It there was about 10 concealed carriers in the auditoriom, this guy would have been dead before he picked his AR15, and many lives would have been saved

This man spent over 15,000 on guns, chemicals and ammo. More than 90 packages were sent out just to the school address alone! Why isn't there some kind of tracking law after a certain number of purchases on items like these?

If more people were armed in that theater he would have taken return fire and likely fled the scene. Or better yet would have been gunned down and less innocent people would have been. Gun laws have nothing to do with this. That fact that most people don't carry personal protection is what allowed this to get so out of control. If everyone of the proper age had a handgun in that theater someone would have stopped this maniac. And to the person who is going to hate this comment. Kiss it. I have the right to my oppinion. And mine is the only one that counts.

Such a tragedy. Concealed carry might have helped end this earlier.

I saw an article about the shooter being in an occupy protest earlier... is that true?

More guns would have made things worse. All of these people talking about they would have "saved the day" are fooling themselves!!! More people would have been killed by the ones trying to "SAVE THE DAY"!!!! They just wrote what all the gunman had on. I'm so sick of hearing how more guns would have made a difference!! And I for one think the government needs to investigate and possibly take some of these people permits away with all this "hero" mess we keep hearing about!!! Keep it holstered!!!!!!!!!!!

What would Batman do?

With respect to everyone's personal opinion, many schools of thought here, none easily solved--too many scenarios to talk about, or even try to solve.This is a horrific event--I commend any person whose patriotism and love for their American brothers and sisters rises in their chest when something like this happens. So, to answer the question--no, I do not believe tighter gun laws should apply here. This was about a sick individual, questionable security and a multitude of other issues. As one other person said, where were the red flags for all the events that occurred before this happened? I believe as some of the others do--that a trained and practiced individual(s) might have helped change the outcome of the terrible event. . .but, we won't ever know for sure because none of us here, were there. Blessings and prayers go out to all the victims and the families involved. Let us also never forget Americans of the past who felt they could change an outcome of other horrible events and put their lives on the line for others. Should we have told them to "keep in holstered?"

Tougher gun laws could not have avoided the Colorado tragedy. Drugs are illegal, yet flood our streets. Drinking and driving is illegal. People continue to drink, drive and kill people. Should we outlaw cars next?

Criminal acts with weapons would continue even if guns were outlawed. No matter what device you restrict, a person will find a way to carry out their acts of evil.

We have a person who may be in the 1% category. He bought a gun legally and went on a rampage. This incident should not become a platform for anti-gunners across America. Probably 99% of law abiding citizens do not commit crimes with guns. If there was an armed citizen, such as in the recent Florida incident, in the movie crowd the gunman may have been stopped.

It is so easier to blame the cause of destruction, rather than the source.

Armed and armored as he was, no gun control law would have stopped this boy from doing what he did. But perhaps if a civilian had been carrying themselves they might have been lucky and stopped him, but in the least slowed him down, bought time for others to escape. Or perhaps knowing there was a higher chance that someone in that audience would be armed, that knowledge alone might have made him reconsider. I know this event has caused me to decide to buy a gun and purchase a Conceal Carry Permit. I won't be a victim.

See: #1.4 above.

All these folks making the case re folks packing being able stop or minimize what happened here are, IMHO, a little scary.

Suppose, like I already said in #1.4 above, the scenario played out like this:

All the folks who are packing are sitting in a darkened theater when the perp's first shot(s) rings out. Remember, besides the fact that it's a darkened theater, the perp's all in black, so our folks who are packing fire in the general vicinity of the perp's muzzle flash; maybe they get the perp, maybe they don't. But then they all start shooting at each other's muzzle flashes, because who's who? And if the perp did survive that first onslaught from the folks who were packing, the perp, with his AR15, starts auto-vollying at all the other muzzle flashes. Pretty soon it's the OK Corral, and the innocents are getting added too, not decreased.

If you think that's an inplausible scenario I've got an island off the last island in the FL Keys for sale.

