Wrong or Unknown Answer

He has appeared twice now before the judge, with some of the families of the fallen and surviving victims of the killing spree present. James Holmes, neuroscience student with family roots dating back to the Mayflower pilgrims (the very same who deprived the native peoples of their land and founded America’s first colonies), was charged with 142 counts, 24 for first degree murder, two for each victim he killed in Aurora’s Century 16 Theater at the release of the third film in the Batman trilogy.

Hair colored orange, eyes and gestures suggesting mental disturbance, the 24-year-old youth seems prepared to plea insanity and save himself from capital punishment or life in prison for his numerous crimes. The tragedy in North American society, however, is growing still, as the predominant response to Holmes’ abominable deeds is drastically rising gun sales.

“The Denver Post” reported that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation approved the sale of firearms to 2,887 people over the weekend, indicating a 43 percent increase since before the massacre.

And that dizzying increase in sales is not limited to Colorado. It is taking place all over the country. The same happened in 2007 after a shooting left 32 dead at Virginia Tech. In Arizona, after the shooting in Tucson killed six and claimed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as one of the wounded, gun sales increased by 60 percent.

“It’s been insane,” said Jake Meyers, an employee at Rocky Mountain Guns and Ammo, a firearms store in Parker.

And just as on those horrific but sadly frequent occasions, the arguments are flying between those who fruitlessly advocate prohibition of firearms possession in American homes and those who champion the Second Amendment to exercise the strange “right” to bear arms in defense. As if we were in an age of citizen militias rather than an age of violence where citizens can count on the most powerful army in the world, ever more militarized police departments, surveillance superstores, domestic and foreign intelligence and espionage and even private security businesses, just to cite a few of the militarized bodies that ought to guarantee the public’s safety. This demonstrates a mercenary streak that has been unprecedented in the history of humanity.

Where the contradiction lies is that these militarized institutions also perpetrate excessive violence. Some do it against other peoples or nations in order to rule the world, others against minorities or pacifists, political dissidents or opponents of the all-encompassing power of banks and financial groups.

In an online chat about the topic, one of the participants noted that every year an average of 9,000 Americans die from gunshot wounds, attributing the prevalent violence not only to arms possession, but also other social ills. But there is no doubt that the ease of buying weapons in the U.S. is a major factor.

Nonetheless, just a day after the tragedy in Aurora, a 51-year-old rugby trainer and target practice enthusiast declared totally unemotionally to news agency “Agence France-Presse,” “If I had been there, I would have killed him.”*

Never mind trying to imagine a duel like that in the packed theater where Holmes, carrying an assault rifle among other weapons, sprayed 60 rounds a minute and left 12 dead and 58 wounded. The innocent victims would have been greater still. The AFP story quoted a mother shopping in a gun shop with her 5- or 6-year-old daughter. When the girl picked up a rifle, the mother told her, “Honey, that one is too big for you. Let’s go look for another one.”*

Just some motherly advice on exercising the law in a country that was born and bred on violence.

The topic opens itself up to all kinds of discussion, but I will point out a billboard that a group put up in Idaho immediately after the massacre that looked like it could have been perpetrated by Batman’s nemesis, the Joker. It shows two images, one of James Holmes and one of President Barack Obama, along with these words:

“Kills 12 in movie theater with assault rifle

Everyone freaks out”

“Kills thousands with his foreign policy

Wins Nobel Peace Prize”

Truthfully, both should be arrested, but in the United States it seems that nobody wants to stick his neck out when powerful interests stand behind violence.

*This quote, while accurately translated, cannot be verified.