Discussion: Does Aurora Massacre Change Our View of Personal Safety?

At least 12 dead and 59 injured, several seriously.

One gunman and one crowded theater.

The specter of copycats.

Northern Californians woke up Friday morning to live video coming from Aurora, Colo., where James Holmes, a young gunman reportedly wearing a gas mask and a bulletproof vest, opened fire during a midnight showing of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, a movie expected to gross $200 million this weekend.

How many midnight movies have you caught at on Shoreline Boulevard?

The number of deaths and injuries continues to rise at the time this story published. Some of the injured may have included a 3-month-old infant and even members of the military. But no matter what the final numbers or who, there is one definitive: It's a tragedy.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Americans have been on various levels of alert, but anyone with an ounce of cynicism has recognized that movie theaters, malls and school events—so-called soft targets because they are gathering locations with little security—are ripe for domestic terror or deranged madmen.

The Friday morning massacre at the Century 16 in Aurora took place 19 miles and 13 years from Columbine High, but it’s the kind of tragedy that can open up wounds in every region in America.

Including the Bay Area:

• At the Oikos University shooting in Oakland this past April seven died.
• The Lehigh Cement shooting claimed the lives of three in October of 2011.

In other parts of California:

• Seal Beach is only nine months removed from the in which eight people were killed and one wounded.
• The McDonald’s massacre in 1984 resulted in 21 killed and 19 injured in San Ysidro, near San Diego.
• The in 1976 ended with seven dead and two injured.

All such events—not just the local ones—remind us of just how vulnerable we are.

And they bring the specter of copycats who think they can do it just a little better—or bigger.  

Do we keep the status quo and prove that we haven’t been beaten, or do we make changes because we want to see next year, want to see our kids get married and our grandkids grow up?

The incident Friday morning is likely to start a discussion—a very real, very serious discussion—about personal safety in public places.

Let's start it here.

Should metal detectors become as standard as popcorn machines at movie theaters?

Should there be armed security, or will a thick dude in a yellow jacket be enough to stop someone carrying a gun who wants to get in with or without a ticket?

Will there be no more dress-up at the theater, which apparently allowed the Aurora gunman to enter with a handgun, a rifle, a gas canister and a gas mask?

What do you think this morning in light of Aurora, the newest name in tragedy?

Reporting by Martin Henderson of Rancho Santa Margarita Patch

Additional reporting by Claudia Cruz of Mountain View Patch

Follow on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Get the daily newsletter | Post to our calendar | Share an announcement