In The Aftermath Of Last Night’s Tragedy

Last night a 24 year old man burst into a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, tossed a smoke or tear gas grenade into the theater and opened fire. As of this writing 12 people were killed, 38 more were injured. This is a terrible, terrible tragedy.

It has nothing to do with movies or The Dark Knight Rises. Even if it has everything, in the shooter's head, to do with those things, it doesn't truly. This horror didn't happen because of violence in movies or video games. It happened because a sick, sick person had easy access to weapons and no compunction against using them on innocent people. Bullets killed these people, not a movie.

My condolences go out to the families of the movie lovers who were killed or injured, and in some way that includes every single one of you. These people were our kin, part of the larger family of movie lovers. Even when it comes to a film as mainstream and popular as The Dark Knight Rises, you have to be a real movie lover to get in line for a midnight show. These were our people, and every single one of us should feel the pain of their loss.

As the names of the victims are confirmed I will add them to this article. In the meantime we'll keep updating the site with regular news and opinion because I'm not going to let one horrible maniac and his too-easy access to guns ruin the very thing these people died doing - loving movies.

UPDATE: Christopher Nolan has released a statement.

"Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community. I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theater is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families."

These are the names of the dead:

Alexander Jonathan Boik

Alex M. Sullivan

John T. Larimer

Jesse E. Childress

Jessica Ghawi

Veronica Moser-Sullivan

Jonathan Blunk

Micayla Medek

Rebecca Wingo

Gordon Cowden

Alexander Teves

Matt McQuinn