James Holmes walked into a theatre in Aurora, Colorado with a shotgun, semi-automatic rifle, and a semi-automatic pistol. In a matter of minutes, he killed twelve movie goers, wounded more than fifty, and then walked back out the door and was later arrested in the parking lot by police without a so much as a scratch on him.

It is beyond my power to chart the course of evil in this mans life than brought him to this cowardly deed, but there are two things that I think he could not have succeeded without;

1.  The strange, almost mystical belief held by a large group of people that  by finding just the right combination of words, ink, and paper, you can stop a bullet from a madman’s gun. This belief has been demonstrated to be false times without number, but, as it is fundamentally a religious belief, it is unshaken by the greatest tragedy. The poor are with us always and so are fools.

2.   The fanatical passion of those in authority to insure that a murderer, madman, or any one about to break the law has a guaranteed supply of unarmed victims. Schools are a favorite target because the killer can safely assume he will not be confronted by armed opposition; he can ply his trade without fear of harm.

Aurora is a town of over a quarter million people. There are a large number of honest citizens with a Concealed Carry Permit; they have passed a background check and have attended the requisite gun safety program.It is reasonable to assume that in a theatre audience of 500 plus , there would be a dozen or so of these legally armed citizens. But, the theater chain responsible, forbids the carrying of weapons even by CCW licence holders. Holmes could walk in the back door with the firm assurance that no one would be able to respond in kind to him, that he would have a free hand to kill as many as he could.

A great deal of attention by the press is placed on the fact that the killer had 6,ooo rounds of ammunition, or so many weapons; it takes a much stronger man than Holmes appears to be to carry more than 500 rounds with him, and even the most expert shooter can only operate one weapon at a time.
The Central fact of this massacre is not the weapons or the amount of munitions carried by the madman;
James Holmes is alive and over seventy lives are shattered because —-

THE    VICTIMS    WERE    BY    LAW    AND    REGULATION — COMPLETELY UNARMED

These pertinent facts can be gleaned from this horror;

1.  There has never been a wall, a fence, or a law that cannot be circumvented.

2. Police act primarily as historians; they can record the outcome of an event, rarely can they prevent it; the most efficient, dedicated, and well-trained police force requires Minutes to respond; a response time of three to five minutes is rightfully considered excellent.
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

3. NO ONE  can guarantee your safety but you.

4.   If a government or any other controlling authority; i.e. – owner of a business; uses its authority to dis-arm law-abiding people, it denies them the most fundamental of all rights – the right to preserve their lives. If it then fails to adequately protect them from harm, it is an accessory to that harm.