Don't Blame Batman for the Aurora Shooting

[Michael Allen]

http://ideas.time.com/2012/07/20/dont-blame-batman-for-the-aurora-shooting/ 

Main Idea: "At present we know very little about the shooter James Holmes, and so we’re obsessively focusing on some of the more superficial details of this case.

Had the massacre occurred a couple of weekends ago, we might have been parsing The Amazing Spider-Man or The Avengers or even The Hunger Games for “clues” as to the shooter’s motivation."

Main Idea (My Own Words): We often look to deep into how certain media can effect current events, this holds true for people blaming the aurora shooting on The Dark Knight Rises.

Response:

I completely agree with Christoper Ferguson's belief that The Dark Knight Rises and the Batman franchise did not cause the terrible Colorado Shooting. In the confusion left from the tragedy, people are quick to point fingers at what could have caused the shooting to happen. And of course, seeing as how James Holmes showed up to a Batman movie, a trilogy with violence in it, it is going to be blamed by the ignorant and scared individuals who have nothing else to blame. A situation like this occurred during the Columbine Massacre, when one of the shooters was revealed to have played a lot of DOOM, a violent video game, which lead to a lot of finger pointing to the gaming industry. Seeing as how Holmes is insane, it would probably be more useful to look into his social interactions, or recent activity. But no, it is much easier to blame the movie about Christopher Nolan dressing up in a bat costume and fighting crime. Even if Holmes was somehow influenced by Batman, you cannot prevent things like this by banning violent movies or video games, because you can't tell what is going to "influence" a madman, that's what makes him a madman. 

[caragodlesky]

Response (from Cara):

I also completely agree with what Ferguson's belief that the Batman franchise did not caused this to happen. It's almost ridiculous to say that ONE movie caused something like this to happen; that is too much blame to be put on a movie about against fighting crime. Yes, the movie does contain violence but the fighting is against the bad guys. As Michael said, people are too quick to point fingers, and I surely dont believe that Batman, a movie that has been around forever, caused the shooting. Events like this are caused by the man's own insanity. It was a fluke; it never should have happened. Holmes could have had some mental illness. Obviously normal people don't do this sort of thing.  Also what I found interesting in the article was that violence in kids was decreasing, and violence everywhere. According to Ferguson, "youth violence has been steadily plummeting, and is at its lowest levels since the 1960s." And it was said that a writer, Stephen Pinker, talked about in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, that "we are living at the most peaceful epoch in human history". So in an era where Batman has been around on TV since the 1960s, and violence has been declining, it is safe so say that the franchise did NOT cause this man to commit such a horrid crime.  

[averyelford]

I completely agree with both Ferguson and you on this. In the vast majority of cases, for someone to snap this badly there would have to be many, many different causes. I would find it hard to believe that movies such as the Batman franchise - a franchise which is clearly focused on overcoming evil and fighting for the greater good of things, nonetheless - would be the cause for such a violent attack on innocent moviegoers. There were more than likely numerous other events that caused James Holmes to shoot these people. To get to the bottom of this attack, we must look deeper into Holmes' life and not focus on where the attack took place, and point fingers at the movie as the cause. Because, believe me, a crime this terrible would never be inspired by a move franchise such as Batman. 

[sweets.and.pudge]

I agree as well. Holmes is a mentally unstable man who was probably angry at society and its people and the Batman movie was a place where many of those people would be gathered together as easy targets. As Christopher J. Ferguson points out, had the killer formed his plan earlier we would all be wondering if The Hunger Games made him angry because of its violence towards youth. If the shooting occurred because the movie was violent, there would be many more attacks like this one at movie theaters rather than at schools. People are focusing on the movie to relieve some of the pain of the event and protect themselves from fearing for their own lives the next time they step into a theater.

                It has been proven that humans like to look for patterns. The idea of events happening for a particular reason in an arranged order makes human beings feel safe and secure. “When events are unpredictable and out of a person’s control  A perfectly healthy human mind can trick itself into seeing things that are not there,” (Larry O’Hanlon, Discovery News).  Many people saw this horrible event and felt fear but saw no way to protect themselves or their loved ones and blamed the violence on the violence in the movie to prevent the fear within themselves.

                As Ferguson points out, the tragedy is there, it happened, there is no point in blaming a movie for a mad man’s decision, even if it is human nature. Instead we should accept that it happened and send our condolences to the victim’s families and work to insure it never happens again.  

[apadamparker]

I agree with Ferguson's assessment of the tragic situation and the possible motives of Holmes. While I believe it is possible that violence in the media may have a marginal effect on today's youth it could not possibly drive anyone to commit mass homicide. I agree with Micheal's statement that Holmes's social interactions among other things most likely had a much stronger effect on Holmes than any violent movie. Violent movies and games have in recent times become automatic scapegoats but I agree with Ferguson's view that social pressures and a feeling of isolation have much stronger effects on potential killers than any violent imagery could ever have. 

On Wednesday, August 1, 2012 2:10:07 AM UTC-4, Michael Allen wrote: