Patterico's Pontifications

7/20/2012

Fallout From Today’s Shooting

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:23 pm



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The Tea Party guy blamed by ABC News for the shooting, despite the shooter being 24 and the Tea Party guy being in his 50s, gives an interview to Breitbart.com:

“It was freaky,” said Holmes, describing his reaction when ABC News speculated that he was the culprit who entered a crowded theater and opened fire on dozens of innocent men, women, and children. He disconnected his telephone and says that he is worried about members of his family who might be contacted by the media.

ABC News has since retracted and apologized, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough. How about a huge lawsuit?

Most of you have probably heard about this blog post by a woman who barely survived a shooting in Toronto last month:

I can’t get this odd feeling out of my chest. This empty, almost sickening feeling won’t go away. I noticed this feeling when I was in the Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court. An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of harm‘s way. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in the middle of a deadly shooting.

. . . .

I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.

I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.

I feel like I am overreacting about what I experienced. But I can’t help but be thankful for whatever caused me to make the choices that I made that day. My mind keeps replaying what I saw over in my head. I hope the victims make a full recovery. I wish I could shake this odd feeling from my chest. The feeling that’s reminding me how blessed I am. The same feeling that made me leave the Eaton Center. The feeling that may have potentially saved my life.

In a horrible and bitter irony, she was one of the shooting victims today who died. Her brother remembers her here. Video of her here.

Report: 15 Dead and 50 Wounded at Batman Screening in Colorado; UPDATE: Other Reports Say 12 or 14

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:29 am



Apparently the work of a lone gunman, who is in custody. More details as they become available.

My advice: let’s resist the urge to find a Larger Lesson of any kind at this point, and just see what unfolds.

UPDATE: I’m also seeing reports saying 12 dead and 14 dead. Early reports in situations like this are notoriously inaccurate: caveat lector.

UPDATEx2: Commenter “Rusty Bill” provides several links showing people ignoring the above advice.

Piers Morgan and Bloomberg are predictably jumping on the “we need gun control” argument. There are obvious rejoinders, but I don’t feel like discussing them at this particular moment in time.

Only slightly less predictable is an apparently unevidenced rush to blame the Tea Party. If the reporting at Breitbart.com is accurate (and I’m reserving judgment because the story is developing, and everything in a developing story must be questioned), Mr. Snuffleupagus and his crew at ABC were able to uncover a 50ish guy from a nearby city with the same common last name as the 24-year-old in custody.

Convincing! Can we get an op-ed about the Loughner connection stat! We have to publish in two minutes, people. TWO MINUTES!

Watch it, ABC. This is the kind of attitude that causes national networks to report that ObamaCare has been struck down. And there just may be a 50ish Jim Holmes in Colorado who is yelling at his TV that he’s not the guy, and why didn’t they just pick up the phone and call him to confirm?


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