The problem is that BOTH people and guns kill people. If this gunman had only access to a knife, or at the very most, a hand gun, I dare say the outcome is different. The kinds of weaponary he used are called assault for a reason, they were developed to kill and maim large numbers of people, very quickly and they have no other use BUT THAT. I will never understand why NRAers, like those posting here are so married to these weapons, weapons designed for one thing, to cause massive horror and death. Why do you all defend them so stridently?

I really think some one is off track thinking that a complete Re Do of the second amendmet is in order.Especially now days.You really want the US goverment to do that after the fast and furious fiasco.They gave american made weapons to the drug cartels to do their killing with.Leave our second amendment rights alone.

I keep hearing and reading a lot of misleading information that seems to be put out there for someone elses gain other than for those involved in this recent tragedy.

What is an assault rifle? According to politicians of the last ban it is a rifle which has 1 a flash hider or threaded barrel which did not come into play in this attack. 2 has a bayonet lug, again did not have anything to do in this attack. 3 has a pistol grip, does a grip really make the rifle deadlier. 4 has a folding or collapsable stock, again will not make the rifle any deadlier. 5 removeable clip or that can hold more than 10 rounds. This is about the only one that came into play, but it would not have mattered because it has been reported that he had a magazine holder. Midleading it was called an M16 magazine holder. There is no such thing designated just for the fully automatic military assault (M16). It is reported that he had a magazine that held more than 100 rounds, which is not true. There aren't any with an over 100 round capacity.

The fact is this ban was put out just to shut people up. It mainly worked for those who had been mislead. . The claim that this one (ar15) rifle could put out 50-60 rounds a minute means nothing when Almost any gun could do that. The media needs to stop asking biased so called experts and stop manipulating facts to sensationalize the news.

There is a lot of gun control out there. It is not and will never be perfect. we need a different deterent. There are worse things than death to different people. This man clearly was not suicidal, protecting himself from head to toe, figuratively speaking.

To ask for a total gun ban is not wise. We must protect our right to defend our selves against our own government if it ever becomes necessary. Hopefully it will never happen. In every nation that firearms were banned, the violent crime rate eventually goes up. Look up the statistics for yourself do not solely rely on the media you, yourself be responsible. Our neighboring country, Mexico with its crooked political system banned firearms when it feared an uprising by the zapatistas. Look it up.

Where I am located on the US side of the border we daily hear of abductions of females of all ages for the sex trade, kidnappings for ransome, mass killings, and car jackings just to use the cars as barracades to block of streets and ambush people, rival gangs or military personel. Recently the military has begun to abuse Mexican citizens. Our media deliberately chooses not to post all news where as Mexican news media has criminals walk in to news rooms and shoot at everyone or toss granades to surpress news. Reporters are stalked and ambushed shot hacked to pieces and displayed on busy streets. If it wasn't for people with video capabilities on their cell phones we would not hear or see these things.Those living close to the border can sometimes hear the roar of explosions or pops of bullets going off and on occasion see the orange glows of fire balls .This is not Juarez that I am talking about but it all happens in our neighboring city Nuevo Laredo right across the river. If you do not believe, please look it up, all of it. See what total gun control will result in and not just speculate. Criminals will always find a way. Even in prison, some form of firearms have been made.

If Colorado wants to modify it's laws...that's Colorado's business. Personally, I think this says more about Colorado than it says about gun laws...
So, tell me, again...how did the Feds miss this, considering the billions they spend on "fusion centers" and domestic intelligence operations? Or did they miss it?
this whole thing stinks to high heaven...

Okay then, make guns illegal to own and carry, except for police and military. Then instead of massacres occuring with legally owned guns, they will occur with illegal guns (which are usually military and designed to kill, and NOT jam). Look at Mexico and what's going on there.

I hunt. I own rifles and shotguns. I do not own handguns or anything automatic, or even semi-automatic. I don't believe we can protect ourselves against our own government, if that was to happen, so I don't believe that is why we need guns.

