Police: Colo. suspect planned massacre for months

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MEAD GRUVER and THOMAS PEIPERT

AURORA, Colo. (AP) - Details emerging on the Colorado massacre suspect show a budding scientist, brimming with potential, who pursued a graduate program even as he assembled weaponry he would allegedly use in the deadly midnight rampage inside an Aurora movie theater.

James Holmes planned the attack with "calculation and deliberation," police said Saturday, receiving deliveries by mail that authorities believe armed him for battle and were used to rig his apartment with dozens of bombs.

Meanwhile, a federal law enforcement official provided an updated account about the gunfire inside the theater, saying that a semi-automatic assault rifle used by the shooter jammed during the attack, forcing him to switch to another weapon.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to in order to discuss the investigation, said that the jammed weapon had a high-capacity ammunition magazine. Police have said that a 100-round drum magazine was recovered at the scene and that such a weapon would be able to fire 50 to 60 rounds a minute.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120722/DA05TGK01.html

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Investigators remove computer equipment as evidence from the apartment of alleged gunman James Holmes, Saturday, July 21, 2012 in Aurora, Colo. Authorities reported that 12 died and more than three dozen people were shot during an assault at a movie theatre midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

[pipoman]

1. So apparently

all those spouting how access to guns is the culprit here are completely wrong. Without access to guns, months of planning would have still resulted in tragedy..perhaps even more dead and injured. Virtually every one of these mass murderers plan their sprees for weeks, months, or years. There are plenty of ways to kill a lot of people with or without guns. It is, in fact, failure to make mental health services available to anyone who needs them, and making involuntary commitment impossible prior to commission of a criminal act which makes these types of massacres far more common than they need to be.

[fasttense]

2. So you are saying that guns don't kill people, lack of mental health care services kill people.

But if there is no trigger to pull there would be no gun violence. Other violence sure, but no gun violence.

[pipoman]

5. Is death by gun worse than death by one of this guy's bombs?

The term "gun violence" is nonsensical because it is invariably used by gun control advocates to the exclusion of violence in general. RKBA is a constitutionally protected civil liberty. If you don't like it you will have a bit of an uphill battle to repeal it considering even yesterday in GD on DU over 70% stated they would not favor repeal of the 2nd Amendment. So rather than sitting around gazing at a star, how about looking for realistic, constitutional answers to the problem at hand...every one of these mass killers has mental health issues in common, yet we have no access to mental health services without first committing a criminal act or without a car load of money to self pay. This can be fixed...constitutionally..

[HankyDub]

4. apparently

gun nuts are ready to draw the same conclusion no matter what the facts are.

He planned for months, and the best weapon he could figure was an AR-15 with a 100 round magazine. It's too bad that law abidin' citizens need AR-15's to hunt rabbits and need 100 round magazines to defend their famblys.

If only there had been another wacked out shooter wearing body armor and throwing smoke grenades while spitting hot lead from his 100 round magazine. Then he could have shot Holmes and saved everyone.

[pipoman]

6. And a bunch of people who haven't the slightest clue

believing a guy with 30 bombs in his apartment wouldn't be able to make due without a gun. It is intriguing how many progressives hate the idea of making mental health services available to anyone who needs them in favor of wishing for the impossible...

[HankyDub]

7. i don't recall saying

that mental health services shouldn't be made more available. It's "intriguing" that you would pretend I said anything like that. I think all gun nuts should get the help they need. The problem is that the vast majority of gun nuts don't understand how sick they are.

Mr. Holmes would have had great difficulty planting 30 bombs in that theater without being detected. It was much easier and more efficient to bring an AR-15 with a 100 round magazine (needed for hunting and home defense) and start shooting.

[pipoman]

12. The truth is,

most of these people aren't "gun nuts" at all...they are simply nuts who buy a tool to fulfill their nuttery. Most don't really have a history of owning guns, usually they buy them a month or 2 in advance of their rampage with a single purpose in mind. The silliness of pretending he would have to plant 30 bombs is revealed periodically all around the world when people bomb populated areas killing more than 12 people with a single device. This crazy person planned this for months. The absence or unavailability of guns would not have effected his planning, he simply would have chosen another method.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. You're yet another DUer using this to attack fellow DUers without justificiation

Where, on DU (or anywhere) have you seen a progressive who hates "the idea of making mental health services available to anyone who needs them"? Sure, many people have attacked the availability of guns - and, considering that all 12 victims were shot, and the booby traps haven't harmed anyone, they have more of a point than you do - you're claiming to know what he could have done with bombs, despite the fact you haven't even seen his apartment. But you're attributing bad feeling in a completely different area to fellow progressives, just because they don't agree with you that gun availability is not a problem.

