Shots Fired, Patrons Panic at San Antonio Theater

[Hissyspit]

Source: CBS News

Shots fired, patrons panic at San Antonio theater

December 17, 2012

SAN ANTONIO Gunfire broke out at a San Antonio movie theater late Sunday, leaving two people wounded and sending panicked moviegoers rushing for the exits and ducking for cover, according to CBS San Antonio affiliate KENS, which cites police and witnesses.

- snip -

Bexar Xounty Sheriff's spokesman Louis Antu says the incident started when the man fired shots inside a nearby restaurant "and carried on into the theater." It's not clear what led to the shooting.

Antu says the man headed toward the theater and shot a male in the lot. The age and condition of the victim wasn't immediately known, but Antu says his injuries did not appear life-threatening.

The gunman entered the theater, Antu says, where he fired a shot but did not hit anyone. An off-duty sheriff's deputy working security then shot the gunman.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57559506/shots-fired-patrons-panic-at-san-antonio-theater

[Flashmann]

1. This is epidemic

Lately I keep hearing snippets of conversations that seem to lament what's going to happen to gun owners because of a few nuts...

All with variations of the "guns don't go to movies,people do",gibberish...

[crim son]

2. +1 n/t

[Mojorabbit]

10. It is the media giving celebrity status to the gunman from the other day

I have read that is the worst thing the media can do as others on the margins begin to think of doing the same thing for the notoriety.

[marions ghost]

14. People have a right to know

telling the media not to exploit this is futile. That what the media does. I don't like it but people need to understand the importance of the story, and these days that is equated with air time.

[lbrtbell]

16. People don't need 24/7 coverage, though

Not only is it disgusting to exploit dead children for ratings, it's also a big inspiration to other people teetering on the edge of madness.

[marions ghost]

23. The news is always exploitative...but they seem to give people what they want.

--in this case it's not better to shove it under the rug. That teaches people, especially younger people, that this doesn't matter. Let them live it just as if it happened to them. Because it could. And maybe someday they will demand change.

[ROBROX]

15. HOLIDAY HYSTERIA OR END OF TIMES??

There may be gun nuts who want others to shot them and then they shot themselves. I hope after the holidays the nuts settle down for the next round of HELTER SKELTER.

The purchase of fire arms should require a NEED versus CASH. The buyer should be TESTED to ensure some NUT doesn't purchase something to kill people.

[Reio88]

3. Once again and still

Once again , gun violence is the result , violent people are the cause . No doubt gun laws and restrictions need to be implemented onto an industry that lacks responsible self regulation.

But we are so blinded by the go after the guns mentality we fail to or are unwilling to address the cause of the issue, violent people. The Connecticut shooter didn't just snap, neither did the Columbine shooters, neither did the Aurora shooter. There were people who knew these guys were beyond dangerous and looked the other way.

What has so changed in society that such anger and violent rage are becoming so common place? When will it be time to address the cause of these things and not just ban the results. What is our social change that has brought us to such acts of vengeance?

I and probably you could have two assault weapons and 1000 rounds of ammo in our basement and never do such violent things. Perhaps we need to really look at what causes some of our citizens to go berserk and deal with what is starting it. These people did not just wake up one day having a bad hair day.

[B Stieg]

5. Why?

You keep dangerous weapons in your basement? Why? Are you expecting to be invaded? And no, I know many, many people who don't own an assault weapon.

The problem is the innapropriateness of the instrument itself. If you're the kind of person who believes in gun ownership for more than home defense and then keeps a canon in order to accomplish that, there is something incongruous with your thinking. The presence of a weapon in a home increases the chances of violence by more than a third. Who would want to open their home to that kind of risk?