I do believe there is always a niche for someone that aims to kill for whatever reasons, and taking guns away, will only draw them to the black market, or to a more creative way to kill (imagine bombs all over the theater?). Remember the all-American Christian Tomothy McVeigh? 168 people killed, 19 children, and over 680 injured. No guns, just chemicals that can be bought from any farm store (can't ban that, because that will just push other types of bombs).

My opinion: To reduce the chances of something like this ever happening, everyone should get to know their neighbors and the people around them.

What most people miss about the constitutional right to bear arms argument is that when it was written the best marksman in the world with a state of the art rifle could get off maybe 3 rounds per minute. I am sure the founding fathers never envisioned anything like an AR-15 or an Ak-47. Weapons where if you are prepared with multiple clips the average schmoo can get off several hundred high velocity rounds in the same time frame.

We obviously do not use the 2nd amendment to justify the purchase of military type weapons (like a nuclear warhead or a ground to air missle for example). So why not back the ban up just a little more to inclued any gun that uses a high capacity ammo clip. Leaves the second amendment in place.

Would the elimination of a high capacity mag really have stopped this tragedy when he was carrying multiple mags. What constitutes a magazine as high capacity mag anyway? What is the magic number? I suggest people go to a gun range that rents firearms and get familiar with how they work. You will realize that the media and pliticians are mesleading and misusing terms. People, please go and investigate. It is your responsibility to inform yourself.

What does the speed or velocity of the weapon has to do with a maniac killing people in a theater. one person killed is one person too many and you can kill one person with a single shot. I watched this a$$hole in court this morning like millions of people worldwide did. Awesome material for the media, people love these kind of news, people love the sign of blood, ratings go up, courts fill their audiences, judges get famous, lawyers get famous, sponsors get their products out on the air because they pay for the coverage, people see the sponsor's products and buy more, spend money, and I can go on and on with this ridiculous circus of world we live in. Government went overseas to kill one person, they did, they took the body and gotten rid of it no questions asked. Why aren't we doing this to everyone who kills people, takes one or two, crime will stop. This guy may be crazy or acting like one, one way or another, the next a$$hole will think about it very careful before buying a gun, WE, the people have for sale. I agree guns don't kill people, people kills people, but the ease of buying a gun needs to stop.

There is a lot of gun control. It may not be perfect and like most things, probably never will be. This man found a loop hole, Purchased guns at different times and received 50 different deliveries in preperation before the attack.

Most gun owners believe in some sort of gun control and are against people like Holmes being able to get a hold of them. The sheer amount of safety practiced by most while handling a firearm demonstrates this.

The Academy sporting store in my area voluntarily stopped selling what the politicians call assault rifles and purposefully order very little ammunition for such arms. Unfortunately those are not the only arms that use those caliber bullets. I have to order bullets online. I hope that right is never taken away.

I like to stick to facts so I am going out on alimb here and theorize that this intelligent man who would have found a way to accomplish this attack no matter what gun control was in effect. I wonder why he opted to use guns when he had the practicing knowledge to build bombs. What were his motives????

Think hypothetically for a second. If the USA was just one big tribe, and one of our hunters went crazy and started shooting all the women and children with arrows... what do you think would have happened to that individual?? Would the motive even matter??? Overtime the "bad seeds" would be eradicated. Unfortunately we have lost our sense of "tribe mentality," and now depend soley on our government to make all of our decisions for us. A democracy only works if the people keep the governmen in check (system of checks and balances). As soon as we stop questioning our governent (which stopped happening long ago) we give up our power. "shepherds and sheep"

Fact Sheet: Guns Save Lives

A. Guns save more lives than they take; prevent more injuries than they inflict

* Guns used 2.5 million times a year in self-defense. Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year -- or about 6,850 times a day.1 This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.2

