When you live in an urban area like I do, death is not something that is foreign.  Sadly, there is death in the inner city every day.  You never become immune to it, or at least I haven’t.  You still see it and hear it every day though.

Then there are situations like the shooting in a movie theater in Auora, CO.  On July 20 theaters all over the nation held midnight premieres of Warner Brother’s The Dark Knight Rises.  The final installment of the Christopher Nolan interpretation of the Batman comic, was a must see for many people.  Geeks and fans, and those who didn’t want the movie spoiled for them on Twitter stayed up past their bedtimes to be first.

The current total of the dead and wounded stands at 71.  That number could certainly increase.  That number could certainly be worse.

The word senseless springs to mind when you hear about scenarios like this.  There seems to be no rhyme nor reason why something like this happens.

It makes you want to do something.  My distaste for how the 2nd Amendment has been warped by the NRA aside – I don’t think that taking guns away from people is the answer.  Sort of.

Once upon a time guns were six shooters.  You had six bullets so you made them count.  Well shit once upon a time there were muskets…but you get the point, or you will.

There is a saying….guns don’t kill people, people kill people.  Well, people with AK47 assault rifles seem to kill lots of people in a short amount of time….lots more than when you only had six bullets.

As far as handguns go, I am still waiting for someone against gun control to give me a legitimate argument WHY you need more than 19 bullets at a time.  While you are trying to think of one let me tell you this:

Alleged shooter James Holmes was armed with 2 Glock semi automatic pistols, ans AR-15 assault rifle, and a shotgun when he unleashed his madness.

 

While I still waiting for a legitimate explanation why something like that is needed, might I remind you that 12 people would not have died by gun, by the hands of James Holmes, if we had a form of gun control in this nation.

71 people were injured because this man was able to buy – legally – an assault rifle with a  100 bullet clip.

But Nicole!  You can’t legislate crazy!

No you can not.  As people seem so fond of reminding me, a crazy person with an intent to do harm, fuck a sane person with an intent to do harm, will figure out how to make that happen.  I just ask why are we making it easier for them?

Had this man created a homemade version of mustard gas and deployed that in the theater we would not be proclaiming that mustard gas doesn’t kill people – people kill people!  We would wonder why one man, a civilian, needed mustard gas and we would find a way to stop other average civilians from getting mustard gas.

We don’t do that with guns though.

The other story to be told while looking at the events in Auroa, CO….while James Holmes represents the most broken of us, there is still hope.

As the smoke filled the theater and the bullets began to fly, some chose to be the best of humanity.  There were men who in the process of protecting their partners died.  Then there were men like this:

The man in this photo is Jamie Rohrs.  He was at the midnight screening with the woman on the left, Patricia, her four year old child from a prior relationship, and the infant in his arms.

I will first give these two the fuck ass parents of the year award for dragging a 4 year old to a midnight movie.

Then I will announce that the day after the Aurora shootings Jamie proposed and Patricia said yes!

What is so interesting about this story is that when the shit hit the fan, Jamie left.  No you read that right he left.  He left the 4 month old on the dark cinema floor, jumped off the balcony, ran to the parking lot, got into his truck and drove.

Patricia was still in the theater, with the two children.  As she struggled to keep the children with her, and escape danger, he pleas for help were heard by this man:

Jarell was at the theater, and like many he was able to get out of the line of fire, and was almost out of the theater when he saw Patricia and her children and did something beautiful.  He went to her and helped her.

In the middle of screaming, and gunshots, on a floor slick with blood and personal belongings, this young man risked his life to help another.  In the process he took a bullet to the leg – one he would never have gotten if he’d kept on running

 

Like Jamie kept on running.

 

When the rubber meets the road you don’t really know what you will do until you do it.  Once upon a time I said if Bonnie ever got sick, I would be Audi5000 and I would not take care of her.

The thing is though, in times of stress, our true character appears.

One man was a monster.  Another was a guardian angel.