The Dark Knight Massacre: A Tragic Night in Colorado

In the early morning on the twentieth of July, the final movie in the Dark Knight trilogy was released, sending thousands of people to the theaters to see the midnight show. Unknown yet to the movie-goers of one unlucky theatre in Aurora, Colorado, was that there night was about to turn into one of the worst nights in their lives. Between twenty and thirty minutes into the movie, a masked man, James Holmes, entered the emergency exit door carrying a gas bomb and an assault rifle. He set off the gas bomb, causing mass hysteria. Then, he opened fire. He shot constantly into the crowd for at least a good minute and a half. His shots sent people to hit the floor and take cover, starting a stampede for the exits. His gunfire killed twelve people and injured up to fifty-eight. This man, who was wearing a mask, a bullet proof vest, and a trench coat, escaped the theatre but was soon captured by the authorities. His wardrobe matched the villain Bane from “The Dark Knight Rises,” though no official report has been given stating that there was any correlation between the two. Not only that, the shooter told police while he was being arrested that he was the Joker, hence the red hair. These features( along with a psych evaluation) clearly shows that Holmes was a deeply disturbed individual. Some say that his “costume” was a result of major influences from multimedia. Can people be so easily influenced by fictional characters? I believe that people can be, but this not in this instance.

While multimedia may influence many aspects of our lives, I highly doubt the fictional character Bane was an influence in Holmes’s attack. Although Holmes was dressed up as Bane with the hair of the Joker, I do not believe these fictional characters influenced his decision to attack the defenseless movie-goers. For someone to be influenced by a character to commit acts of terror, the person would have to absolutely be not mentally sound. The fact that the police found his apartment bobby-trapped with explosives, and that Holmes had bought large amounts of ammunition over a period of months shows that this was a pre-meditated attack. If he was completely insane, he would not have the mental-capacity to plan such attack. Does this mean he is not a disturbed person? No; absolutely not. It just means that he was mentally-sound when planning the attack. I hope that he will regret this horrible act of violence for the rest of his life. But I hope, more than anything, that the family’s effected by this massacre are alright and get the justice they deserve.

*Featured Image: “Memorial outside Aurora Century movie theater where shooting occured” by Algr @ Wikipedia