* Of the 2.5 million times citizens use their guns to defend themselves every year, the overwhelming majority merely brandish their gun or fire a warning shot to scare off their attackers. Less than 8% of the time, a citizen will kill or wound his/her attacker.3

* As many as 200,000 women use a gun every year to defend themselves against sexual abuse.4

* Even anti-gun Clinton researchers concede that guns are used 1.5 million times annually for self-defense. According to the Clinton Justice Department, there are as many as 1.5 million cases of self-defense every year. The National Institute of Justice published this figure in 1997 as part of "Guns in America" -- a study which was authored by noted anti-gun criminologists Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig.5

* Armed citizens kill more crooks than do the police. Citizens shoot and kill at least twice as many criminals as police do every year (1,527 to 606).6 And readers of Newsweek learned that "only 2 percent of civilian shootings involved an innocent person mistakenly identified as a criminal. The 'error rate' for the police, however, was 11 percent, more than five times as high."7

* Handguns are the weapon of choice for self-defense. Citizens use handguns to protect themselves over 1.9 million times a year.8 Many of these self-defense handguns could be labeled as "Saturday Night Specials."

B. Concealed carry laws help reduce crime

* Nationwide: one-half million self-defense uses. Every year, as many as one-half million citizens defend themselves with a firearm away from home.9

* Concealed carry laws are dropping crime rates across the country. A comprehensive national study determined in 1996 that violent crime fell after states made it legal to carry concealed firearms. The results of the study showed:

* States which passed concealed carry laws reduced their murder rate by 8.5%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robbery by 3%;10 and

* If those states not having concealed carry laws had adopted such laws in 1992, then approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults and over 11,000 robberies would have been avoided yearly.11

* Vermont: one of the safest five states in the country. In Vermont, citizens can carry a firearm without getting permission... without paying a fee... or without going through any kind of government-imposed waiting period. And yet for ten years in a row, Vermont has remained one of the top-five, safest states in the union -- having three times received the "Safest State Award."12

* Florida: concealed carry helps slash the murder rates in the state. In the fifteen years following the passage of Florida's concealed carry law in 1987, over 800,000 permits to carry firearms were issued to people in the state.13 FBI reports show that the homicide rate in Florida, which in 1987 was much higher than the national average, fell 52% during that 15-year period -- thus putting the Florida rate below the national average. 14

* Do firearms carry laws result in chaos? No. Consider the case of Florida. A citizen in the Sunshine State is far more likely to be attacked by an alligator than to be assaulted by a concealed carry holder.

1. During the first fifteen years that the Florida law was in effect, alligator attacks outpaced the number of crimes committed by carry holders by a 229 to 155 margin.

2. And even the 155 "crimes" committed by concealed carry permit holders are somewhat misleading as most of these infractions resulted from Floridians who accidentally carried their firearms into restricted areas, such as an airport.15

C. Criminals avoid armed citizens

* Kennesaw, GA. In 1982, this suburb of Atlanta passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to the modest 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole.16

* Ten years later (1991), the residential burglary rate in Kennesaw was still 72% lower than it had been in 1981, before the law was passed.17

* Nationwide. Statistical comparisons with other countries show that burglars in the United States are far less apt to enter an occupied home than their foreign counterparts who live in countries where fewer civilians own firearms. Consider the following rates showing how often a homeowner is present when a burglar strikes:

* Homeowner occupancy rate in the gun control countries of Great Britain, Canada and Netherlands: 45% (average of the three countries); and,

* Homeowner occupancy rate in the United States: 12.7%.18

Rapes averted when women carry or use firearms for protection

* Orlando, FL. In 1966-67, the media highly publicized a safety course which taught Orlando women how to use guns. The result: Orlando's rape rate dropped 88% in 1967, whereas the rape rate remained constant in the rest of Florida and the nation.19

* Nationwide. In 1979, the Carter Justice Department found that of more than 32,000 attempted rapes, 32% were actually committed. But when a woman was armed with a gun or knife, only 3% of the attempted rapes were actually successful.20

