There are 12 dead and around 59 wounded, 11 of those in critical condition. How many lives and families damaged and changed forever? Two handguns, a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle with ample ammunition to kill everyone in the theater. Multiple clips containing up to 100 rounds. All purchased and possessed legally. The Smith & Wesson AR-15 type rifle, .223 caliber with the drum clip can fire 50 to 60 rounds per minute. All were purchased in the last 60 days. He also purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition during that time period, some over the internet, all legally obtained. Furthermore, according to the police chief, he was wearing a black ballistic or bullet-resistant helmet, a ballistic tactical vest with pockets, ballistic leggings, throat and groin protectors, a gas mask and ballistic tactical gloves. Overkill perhaps? This says nothing about his booby-trapped apartment, perhaps to be used to occupy police prior to the shootings. Fortunately, that plan failed.
According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence – there have been hundreds of mass shootings in the U.S. since 2005 – averaging roughly 20 every year. And yet, there’s absolutely no talk of gun control in America. We're not talking about taking anyone's guns away as is so often trumpeted by the right wing. We are talking about controls and limits and keeping guns away from unstable people. We're talking about taking away the ability to fire so many rounds per minute. And one doesn't need that capacity to go hunting. If one wanted to shoot like that, gun ranges could provide that ability without it getting to the general public. Don't even reply that guns don't kill people, people do. The currant state of the law allows people to legally obtain and use guns to kill people. This argues for removing the people who would do this from the implements with which to carry it out.
Let the bomb throwing and name calling begin...