Friday, July 20, 2012

Christopher Nolan on the 2012 Aurora Shooting

In the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora at about 12:38 a.m. on Friday, 20 July, 2012 a masked patron who identified himself as The Joker and who had left the screening through an emergency exit, re-entered the cinema by the first gun scene of the movie wearing a ballistic armour and a gas mask and armed with two canisters emitting gas or smoke, a shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle, and a handgun. The shooting injured 70 people, with ten dying at the scene and two in local hospitals, "the most victims of any mass shooting in the United States". The killer had reportedly taken Vicodin, like Heath Ledger (who played The Joker in The Dark Knight) before his suicide. "Side effects of Vicodin include euphoria, paranoia and hallucinations". The killer had also created a Batman themed voicemail message. (The facts and quotes are from Wikipedia in English).

Christopher Nolan later on the 20th July of 2012: "Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community. I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theater is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families."

I agree with the citizens of Aurora that we shouldn't mention the name of the killer. The motivation of rampage killers like him is to gain immortality to their names, and we should deny it from them. The copycat impact is also evident for deranged people.

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