There are those who see the shooting in Colorado as proof of a government, or other powerful group, working behind the scenes. How did an unemployed college student come up with $20,000 to buy all that armor and ammo and so on? He must have been funded. Or so they claim. Well, just for giggles, I trolled eBay and Craig’s list yesterday. I could have gotten everything that’s been listed in the news for around $5,000. A medical student from a solid family could get a line of credit that large in a heartbeat. Earlier reports that the apartment was wired with C4, a deadly explosive, appear to have been inaccurate. So, no need to for military intervention to explain that. Although, to be blunt, I could get my hands on C4 in two phone calls if need be, as long as I had the money. It’s not that difficult.
There are those who assigned political motives to the shooting. ABC Television breathlessly announced that the shooter was a member of …. wait for it …. THE TEA PARTY!!! Which was wrong on so many levels as to be frightening. Even if it were true, which it wasn’t, what the hell difference would it have made? Are they seriously implying that anyone who votes for Mitt Romney is capable of being a spree killer? Even for a died in the wool lefty like me that seems a touch extreme.
And stupid.
Then there are those who seem to be claiming, all while stating that this is not what they’re claiming – because that would be tacky, that the audience was somehow cowardly. The fact that they did not rush the gunman and subdue him makes them weak. The fact that some of the dead died lying on top of the people they’d sworn to protect is lost on them. The fact that the adults did all they could to remove their charges from harm’s way is meaningless to them. The fact that people tried to do the right thing, protect their loved ones and get everyone to safety makes them feeble according to these morons. Those making these claims cite Flight 93 where the passengers attacked the hijackers. They leave out the fact that those passengers knew they about the towers, knew they were about to die and had no choice. They also leave out the fact that the passengers had time to plan and act. None of those circumstances were in play in Colorado.
I know, facts are irritating.
Of course there are also those who claim that the outcome would have been very different if the audience had been armed. For the record, I am an excellent shot. With a pistol I can get 4 out of 5 head shots at 50 yards on a range. In a dark theater, filled with smoke and flying bullets with less than a minute from the start of the killing to the end, the odds are much greater that I would have killed an innocent bystander or six long before I got a round in the gunman. A room full of panicked people firing in the general direction of a shadowy figure in body armor? With a hundred or so people in the way? The carnage would have been insane. Just because someone took a basic gun safety course and had enough money to purchase ammo does not make them a Marine quality sniper.
I don’t care how many episodes of NCIS they’ve seen.
The sad underlying theme to all of these critiques is “I could have done better” as though there is a grade for situations like this.
“Oh look honey, Bobby got a ‘B+’ in his ‘Attacked by a Deranged Gunman’ class. I smell a trip to Dairy Queen!”
I know that facts suck the fun out of everything but they need to be heeded here. This was a room full of suburban moms & dads & uncles & aunts who were leading families or scout and/or church groups for an evening of fun. Their first thought, and their only thought, was the safety of those who trusted them.
The fact that they did not live up to whatever adrenaline fueled fantasies others may have says nothing bad about them. But it does say something very disturbing about the people making the criticisms.
Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.