I have wondered the past few days what I would write about in my next blog. The topics that have run through my head have been pushed to the back burner due to the shooting massacre in Aurora, CO. Some of the details have been released by authorities as their investigation continues. As I write this 12 are confirmed dead and 58 are listed as wounded.
There are many directions this story will lean over the coming days and weeks. There will be the understandable quest for a motive, the inevitable link to the movie "The Dark Knight Rises", there will be discussions of the topic of violence in motion pictures and in life, concerns about tightened security at movie theaters and much much more.
One also has to think about the amount of tragic and violent events that have rocked that area of Colorado. The theater shooting took place not far from Columbine High School, the site of a mass murder in 1999. It is also the same community that is still haunted by the Jon Benet Ramsey murder; which remains unsolved. This area has certainly had it share of devastating events.
Wiser minds than mine will ponder and try to answer why these types of events happen in the Denver metropolitan area. The fact is this could have happened anywhere. Columbine and Aurora are not much different than the community where I live.
I don't say that to make people afraid to go out of their homes, into their communities, attend motion pictures or midnight premieres. If anything, it is just the opposite. You can never know when evil, the unexplainable might happen. We can not let unexplainable and random acts paralyze us.
Consider the story of one of the victims in the theater shooting, Jessica Redfield. Also known as Jessi Ghawi, she was an aspiring Colorado sports reporter who had narrowly escaped a Toronto mall shooting last month. She wrote in her blog that she had a eerie feeling that day and felt she had to get out of the food court area; so she left. Moments later a gunman opened fire killing one and wounding several others.
Last night there was no such eerie feeling. The 24-year old was one of the 12 to be killed. My point...none of us are guaranteed the next sunrise....next week...our next breath. We should not be afraid to live our lives as fully and as completely as possible. Life is too short not to.
It is common for us to hear of suicide bombers in the Middle East and we often breathe a sigh of relief when we learn that it didn't happen in our country or our community. Then something like this sends a shock wave through us.
The one topic that I haven't mentioned to this point is the weapons used in the massacre: “An AR-15 assault rifle, a Remington 870 12-gauge shot gun and a .40 caliber Glock handgun. We believe those three weapons were used in the scene and another .40 caliber Glock handgun was found in the car. We’re not sure if that was also used in the scene,” said Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates.
All of the weapons were obtain legally; which is disturbing to me. I am as big a defender of America's Constitution...including the 2nd Amendment...as anyone. What I can't defend is why anyone needs to possess assault weapons.
This will be the main topic of debate over what happened in Colorado. Some will argue that if you take guns away from the people only criminals will have them. The reality is that the suspect was able to purchase the weapons legally because he had NO criminal record prior to the shooting.
He can't say that anymore!
Thanks for reading.
Jeff
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