That's Life. So Have a Good Time. The Sun Can't Shine Everyday

Two things I know about life.
1) Shit always happens
2) The sun will rise either way the next day

What happened last week in Aurora was tragic. I would never deny that. At least 12 people lost their lives, many others were injured and millions are scarred emotionally. I don't deny any of that. What I am about to talk about in this blog doesn't demean, lessen or ignore any of that. My blog is about the over reaction to what happened and the hysteria that some people want to make out of this very isolated incident. It just seems that people have lost their heads over this and I (as usual) have something to say about that. So, here we go.

Below are a composite of a few of the things I have read and my response to them.


People are angry at the state of things today in the United States and Canada and this shooting in the theater signifies that.

State of things today? Since when.

 I can't remember a time when this sort of out of control, delusional and crazy type of gunman on a rampage didn't exist. As long as there have been people, there has always been a very small percentage of those people who will do this sort of thing. Yes, it is sad when it happens, but it does happen, a lot. (the Lockerby plane bombing,  the Twin Towers and all that crazy day, Oklahoma City Bombing, The Texas tower shootings, Montreal Massacre..etc,  etc.)

And it will continue to happen. To get overly fired up about it in this day and age and think that it is not just part of the life cycle, is to ignore history. I know it sounds cold, but my everyday life will not change one bit because of this tragedy, and in a week or so,  neither will yours. Shit happens and the sun rises the next day. That is just how it is. I wont even think twice when I go to a movie.  I actually went to one Saturday, and  I didn't. The theater complex was packed and I didn't even hear one person mention it. It is one crazy guy doing one crazy thing. Simple as that. There was no extra security and nobody even cared either way.

The Aurora Colorado shooting is now considered to be the worst mass shooting in American history.

That may be partially true, but even if so, it is hardly the exception. In Canada a tragedy that was very similar in scope and size happened more than 20 years ago. And, if you view 9/11 as a bunch of gunman with planes instead of guns, this doesn't even come close to that. Or, if you view Oklahoma City as a gunman who used a bomb instead of a gun, again, it is not even close on the scale that this was. Or if you view a serial killer who used any number of means and took them one or two at a time, again, this hardly comes even close to some of them. Furthermore, Columbine was just as bad and just as many died. To say the reaction to this tragedy has been a complete over reaction is a major understatement.

This shooting makes  some people wonder if there really is any hope for the world.
 
If this shooting can make you feel that way, then you clearly have not been paying attention to the world or the daily news. And furthermore, it is not relevant. The fact that a few crazy lunatics go off the deep end and kill a few people once every six to twelve months has nothing to do with the state of the world. There is always going to be bad people doing bad things, and just as many and actually many more doing good things. See both sides of the coin,  not just the side you are paying attention to today or this week. I could fill this blog with hundreds of examples over the years.

People are furious that these incidents keep happening.  It almost seems as though these acts are happening at an alarming and increasing rate. 

It might seem like that, but the facts don't support any sort of statement to that effect. If anything, the only difference is the amount of media we have to impart the news. They happen no more or no less than ever before. In this day and age, anything that happens will be magnified way out of control because of the level of 24 hour news coverage and the tabloid journalism aspect that is popular today. No matter what happens, they will milk it for every second and then some. I am not saying it shouldnt be reported, just that it is overemphasized because it sells ads and newspapers.

The people who went to that movie theater didn’t think that going to a movie would end up being the place where they would lose their lives. There is no safe place in the world anymore.

Stuff like this happens everyday. I am fairly certain that the thousands of people who die on the roads and highways of the nation don't ever think when they head out to drive somewhere that they won't ever arrive. Life is like that. Nor do any of those who die of a sudden heart attack think that either. Life is fragile and tenuous and there is no guarantee when you go to bed that you will wake up alive and healthy the next morning. Everywhere around the world, many don't. That is part of the deal and if you start thinking about that,  you wont even enjoy the life that you are given. If your time is up, your time is up. I haven't seen anyone stop going to work in big office towers like the Twin Towers or the one in Oklahoma City since those were struck.

"It's my life, its now or never, I ain't gonna live forever"

-Jon Bon Jovi

These latest shootings took place at a location that almost everyone believed was safe. It makes all of us feel like no place in this world is truly safe.

You are relatively safe anywhere you go in this world, but you are never really ever completely safe, no matter what you, your government or any private security might do. If you want to live life and enjoy it, then you always take the risk that someone who doesn't want that too will impose their misguided, insane and delusional, and sometimes just plain selfish will and take (or at least attempt to take) that life away from you.

Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan were shot and two of them were killed.  Gerald Ford would have been as well if Squeaky Fromme was better at it. MLK and Bobby Kennedy as well. If they can't protect these people, what makes you think that some private or government security can protect you? They can't. You are always at the mercy of some crazed lunatic. You always were, whether you knew and realized that or not. Time to get your head out of the sand and face the reality of the world you have always lived in. Just be thankful that you are one of the lucky ones who wasn't at the wrong place at the wrong time. You can lock your doors at night,  buy all the security alarms you want, but anyone, and I mean anyone can break the window and kill you before anyone could show up to do anything about it. So, stop even bothering to think about it.


We should be angry about this.  We all have to speak out about these acts of violence. If we do, we can put a stop to it somehow.

I am not really sure what speaking out will do. Do you think people on this level,  who are criminals, are going to alter their behavior because we have spoken out? Nope,  that isn't going to happen. They already live in their own worlds inside their demented minds, so speaking out will be of no consequence. The Son of Sam killer claims he was told by a dog to kill all those people (Berkowitz claimed that he was commanded to kill by a demon that possessed his neighbor's dog). How would you have stopped him?

Gun control is part of the answer. If we took away the guns, this sort of thing would not happen.

 How hard is it to get a gun, ever a very high powered automatic weapon, if you really wanted one? I can think of many ways to get one.

I could buy it on the black market. 

I could steal it from someones house. 

I could learn how to make one. 

I could go to a gun show and show fake I.D and someone would sell it to me.

 

 Last time I checked, unless you have a criminal record, and even in some cases when you do, you can obtain a gun legally, and then do illegal things with it before it is taken away. It is patently absurd to think gun laws have anything to do with this. To get a gun, by any means is super easy and cheap and just another reason why you cannot stop this type of crazy person if they are really intent on doing the kind of thing that the Aurora theater killer did. In any event, he could have just lit the theater on fire and locked the doors..and actually killed more. Or, he could just have attended the movie, left a bomb under the seat and blown the whole place up,  killing more like the Oklahoma City Bomber did.

"A very good friend of mine told me something the other day. I would like to pass it on to you, because I believe what he said to be true. He said we are here for a good time,  not a long time. So have a good time, because the sun can't shine every day. And the sun is shining, in this rainy city, and the sun is shining. Ooh isn't it a pity. That every year has its share of tears, every now and then its got to rain."

-Trooper

"On the same day that the Aurora shooting happened all over the world lots of people did a lot of great and nice things."

-Mark David 

 Much like the Montreal massacre-that was not about violence against women as they tried to portray it- this was one crazed lunatic. The violence against women fight is a real one. But that is a daily battle with far less publicized incidents on a much larger scale when taken as a whole. It isnt dramatic, it is systematic.
This was simply one crazed guy who wanted to kill and he would have done it somewhere, at sometime at some point and it is highly unlikely he would have been detected or stopped. It isn't any more complicated than that.