Was Wertham right?

I have tickets for a Sunday noon showing of the Batman movie at an IMAX theater. I’m waiting for somebody to say that the horror at last night’s midnight show in Aurora, Colorado was due to the availability of comic books.

Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:11:02 -0400
From: “CNN Breaking News”

CNN Breaking News BreakingNews@mail.cnn.com via ema3lsv06.turner.com
10:55 AM (5 minutes ago)

“Such violence, such evil is senseless,” President Obama said in response to mass shooting at Colorado movie theater.

President Obama should be saying, “It’s time to reinstate the assault weapons ban.”

3 thoughts on “Was Wertham right?”

  1. If it wasn’t a comic book character fixation, it would be something else, from TV or movies, maybe books… Like “The Catcher in the Rye,” which disturbed young males seem to gravitate towards, before “going postal.” (Remember that phrase?) Actually I think it’s media attention, most of all. These mentally ill individuals find a way to get their moment of fame, albeit notoriously, in news coverage instantly around the world. These horrors of mass public senseless shootings used to be quite rare and isolated events in America several decades ago, but it sure seems to be happening with more frequency in more modern times. The violence becomes almost a kind of terrorism on a small scale, for school campuses and other public places. I think it will be a long time before anyone can walk into a dark movie theater again without at least a passing thought of the Aurora shooting.

  2. I’m surprised and relieved that I haven’t heard “fanboy culture” being blamed as I was expecting, with the shooting coming so soon after the San Diego Comic Con. The alleged shooter seems to have a Batman/Joker fixation, but there are plenty of other sources of inspiration for murder in the minds of mentally ill people.

  3. Absolutely! The horror at the midnight show in Aurora, Colorado, was due to the availability of comic books. (There! You happy now!?) There are logical causes for such things. Just as, to quote a well known TV evangelist back in 2001, the attack on the World Trade Center was due to GAYS in the U.S., their pushing for equality, marriage rights and so on. God had to punish America for that! …Hey, probably there were GAYS in the movie audience in Aurora, Colorado! …Getting SERIOUS now, though… all sarcasm aside… I agree with you that assault weapons should be banned. I think the only reason they’re not, is because of politicians not wanting to scare and alienate Western voters, who (illogically) think that would lead to banning shotguns and hand guns. Just like politicians won’t normalize trade relations with communist Cuba, due to fear of alienating Cuban voters in Florida. Even though we buy nearly everything these days from (“Red”) China. Sigh!

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