I don't much care if they prove he WAS (or is) mentally ill. I also don't care about his credentials, his potential or his background, this individual should lose his right to walk among the general population - FOREVER, end of story.
More details are coming forward as James Holmes's (the suspected gunman in last year's mass shooting at a Colorado theatre) trial begins to unfold. He was shy. He was quiet. His mother was a nurse, his father a scientist. He was enrolled in a neuroscience doctoral program at University of Colorado. Apparently he was quite brilliant. He was likeable, played computer games and he graduated at the top of his class. It's a nice story but it has a very bad ending - tragic in fact. And the bottom line is, Holmes is not someone we want walking the streets freely, EVER.
Twelve innocent people were murdered the day he burst into a movie theatre and open fired on patrons. Fifty-eight more were wounded. It was one of the worst mass shootings in US history and it was a happening that Holmes reportedly spent months preparing for. Reports say he spent $26,000 in federal grants that he received for graduate school building an arsenal of weapons and gear he would eventually make use of on that fateful day. He also reportedly sent a notebook detailing his plans prior to the killings to a University of Colorado psychiatrist. Sadly it went unopened until it was too late.
Police say Holmes, who is now 25, had stockpiled weapons, ammunition and even explosives. By all accounts, he was a man with a plan and he followed through.
Yet in the aftermath (as could be expected), it's being said Holmes was mentally ill. He didn't act the way a "well" person would. Well of course he didn't and obviously he has something wrong "up there," but should that serve as an excuse to see him get a slap on the wrist? I for one sure hope not. I bet I can speak for his victims and those left to mourn the loss of their loved ones as well when I say this.
Defense lawyers can call all the witnesses they want. They can wax eloquently about Holmes's background and do their best to draw sympathy from the judge but in the end we're talking about a cold blooded murderer, a man who premeditatedly took the lives of 12 people. It's time to think about the lives of the innocent and their rights. As for Holmes? Who cares?
