaking on TV I think of Gomer Pyle. Only Pyle had a heart. I think there should be laws where you wouldn't be allowed in a public place WITHOUT a gun. After a few mega-shootouts, say like at a football game, where several thousand people are shot to death, maybe the gun nuts would start to think. Maybe. BTW, I don't feel the least bit of sympathy for an NRA member who gets shot in public. The organization has no desire to solve public problems. To its members everything on earth is shoot or be shot. When we're down to survival of the fittest there's no room for sympathy.

- magboy47.

July 20, 2012 at 5:39pm

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I often think of those western movies when I was a kid where the new sheriff comes to town and starts cleaning up. One of his new approaches is always to make the roustabout cowboys coming into town to spend their wages hand over their guns before they start drinkin' and fightin' in the saloon. They can pick them up again when they leave town. In any case, it was a metaphor for civilization. This town is now fit for women, families, etc. There's law and order. It was a very American story. What happened to that story?

- ironyroad

July 20, 2012 at 9:38pm

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As a strick adherent to the original intent of the second amendment, I would argue strenuously that all Americans be allowed to purchase and possess an unlimited number of flintlock muskets, flintlock dueling pistols and Pennsylvania long rifles without the interference of the government. On another historical note, do the gun toting cowboys out there realize that the gunfight at the OK corral was precipitated by the Clantons' failure to check their guns at the sheriff's office? Guess Wyatt had a similar interpretation of the second amendment.

- Vogelfam

July 20, 2012 at 11:01pm

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Very sad. Nevertheless, a lot of hyperbole and not much point handwringing.

- skahn

July 21, 2012 at 12:21am

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http://harpers.org/archive/2012/07/hbc-90008724

- Curran1

July 22, 2012 at 5:03pm

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