[primavera]

6. It's not a one or the other proposition

No one - repeat, NO ONE - here is saying that our mental health system does not also need reforming. What people are saying is that a population with so many members predisposed towards violence cannot afford to be allowed unfettered access to weapons of mass destruction. You don't give a toddler a hand grenade to play with as a toy. You don't give a drunk a Molotov cocktail. You don't give an arsonist a flamethrower. These are, one and all, very, very bad decisions. It doesn't matter that the grenade can be harmless in the hands of a skilled, trained professional. The point is, they are NOT safe in the hands of someone who is not an emotionally stable adult, trained in its proper usage. And therein lies the problem: the gun community insists that gun ownership is a right belonging to anyone and everyone, regardless of whether that person possesses the requisite mental stability and knowledge necessary to ensure their safe employment. Until ours is a society in which the underlying conditions that promote violence are under control, we are, in essence, infants who cannot be trusted to play with grenades. So, of course, we need to work on our mental health system, of course we need to work on poverty and income inequality, of course we need to work on racism and sexism and all forms of prejudice and discrimination. In the meantime, though, we have got to take the grenades away from the toddlers.

[thucythucy]

11. "Violence and rage" have always been present in our society.

Read about Memphis race riot of 1866, where the black community was burned to the ground by angry whites. Read about the multiple lynchings up until the 1960s. Read about the "Zoot Suit Riots" in LA in the 1940s. And crazed individuals have also been with us always, from the Boston Strangler to Ted Bundy to Charles Manson to Son of Sam...

What has changed is the massive proliferation of guns in our society, especially since the 1970s, so that the odds of any one crazed individual being armed to the teeth is now much higher.

I agree, we need to examine all aspects of this tragedy--as long as such calls for examining "the root causes" aren't an attempt to deflect us from passing meaningful gun control legislation in the very near term.

[LanternWaste]

24. Rank and file Wermacht and Soviet soldiers who

"What has so changed in society that such anger and violent rage are becoming so common place?"

S Sgt. W Wilkinson was a self-described pacifist who was a hospital orderly until he volunteered for the Tiger Brigade in Vietnam. He and members of his unit tortured prisoners, raped civilian women, mutilated their bodies, and killed anywhere from nine to well over one hundred unarmed civilians, among other acts.

Rank and file Wermacht and Soviet soldiers who, prior to being inducted never entertained a violent thought, shot and killed thousands of unarmed women and children after their culture told them it fine and dandy to do so.


"These people did not just wake up one day having a bad hair day...."




I'm not blinded by the gun mentality at all, nor am I blinded by defending the gun-mentality either.

[calimary]

4. Ohforcryingoutloud!!!!!

Hey all you gun nuts out there - happy now? Is this okay with you? You're okay with this, just as long as you can keep and keep acquiring as many fucking damn guns as you damn well please?

Had enough yet, America????

I really like the title of an earlier DU thread by FightingIrish:

"Obama is not going to take your guns away. We are."

Found it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022000586#post71

[primavera]

7. Ah, another day...

... another rampage by someone who just yesterday was "an ordinary, law abiding, responsible gun owner" whose RKBA gun advocates defended.

[glinda]

8. "Shoot em' up cowboys"....

[heaven05]

9. fucking

wanna be 'bad boys'. These clowns have to continually be put down. They are terminally ill and they ruin everyone's quality of life. Yes! They are sick animals and should be treated as such.

[durablend]

12. Yipee ki-yay m-fers!

YEEEEEEEE HAW! Who doesn't want to relive the wild wild west?

[and-justice-for-all]

13. It seems the NRA and the like are getting what they wanted..

to live in a 21st century wild west and where no one is safe and we all live in a constant state of fear.

[goclark]

17. Can't there be a "security screening"

Last edited Tue Dec 18, 2012, 01:34 AM - Edit history (1)

like the ones at the airports?

[high density]

18. I think I'd rather get shot than get groped to go see a movie. NM

[goclark]

19. I hear your point

...but this is getting to be a "different world" ...the usa
is getting to be the"wild...wild USA.

[mainer]

20. Is it actually a new epidemic -- or are we now just paying attention?

I wonder if it's just been happening in the background all the time -- a few shootings here, a few shootings there -- and only now do we realize it's everywhere.

[Evasporque]

21. Wild West Shootout America! Tea Party good times...!! Bang Bang Conflict resolution for morons!...nt

[Bacchus4.0]

22. Good thing the off-duty officer shot him before anyone else was hurt or killed n/t

s