The Batman shootings

News broke on Twitter of the shootings at the screening of Batman Aurora. The local newspaper was live tweeting from the scene, and their follower numbers skyrocketed, as millions of people realised they could get reports faster through Twitter than through news websites.

Incredible sadness for all those who died, but especially the woman who survived a mass shooting in Toronto, to be killed in Aurora – how unlucky do you have to be, to be in two mass shootings.

A minor blessing I guess is James Holmes was such a lousy shot. Of 70 people he shot, he only killed 12. The death toll could have been far worse.

While all mass shooters are to a degree mad, this one seems more inexlicable than most. With Columbine, it was two kids who snapped after years of bullying. In Norway it was a political extremist who wanted to make a point. With Holmes, it is not at all clear why he did this, apart from obviously trying to emulate The Joker. Also somewhat unusual that he got taken alive.

Holmes had no history of problems apart from struggling with a PhD in neuroscience. However he got honours for his undergrad degree. Almost no Internet footprint.

Maybe one day we will find out what caused him to do this, but that won’t bring back the dead of course.

Its illogical, but I don’t intend to see the movie now. I’ll probably watch it at some stage when it hits TV. But Batman will never quite be the same again.