If you know me, you know that I am a Batman fan. Had I not been out on a road trip, I probably would have gone to a midnight showing of Dark Knight Rises (midnight showings used to be a far more regular part of my life, but I don’t make the time as much anymore). Upon hearing the tragic news of the midnight showing shooting in Aurora, Colorado, I was extremely saddened. My heart and prayers are certainly with the survivors, their families, and the families of the victims.
It also has me thinking about all of those people going to a superhero movie to escape and see an uplifting tale of justice (I am assuming here, I haven’t seen it yet), only to wind up on a situation where even a superhero couldn’t predict or intervene short of being right there. The whole thing was over in minutes, over 70 people shot and the gunman arrested in the span of a commercial break.
And what of this gunman? Reports are he’s in his twenties, told one of the officers he was the Joker (I am a little skeptical of this report, but could see it happening), and he surrendered without a struggle immediately afterwards. One person in over three hundred million in the United States decided to perform a heinous act which directly altered hundreds of lives and we were absolutely powerless to stop it. We could only clean up the aftermath and then seek justice in a situation where a true balancing of the scales is impossible.
One of the most heartbreaking stories coming out of this tragedy is that of Jessica Redfield. Her final blog post recounts the horror of her brush with a mall shooting in Toronto, standing where the shooter would be only three minutes later. She died last night in that theater, a horrifying international nexus of bad decisions (none of which were hers) and gun violence.
Unfortunately when I go to reach for answers in this situation I come back with nothing but air. There are gun issues at play here that I can’t even begin to discuss competently at this time, though I am sure more information about how he acquired his weapons and his history is forthcoming. I also can’t touch his mental state or makeup, but we will find out more about that as well. It seems as if the gunman didn’t have any sort of record, so it really seems that as of now there’s no way that this could have been prevented.
What we can be thankful for are the everyday heroes and first responders who quickly apprehended the gunman and treated the wounded there. I can’t imagine the nightmare scenario unfolding: a confused, panicked mob, multiple people in costumes, a gunman with no apparent motive and the advantage of preparation. I saw a note that this incident had the most number of people injured or killed in a mass shooting in the United States, and I find it profoundly sad that we have to have such a “record.”
I’ll admit, I’m being a bit selfish, as the main point of this post was to process through my thoughts on the situation. I don’t think I can truly convey the abhorrence I have for this act or the pain I feel for its victims. I always imagine that my being there could change events, and I know I am most likely wrong. It makes one feel helpless, though, being all these miles away and the best one can do is to pray or make a donation. I hope those actions are sufficient to begin the healing process, that their community can be restored, and that justice can be served.
UPDATE: I cannot speak to the spiritual side of this event as well as this blog posting: So you still think God is a merciful God?!
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