Here we go again. The story from AOL. And the story from Think Progress. So far there's no record of what the shooter said that started this whole mess.
I'm trying to figure out what started the whole mess. Yes, the victim was texting. According to the AOL story the theater was still running the coming attractions. My memories of theaters at that time is that people are still coming in. They're still talking. They're still looking for a place to sit. It's not like the theater would quiet at this point. That is, if they ever are anymore.
About three Christmases back, we had all three of the Portland nephews, one of the Umatilla kids because he was going to school in Portland and his new girlfriend (now wife, marvelous young lady). They all had their cell phones and they managed to text, talk, watch a movie and play cribbage. All at the same time. The texting, however was pretty damn quiet. I certainly couldn't hear anything when Aria was messaging and she was about four feet away. So unless the wife was telling the dad what to text to their daughter, there wasn't a whole lot of noise going on. So, what set this damn fool off for cryin' out loud?
About three Christmases back, we had all three of the Portland nephews, one of the Umatilla kids because he was going to school in Portland and his new girlfriend (now wife, marvelous young lady). They all had their cell phones and they managed to text, talk, watch a movie and play cribbage. All at the same time. The texting, however was pretty damn quiet. I certainly couldn't hear anything when Aria was messaging and she was about four feet away. So unless the wife was telling the dad what to text to their daughter, there wasn't a whole lot of noise going on. So, what set this damn fool off for cryin' out loud?
It's starting to sound like the shooter is setting up for a Stand Your Ground defense. Ok, the victim shouldn't have thrown a bag of popcorn at the other man. Popcorn is so dangerous. You might get butter stains on your clothes. You might even get a bit of popcorn in your eye. Gee, you could even get a concussion from a flying Old Maid. Yeah, Mr. Reeves had just cause to be in fear for his life. (extreme sarcasm button now turned off).
And when you read something like this "Washington Post columnist calls Sandy Hook 'a convenient little shooting.'" I have to wonder if there's anyone sane left in this country anymore.
2 comments:
This "whole mess" started because all pretense of courtesy or civility in this country is long dead. In another world, Mr. "I carry a gun in my pocket when I go to the movies" would not (a)carry a gun in his pocket when he goes to the movies or (b) confront a guy in a movie theater about texting. He would either change his seat or complain to the manager. In another world, Mr. "I have to text my babysitter from my seat in the movie theater" might have (a)gone out into the lobby to use his phone, (b) changed HIS seat if what he was doing was bothering the guy behind him, and/or (c) NOT thrown his box of popcorn at the guy behind him even if he WAS being a jerk. But in this day and age of "I can do or say anything I want and it's up to you to stop me if you have the balls," this situation was bound to escalate into an ugly confrontation. And now that people can legally carry loaded guns around in their pockets and states have laws that allow a person to shoot another person at the flimsiest excuse for provocation, ugly confrontations can and WILL become deadly confrontations with increasing regularity. The end result of all this could go one of two ways. Either courtesy will enjoy somewhat of a renaissance--because people will fear for their lives should they say the wrong thing, or we will simply start killing each other off in a big way.
Apparently he did leave the theater and came back unhappier than when he started. I can't get past the fact that the feature hadn't even started yet. They were still showing previews. Back in the dark ages when I was still going to movies the previews were the signal to make that last restroom run, get sat down etc. People would have still been moving around, getting settled. So why would someone texting before the feature started set him off?
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