The 'Batman Shooter': Why I won't say his name... EVER

With the horrible thing that happened in Colorado, I’m concerned about the paranoia level rising in our country. Sure, we were all taken back by the event and it’s awful nature, but I think people are being scared into being ‘politically correct’ in order to spare feelings. Television spots for The Dark Knight Rises will now be featured without any references to guns. Really?

What happened at that theatre was regrettably terrible, but why are we reacting out of our own fear that some people will now be offended if guns are shown in commercials for the movie? In my opinion, this is an overreaction, and it plays right into the shooters hands. I’m almost guaranteeing that this is what that SOB wanted; to make people afraid. That’s what 9-11 was about. They infiltrated us, and we responded with fear and paranoia to a disgusting degree.

EDIT: They also took out the trailer for the Gangster Squad for excessive gun violence. If they went so far as to remove a trailer for a movie, why didn't they remove the Ben Stiller movie, The Watch? They have an arsenal of weapons and use excessive gun violence against a dead alien as a means of providing a few laughs. If you're going to commit to doing something out of fear, be consistent.

EDIT 2: The Watch was initially named Neighborhood Watch, but they changed the name to not be associated with George Zimmerman and the Trayvon Martin shooting. I'm just going to shake my head and keep going.

As far as the shooter goes, I will not mention his name. I will never mention his name on principle. I will only refer to the shooter as ‘the shooter’ because his name is unimportant. What’s important is that people died a night ago. What’s even more important is that people lived through it. Someone told me last night that it is important to focus on the victims and not the shooter. It gives them credit for doing this horrible thing like everything else in history (Lee Harvey Oswald, Taliban, Bernie Madoff, etc). I completely agree with the idea and have chosen to focus on the victims instead.

Find out where the victims are staying and send flowers and cards. This not only shows that you care about them more than their aggressor, but it provides less fuel to pour on the shooter’s fire. The more we focus on him, the more power his message will have over us. The less we make him out to be the boogeyman, the quicker we can move on with our lives, and the less fearful we will be. Not naming the shooter gives us the power to fight back against insanity like this.

In the Christopher Nolan version of Batman, he is more than a man. Batman is a symbol of hope for the downtrodden. That symbol gives us a reason to stand together now even more than ever. I stand with those people that lost their lives trying to have a good time with people they cared about. I stand with those people who were hurt, and are fighting to recover. This is why we shouldn’t be scared into editing commercials in hopes that people won’t be offended. At the end of the day, this guy will fade into the background of lost souls who couldn’t make sense of their existence.

This is why I won’t focus on the name of the shooter, and this is why you shouldn’t either. Hold the Line.