Dark Knight Rising Tragedy

This morning I learned about the tragic shooting in Aurora Colorado.  My heart breaks for the families and community where this happened.

I would like to comment about this event in a larger context, specifically on how we should react to this event.  I don't blame the filmmakers or gun makers.  The truth is that we like to watch violence.  I don't know why, but it's worth some contemplation.

In the previous Batman movie (The Dark Knight), 26 people were killed, according to  http://bodycounters.com/bodycounts.php.  (I couldn't find statistics for Dark Knight Rises).  More than twice as many murders and not a single flag flown at half mast.  Of course, the 26 killed in The Dark Knight were fictional.  The argument against this comparison of course is that those weren't "real" murders.

But what if you found out that more than 26 "real" murders happened yesterday.  And the day before.  And the day before...all adding up to about 10,000 violent deaths over the last year.  Innocent people murdered here in the United States.  The cause?  Drunk Driving.  Drunk drivers have killed over 250,000 people over the last 2 decades.  No call for another Prohibition (we learned our lesson there).  But also, no call to fly flags at half mast and no 24 hour-a-day news media blitz.  Why aren't there more news stories about this bigger story?  We obviously are morbidly interested in violent death.  This is a fact that filmmakers have discovered and exploit to sell more tickets.  (I think it works since they allow us to feel fear without actually having anything to be afraid of).  I think we need to ask ourselves, "Do I really need the emotional arousal of watching violent death to be entertained?"  I wrote about this before here.

In conclusion:

Don't point the finger.  Don't make any new gun laws.  Don't blame the Tea Party, Hollywood or any other group.

Do ponder your feelings about the suffering of others.  Consider how you want to react to the visual depiction of violence to others, even if it is fictional.  Human suffering is real, widespread and is not going away.  Decide what you can do each day to reduce the suffering of a fellow being.  Smile.  Say a kind word.  Perform an act of charity.  Maybe if Jim Holmes hadn't felt so isolated and desperate.  Maybe if he had more people reaching out to him.  Maybe he wouldn't have resulted to this horrific act of desperation.

Maybe if by connecting on a human level with someone you know, they would feel less inclined to drink themselves senseless and then get behind the wheel of a car.  Maybe you could save someone's life.

Update 7/25/2012
Positive:
Someone posted the story of a mother's advice to her child upset by some past horror: "Look for the helpers".  I am inspired by the men who used their bodies to protect their girl friends.  A reminder for each of us to be a "helper".
Negative:
I just found out this disturbing information.  The following trailer played in the theater before the shooting.  It shows men shooting into a crowded theater.  Maybe we should blame Hollywood after all.  Go to 2:03.

Is it the Guns?

I finally got around to reading "Culture of Fear" by Barry Glassner and I'm inspired to have less fear in my life.  According to the author, some of the fears that our culture exaggerates include: plane crashes, road rage, Gulf War Syndrome, breast implants, poisoned Halloween candy, child abduction and teen pregnancy.

The author, however, fell victim to the same fear mongering he complains about when he repeatedly decries gun violence and argues for more gun control.  This seemed inconsistent with most of his book, so I decided to look into it a little more.

Below are charts comparing gun ownership to gun related homicides.  The first chart shows no clear correlation (each blue diamond is a country).  The point in the top right shows the strongest relationship (39% ownership and 7 homicides per 100,000 people).  That's the U.S.

Instead of jumping to the conclusion: "gun owners in the U.S. are violent", I decided to look at the data for all 50 states, as well as New York City and Los Angeles.  Not as much of a correlation, especially for New York City which has probably the strictest gun control laws (1.7% ownership, 6.5 homicides/100K) .

So I thought about it and was reminded of the Gini coefficient, a measure of economic inequality (0 being equal and 1 or 100% is unequal).  I decided to compare Gini to Gun Homicides.

For both countries and U.S. states, it seems that greater economic disparity results in more gun violence (Someday I'll actually calculate the statistics).  For example, New York City has a Gini of .5, which may explain why gun violence is still high there.

The Solution?

I'm worried that the politicians and activists will lazily jump to another poorly thought out solution like the need to increase welfare payments (another conclusion in Barry Glassner's book).

Reducing gun related violence is much more complicated than getting rid of guns or even reducing poverty (reducing the Gini).  For example, countries with the highest gun ownership (Switzerland, Norway and Finland) may benefit from better trained gun owners (due to compulsory military service in Switzerland and more gun training in Norway and Finland).

My Solution: Provide gun safety training for poor school children.  Sounds crazy, but it could possibly do more to help than taking guns away from responsible citizens.

Full Disclosure: I own a Red-Rider BB Gun and have many friends who are gun owners.

References:
A more critical review of The Culture of Fear
Would Banning Firearms Result in Lower Murder and Suicide? Harvard Law
Wikipedia, etc. for the statistics.

Added June 17, 2012  Here's an interesting talk on TED