Why have DUers become so vicious about each other with this event?

[pipoman]

11. In the many

posts I have made about the failure of our society to make available mental health services, I don't think a single person who writes of impossible, unconstitutional gun control measures has even acknowledged that access to mental health services to anyone who needs them would have any effect what-so-ever on incidents such as this...even with the evidence of Laughner's mother trying unsuccessfully to get help for her son. No, it is the rabid gun control crowd who is unwilling to look beyond their hatred of this particular enumerated civil liberty in favor of looking for and demanding actual legal mitigation of the problem.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. But that doesn't address the problem: you're falsely accusing them of hate

Why are you stirring up bad feeling on DU by falsely stating that they 'hate' access to mental health care?

On edit: I had mistakenly thought you were talking about Holmes's mother, not Laughner's.

[pipoman]

15. Every time

something like this happens the forums are jammed with people making impossible, unconstitutional, unsupported by anyone proclamations of ridiculous gun control measures to the exclusion and disregard of the fact that every one of these cases is accompanied by someone who could have benefited easy, cheap or free access to mental health services. No, the meme is always...we don't need mental health services, we need more unenforced laws on the books..

[yardwork]

17. I agree that the real issue here is lack of access to mental health care.

I'm not sure that involuntary commitment is the way to go, but it's certain that our mental health care system is woefully inadequate and getting rapidly worse.

[Sancho]

21. I disagree with you...

I was once a member of the NRA and I grew up in a family of hunters and on military bases. I own guns, but never use them now. I changed my mind many years ago.

Access to guns is way too easy in the US!!!

In my view, everyone should have a license to possess a gun. That license should include 1.) training, 2.) a background check, 3.) evidence of mental health 4.) references.

You should have to renew that license on some regular basis. If you possess a gun without a license, just like a DUI, you go directly to jail, lose your license, give up the gun. The same with buying ammo. All purchases should have a long wait (6 months or more) and there should be a limit to the amount of guns and ammo one license can purchase in a given time frame.

No one except the police should have anything except limited capacity handguns, target, or hunting guns. Period.

Yes, we don't have mental health services in the US and it is a hugh problem, but making guns less accessible is a very good idea. Making large purchases of explosives, chemicals, or other dangerous materials should also require a checkup.

We require prescriptions for drugs, driver's licenses, and sometimes you have to show ID to get into a movie. You can't go scuba diving or operate a boat (in Florida) without a training class. There is no reason to have such easy access to guns, and we should make it much more difficult to get guns, and more likely that they will be intercepted. That is the only reasonable and prudent thing to do.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Lots of details still to emerge

it's midsummer ... how did he get into a movie theater carrying 2 assault weapons? It's not like he could conceal them under his coat

Must have been through an exit, such could not have been carried through the front door and ticket window

[Ineeda]

8. From what I understand....

he came in the front door, looking just like any other patron, and bought a ticket -- not geared up or carrying anything. He then proceeded to an exit door, propped it open and went to his car, which was parked in the back near the exit. He then suited up, armed himself and reentered through the propped-open exit door. AFAIK, they haven't said exactly what he was wearing when he bought his ticket, only that his hair was 'painted' red, ala the Joker. Even if he were wearing battle gear, he might have fit in with other fans who were wearing costumes for the event.

[CanonRay]

10. You mean we the people don't have the juice to ban 100-round drum magazines?

This country is pathetic. You sure as shit don't need that to hunt deer.

[OnyxCollie]

14. He planned for months

but uses the wrong hair color for the Joker?

It's green, not red, dumbass.

[raccoon]

20. Maybe he's color blind? nt

[justiceischeap]

22. He's actually obsessed with Ronald McDonald, not the Joker. nt

[Ian David]

16. I guess I can stop wondering if he was motivated by Limbaugh, then. n/t

[4th law of robotics]

18. Buh buh but Rush told him to do it

last week!

[KakistocracyHater]

19. total DHS FAILURE!

.