A man claiming to be The Joker opened fire on a theater full of men, women and children during the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises on July 20, killing 12 people, including a 6-year-old girl, and injuring 58 more.
But as more details emerge from the deadly shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado, commentators, observers, and Facebook pundits are taking to social media to ask: Just what was a 6-year-old girl doing at a midnight showing of the third installment of the dark and violent Batman reboot, a film that’s rated PG-13 in America?
Is gun control the real debate? Plus, more details on the suspected shooter, James Holmes.
Allison Lichter, blogging at The Wall Street Journal’s The Juggle, was one of many who asked precisely that question, noting that a 4-month-old baby was among the injured. “Parents live daily with questions about how to protect their children; how close to keep them? When to let them venture out alone?” she asked, opening up the debate among her readers.
And debate there was: Some readers seemed to imply that parents who brought their children to the midnight showing were some how asking for trouble, whilst others found that logic both offensive and ridiculous. One reader, Melissa, explained that the problem with taking a child to a film like The Dark Knight Rises isn’t the risk of a madman with an assault rifle, but exposing a child to that kind of film violence: “Why would you want your young child to witness things like that?… It doesn’t matter if you think your kid is ‘brave’ or ‘not bothered’ by seeing this stuff, the fact is, their brains are still developing and it’s our job to make sure they develop as healthy as possible.” Still another responded, however, “Shut up already and focus on what’s really the issue here (clue: not parenting choices).”
The batman shooting is truly a tragedy, but why the hell were there children aged between 6 years old and 3 MONTHS old in that film anyway?!
— Tim Bartel (@JustLikeTimmy) July 22, 2012
Why were children watching the Batman film anyway? #shooting
— Rob Kemp (@the_writer_1966) July 20, 2012
It goes without saying the Batman shooting is terrible, but why on earth were there children at a midnight screening? nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/art…
— Tariqa Satherley (@tsariqa) July 20, 2012
Why are we judging these parents? Because it makes us feel safer
Implicit in the question “why was there a baby at the midnight showing of a violent film” is judgment, Jacoba Urist acknowledged at NBC’s Today Moms blog. “For many parents, the senseless violence on Friday was a rude awakening: We are vulnerable in places we take our children to all the time, like malls and movie theaters. And that may explain why some people want to judge the families of the victims for their ‘poor parenting decisions.’ It’s a way of compartmentalizing the horror in Colorado and convincing ourselves that something so shocking could never happen to us.”
Great excuse for helicopter parenting
Lenore Skenazy, a parent and writer who is a proponent of “free-range parenting”, worried that this massacre would offer parents another excuse to smother their children. “I imagine The Dark Knight will be used by many parents and politicians to justify keeping kids — including teens — at home or under constant supervision. Because, of course, any time a kid is NOT at home, he could be massacred by a madman at the movies. You can’t be too careful!”
Stop blaming the victims
Heather Spohr, writing at Babble, was “terribly disappointed” by the judgment being thrown at the parents of children who were present at the massacre. “By putting this out into the world, you are basically implying that it’s the fault of the parents that their children were injured…. I’m sure ALL the parents were prepared for the only realistic consequence of taking a kid to a midnight movie: next-day crankiness. No one thinks, ‘I shouldn’t take my kid to this movie because they might get shot,’” she wrote. “I’m going to say this as ‘loudly’ as I possibly can: Stop shaming the victims. You don’t think a child or baby should go to a midnight showing of a comic book movie? Don’t take your child to the midnight showing of a comic book movie. It’s that simple. But don’t you DARE heap your judgment onto these parents suffering the kind of horror and loss few people can comprehend.”
Stop finger-pointing and look at the real problem
Blame and finger-pointing make parents feel safer, make them feel that because they make the “right” decisions, this kind of thing won’t happen to them. “But there is a danger to our retreat to the land of finger-pointing and make-believe,” wrote Lisa Belkin at The Huffington Post. “It means we aren’t taking this heinous act personally — which we should — and demanding laws that at least reduce the risk of it happening again and happening to any one of us — which we must. And it causes pain where what is needed right now is compassion.”
More on the massacre
- Gun control debate in wake of shootings in Aurora, Colorado