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Topic: Reports of shooting at Batman Premier.
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-15-2012 10:49 PM
Just imagine the kinds of electronics that people have access to, these days, that Metesky didn't.
Any idiot with access to books on electronics or who knows how to Google can design a one-shot circuit and rig a mercury switch (or an electronic clinometer) to detect the angle at which the device rests.
Many theater seats have removable cushions. Some don't even need tools to remove. Once the cushion is removed, the bottom seat pan makes a perfect place to hide a fairly large object.
Now, in the dark, it would be fairly easy to remove the seat, plant an explosive device and replace the cushion completely unnoticed.
The device could sit there, indefinitely, until somebody sits down. The clinometer sets the one-shot circuit but doesn't detonate the bomb until the seat returns to the upright position.
So... A person sits down in the chair, totally unaware that they are sitting on a bomb. When the person inevitably gets up, either to leave the theater, to go to the bathroom or to go buy popcorn... BOOM!
A device like this is fairly trivial to make. When I took classes at Vo-Tech, during my high school years, we used to make things like this as pranks. Of course, we never even thought of using these to detonate bombs. It was usually a buzzer or something. One kid used an induction coil to make a "shocker."
Furthermore, I would never consider making a bomb for real. That's just not the kind of thing I do. No further discussion is necessary.
My point is that there are zillions of ways to do really bad things and there are plenty of bad people in the world to think up ways to do really bad things.
If a deranged person really wanted to live out the Batman fantasy, making hidden bombs would certainly fit in with the theme. Wouldn't it?
My point is that the danger of somebody bombing a movie theater is just as real as the danger of somebody shooting up the place and there HAVE BEEN bombings in movie theaters before. None of this is new.
My question is why are we suddenly so fixated on the dangers of bad people doing bad things in public places? It's been going on for a long time. Nobody seems to have cared until now.
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-16-2012 01:35 AM
I would never hurt anybody who isn't trying to hurt me first.
Your point is well taken but if somebody does try to hurt me or anybody else in my sphere of influence, I will do everything in my power to stop him, up to and including the use of deadly force if the situation warrants it.
The way I see things, there are too many people who are afraid to stand up to bullies and crazy people who do bad things. That tends to embolden bad people to do bad things because they don't fear the consequences. Mr. Holmes, our theater shooter, be he mentally ill or not, likely didn't consider that he could be killed in the process of carrying out his attack. The perception that there would be little or no consequence outside of going to jail likely spurred him on.
Does that mean we should be a nation of gun toting vigilantes? Nothing of the sort! But consider the terrorist attack on 9/11 where the passengers of Flight 93 rose up and fought back against the hijackers. There was an almost universal celebration of those men who fought back and, the popular belief was that this would deter any would-be terrorists from trying the same thing again.
Where is that sentiment now? Don't you think that, if it was still true, Holmes would have thought better of his plan?
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-16-2012 12:20 PM
Ironically, Glocks are a lot less prone to accidental discharge than people think they are.
While many firearms can suffer accidental discharge due to slamfire, a sudden jolt or something unexpectedly catching on the trigger, very few will misfire if subjected to an average drop to the ground. Safeties on handguns often block the travel of the firing pin as well as lock the trigger mechanism.
Many people dislike the Glock because it doesn't have a separate safety. The safety is in the trigger. Because of that, they say it's likely to go off but I have seen Glocks get bumped or dropped and there is even a video on the internet, floating around, where a guy ties his loaded Glock to a rope and drags it behind his pickup truck over a dirt road for a mile without discharging. (I would never do that but it is still funny as Hell!)
Point being that you really have to fuck up, pretty badly, to suffer an accidental discharge even under some pretty extreme conditions.
Anybody who causes an accidental firearm discharge in public should be fined and, at minimum, have his carry permit suspended for a year, if not permanently revoked. He should also have to pay to repair any damage he caused and, if anybody suffers bodily injury, that should be a separate charge, all together.
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Edward Havens
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 614
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Mar 2008
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posted 08-16-2012 05:33 PM
quote: Randy Stankey
The way I see things, there are too many people who are afraid to stand up to bullies and crazy people who do bad things. That tends to embolden bad people to do bad things because they don't fear the consequences.
It's easy to say one thing when you're a month and a thousand miles from an incident. But the basic truth of the matter is, it is the natural order of all humans from all races, religions and walks to life to GET THE F*CK AWAY FROM DANGER from danger rears its ugly head.
And bad people do bad things for reasons good people can never imagine, not for lack of fear of recrimination.
quote: Randy Stankey
Mr. Holmes, our theater shooter, be he mentally ill or not, likely didn't consider that he could be killed in the process of carrying out his attack. The perception that there would be little or no consequence outside of going to jail likely spurred him on.
What do you base this opinion on? Because one could say he probably figured he would not make it through that night, which is why he appears so dazed and confused now. "Why the hell am I still alive? Why didn't the police kill me in the parking lot?" An opinion also based on zero analysis of Mr. Holmes' psychological state, for the record, but seems far more plausible than he knew he'd end up in jail the rest of his life.
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