Free Republic

With 12 dead and 58 wounded, the July 20th shooting at the Cinemark Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado was sure to result in a lawsuit. On Friday, the first suit was announced, claiming Cinemark has “primary responsibility.” The theater did have responsibility for the attack, but not for the reasons that the lawyers bringing the case think. The lawyer bringing the suit, Attorney Marc Bern, with the New York city law firm of Napoli, Bern, Ripka and Scholonik, suggested the theater should have had security guards the night of the attack. Yet, checking bags or metal detectors at the...

Shortly following the Aurora tragedy, a non-gun-owner friend of mine, obviously upset, began to question me about why I supported ownership of ‘deadly assault weapons.’ Even as he continued his extended, impassioned diatribe, I could tell that he was yet another victim of the media’s ‘assault weapon’ disinformation campaign. --IMAGE HERE-- When he paused, I asked him what he thought an ‘assault weapon’ actually was. Looking at me as if I were mentally challenged, he said that everyone knows “assault weapons are military-style, fully-automatic guns capable of emptying a 100 round magazine in 3 seconds.” When I told him that...

Will it ever stop? Not at the rate we’re going. Will it stop with absolutist arguments from either side on the gun debate? Not with the ‘You’ll-only-pry-this-weapon-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands’ mentality nor with the ‘Make-all-guns-illegal' argument either. Why? Why does Aurora happen? What does it say about us as a culture, that this kind of thing happens here? That it happens here more than it happens any other place in the world? We’re not at war at home. We’re not in a place where suicide bombings happen, and we’re not currently engaged in a religious or territorial war within our own borders. Why...

Following the Aurora shooting, the subject of gun control has returned to our national dialogue. Earlier this week, I wrote about my plan for firearms safety. The article itself was quite popular in terms of readership, but not so much when it came to reader commentary. What I proposed was quite simple; that a thirty day waiting period for firearm sales be mandated by the government. During this time, law enforcement officials would conduct a series of comprehensive background checks on all purchasers. If nothing negative were to turn up, then an individual could retrieve his or her gun after...

HUDSON — Gun sales in Colorado skyrocketed immediately after the shooting deaths of 12 people at a movie theater early Friday, July 20. Background checks for firearm buyers in Colorado were reportedly 25 percent higher than the average Friday-to-Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent higher than they were during the week before the shooting. In New Hampshire, an increase in gun sales was also seen, but it was mostly along the southern tier of the state. Mike Goyette, owner of Pete's Guns and Tackle in Hudson, said gun sales were up 30 percent in the wake of the massacre....

Cutting Rampage Killers Short: What would Patton Do? The short answer? George would have killed the pansy bastard and spat on the corpse. The Long Answer? George would have employed the same tactics he learned in Mexico and the trenches of WWI as a young officer. George would have coolly applied as an individual the same solution to the problem of a vicious surprise attack on a soft target as he did with his armies in WWII France. The Prepared: Foremost, George would be mentally and logistically prepared. He wouldn’t expect to be attacked in that theater, but he would...

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy five years ago, the University of Colorado and other schools across the U.S. created "threat assessment teams" to identify and take action against students who might turn violent. Now, in the aftermath of the movie theater rampage in Aurora, some are wondering whether the system broke down.

The university psychiatrist who was examining accused movie theater shooter James Holmes found his behavior so erratic that she brought it to the attention of a group that measures the possibility of violent campus threats.

James Holmes came to the attention of the threat assessment committee at the University of Colorado but no further action was taken because he left the school more than a month before the attack that killed 12 and injured 58, sources told ABC News. ABC News has learned that Dr. Lynne Fenton, the psychiatrist who was treating Holmes, 24, at the school, was also a key member of the university's threat assessment team. The group of experts were responsible for protecting the school from potentially violent students. KMGH-TV, ABC News' affiliate in Denver, reported exclusively that, according to sources, by...

A screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Cookeville., Tenn., was halted on Thursday after a theater worker reported seeing a moviegoer with a gun. According to the Cookeville Herald-Citizen, a police officer who arrived at the auditorium discovered three men with handguns. The men didn't think they had done anything wrong: Each was one of the state's 344,000 handgun carry permit holders. They were told to put their guns in their vehicles, in accordance with theater policy, and then the movie resumed. The story didn't make national headlines, unlike the July 20 "movie massacre" in Aurora, Col., that left...

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) -- A family member says the woman who lost her 6-year-old daughter in the Aurora theater shooting and suffered a miscarriage is expected to be paralyzed as a result of her injuries. MaryEllen Hansen says doctors still hope her niece, Ashley Moser, will have use of her arms.

By Mr. Curmudgeon: The Windy City has always felt a little like a second-class citizen when compared to the Big Apple. That's why Chicago's other nickname is the Second City. But the greatest force in the universe - stupidity - is helping to level the playing field.After the Aurora, Colorado, shooting, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared on CNN to speak with host Piers Morgan."I don't understand why the police officers across this country don't stand up collectively and say, 'We're going to go on strike. We're not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do...

............On Monday, the judge issued a gag order barring the defense team, the prosecution team and law-enforcement agencies involved in the case from speaking to the media. On Wednesday, the judge reaffirmed his original order after several media outlets, lead by Fox News.com and the Denver Post, reported that Holmes had sent a notebook to a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz campus. The notebook reportedly contained details of the planning for the shooting rampage, according to unnamed law enforcement sources quoted by the media. That could be important for the prosecution in showing that the suspect acted...

It was just last week when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney stood in front of America and said President Obama would only work to curtail violent crime with "existing" gun laws. This was a response to reporters asking whether the President would pursue new gun control measures after a mad man killed 12 and wounded 58 people sitting unarmed in a gun-free zone theater. The shooting has thrust the issue of gun control into the national spotlight with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling on both presidential candidates to better enforce gun laws on the books and Sen....

In the wake of the horrific movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, last Friday that resulted in the deaths of twelve people, there have been renewed calls for increased gun control in the United States. One such call came from the Baltimore Sun . . . Consider this passage from said editorial: What we do know more concretely about the incident, however, raises serious questions about whether Colorado or the rest of the country has done enough to prevent such tragedies from taking place. Surely, it is time to have a public conversation about whether the U.S. ought to adopt...

Based on accounts from Aurora law enforcement, the FBI, the news media, our elected officials and Obama who recently claimed that people just don't build things on their own; can we say that Holmes acted alone? Presumably living on his own for several weeks or a few months with a limited digital footprint and massive amounts of student debt, Holmes cashed in research grant money, unemployment claims, and likely other entitlement program proceeds from various human and/or online resources of local, state and federal agencies to purchase thousands of dollars of weapons, explosives, and tactical equipment, in a period of...

Yes, some of you think this is old. If so, I do not take offense. Perhaps you shouldn't click on the link. HITLER RANTS ABOUT BRIAN ROSS AND ABC

<p>JAMES HOLMES, who opened fire before the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises,” could not have seen the movie. Like many whose misery is reflected in violence, he may simply have been drawn to a highly publicized event with a big crowd...</p>

University of Colorado Denver confirmed it had received a suspicious package on Monday that it gave to the authorities, but they did not identify the sender. US news outlets reported the suspect, neuroscience drop-out James Holmes, mailed writings that included crude drawings of people being shot

James Holmes, accused of killing a dozen people at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” wants to know how the film ended. “Did you see the movie?” a creepy-sounding Holmes asked a stunned jail worker during a bizarre exchange Tuesday. “How does it end?” Holmes, his eyes glazed and his voice flat, repeated the question when the worker ignored him, according to another jail employee who witnessed the incident in the infirmary. Holmes, a 24-year-old ex-honor student, “was trying to look like he was sincerely curious,” the witness recounted to the Daily News. “Like he had no idea...