Justice Department study:

* 3/5 of felons polled agreed that "a criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun."21

* 74% of felons polled agreed that "one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime."22

* 57% of felons polled agreed that "criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police."23

1 Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, "Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense With a Gun," 86 The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Northwestern University School of Law, 1 (Fall 1995):164.
Dr. Kleck is a professor in the school of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He has researched extensively and published several essays on the gun control issue. His book, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, has become a widely cited source in the gun control debate. In fact, this book earned Dr. Kleck the prestigious American Society of Criminology Michael J. Hindelang award for 1993. This award is given for the book published in the past two to three years that makes the most outstanding contribution to criminology.
Even those who don't like the conclusions Dr. Kleck reaches, cannot argue with his impeccable research and methodology. In "A Tribute to a View I Have Opposed," Marvin E. Wolfgang writes that, "What troubles me is the article by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz. The reason I am troubled is that they have provided an almost clear-cut case of methodologically sound research in support of something I have theoretically opposed for years, namely, the use of a gun in defense against a criminal perpetrator.... I have to admit my admiration for the care and caution expressed in this article and this research. Can it be true that about two million instances occur each year in which a gun was used as a defensive measure against crime? It is hard to believe. Yet, it is hard to challenge the data collected. We do not have contrary evidence." Wolfgang, "A Tribute to a View I Have Opposed," The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, at 188.
Wolfgang says there is no "contrary evidence." Indeed, there are more than a dozen national polls -- one of which was conducted by The Los Angeles Times -- that have found figures comparable to the Kleck-Gertz study. Even the Clinton Justice Department (through the National Institute of Justice) found there were as many as 1.5 million defensive users of firearms every year. See National Institute of Justice, "Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms," Research in Brief (May 1997).
As for Dr. Kleck, readers of his materials may be interested to know that he is a member of the ACLU, Amnesty International USA, and Common Cause. He is not and has never been a member of or contributor to any advocacy group on either side of the gun control debate.
2 According to the National Safety Council, the total number of gun deaths (by accidents, suicides and homicides) account for less than 30,000 deaths per year. See Injury Facts, published yearly by the National Safety Council, Itasca, Illinois.
3Kleck and Gertz, "Armed Resistance to Crime," at 173, 185.
4Kleck and Gertz, "Armed Resistance to Crime," at 185.
5 Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, "Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms," NIJ Research in Brief (May 1997); available at on the internet. The finding of 1.5 million yearly self-defense cases did not sit well with the anti-gun bias of the study's authors, who attempted to explain why there could not possibly be one and a half million cases of self-defense every year. Nevertheless, the 1.5 million figure is consistent with a mountain of independent surveys showing similar figures. The sponsors of these studies -- nearly a dozen -- are quite varied, and include anti-gun organizations, news media organizations, governments and commercial polling firms. See also Kleck and Gertz, supra note 1, pp. 182-183.
6Kleck, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, (1991):111-116, 148.
7George F. Will, "Are We 'a Nation of Cowards'?," Newsweek (15 November 1993):93.
8Id. at 164, 185.
9Dr. Gary Kleck, interview with J. Neil Schulman, "Q and A: Guns, crime and self-defense," The Orange County Register (19 September 1993). In the interview with Schulman, Dr. Kleck reports on findings from a national survey which he and Dr. Marc Gertz conducted in Spring, 1993 -- a survey which findings were reported in Kleck and Gertz, "Armed Resistance to Crime." br>10 One of the authors of the University of Chicago study reported on the study's findings in John R. Lott, Jr., "More Guns, Less Violent Crime," The Wall Street Journal (28 August 1996). See also John R. Lott, Jr. and David B. Mustard, "Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns," University of Chicago (15 August 1996); and Lott, More Guns, Less Crime (1998, 2000).
11Lott and Mustard, "Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns."
12Kathleen O'Leary Morgan, Scott Morgan and Neal Quitno, "Rankings of States in Most Dangerous/Safest State Awards 1994 to 2003," Morgan Quitno Press (2004) at Morgan Quitno Press is an independent private research and publishing company which was founded in 1989. The company specializes in reference books and monthly reports that compare states and cities in several different subject areas. In the first 10 years in which they published their Safest State Award, Vermont has consistently remained one of the top five safest states.
13Memo by Jim Smith, Secretary of State, Florida Department of State, Division of Licensing, Concealed Weapons/Firearms License Statistical Report (October 1, 2002).
14Florida's murder rate was 11.4 per 100,000 in 1987, but only 5.5 in 2002. Compare Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Crime in the United States," Uniform Crime Reports, (1988): 7, 53; and FBI, (2003):19, 79.
15 John R. Lott, Jr., "Right to carry would disprove horror stories," Kansas City Star, (July 12, 2003).
16Gary Kleck, "Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force," Social Problems 35 (February 1988):15.
17Compare Kleck, "Crime Control," at 15, and Chief Dwaine L. Wilson, City of Kennesaw Police Department, "Month to Month Statistics: 1991." (Residential burglary rates from 1981-1991 are based on statistics for the months of March - October.)
18Kleck, Point Blank, at 140.
19Kleck, "Crime Control," at 13.
20U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Rape Victimization in 26 American Cities (1979), p. 31.
21U.S., Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, "The Armed Criminal in America: A Survey of Incarcerated Felons," Research Report (July 1985): 27.

Beautifully done sir.

Dont you think that this latest attack has something to do with all the discussion about more gun laws? In just a short time Hillary Clinton and Obama are going to persuade the Congress and Senate to accept the United Nations small Arms treaty!!!! That will destroy the 2nd amendment completely. IN 1989 a 25 yr old drifter named Patrick Purdy walked onto a schoolyard in Sacramento and started shooting elementary school kids. He killed 5 and wounded 30 before taking his own life. Just after that attack George H Bush signed into law the biggest anti gun importing law ever, and California passed the assault weapons ban.

Purdy was a loner like Holmes but uneducated. Look at the photos of Holmes. Are you going to tell me that you dont see someone who is drugged? The CIA has been using these manchurian Candidates since WW2. Sirhan Sirhan, John Hinkley and many many more. We will never be able to solve these crimes as long as you continue to go along with the government storyline. As soon as this person was arrested he should have had his blood drawn and put in the care of the best psychiatrists we can find. How do they cover this up? Easy, keep Holmes out of reach from everyone except a few handlers until he comes down from the drugs and they no longer can be detected in the body. This is the reason the parents and relatives are never allowed to speak to shooters for days after being arrested. Everyone is in such shock from the trauma of the crime they dont think about what to do to insure that he in fact is guilty. Next you need to understand what it takes to kill dozens of people. The military spends millions getting the average citizen to the point where he can be used as a killer. It doesnt happen all at once, It takes weeks of conditioning, Ask any drill sergeant. Doing it the drugged way also takes weeks of conditioning. Ask where this guy had been during the 6-8 weeks before the shooting. Find the CIA mind control psychiatrists and you will have uncovered one of this countries deepest mysteries. If you still dont believe me, look up MK ULTRA, In fact if you go to YOU TUBE and search MK ULTRA you will get many good videos on it. Some are with MK ULTRA subjects that have defected or been deprogrammed. It started using Canadian test subjects because the CIA is by law unable to do operations within the US borders. After they killed JFK the government stopped enforcing that law as they have many many others. Laws like the Posse Comitatus Act which is supposed to keep the military from operating inside American borders. The Branch Davidians didnt fare so well against tanks with flame throwers and machine gun nests. The tanks opened huge holes at both ends of the building, filled it with explosive gas then lit it. The people ran out the biggest hole as expected and all the survivors were machine gunned to death. The tanks then ran over the bodies and the debris destroying the crime scene.