Local views on gun control and safety may change after the latest shooting in Aurora, Colarado early this morning at the midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises."
The gunman was wearing a mask when he set off an unknown gas and fired into the crowded theater located in a Denver suburb, killing 12 people and injuring at least 38 others, including a three-month-old infant, according to a report by the Huffington Post.
This tragedy reminds the Bay Area of previous mass shootings including one earlier this year at Oikos University in Oakland, which killed seven people and wounded three others. Though 13 years apart the Oakland shooting brought memories back from the massacre at Columbine High School.
And even here in San Mateo County, a former Hillsdale High School student just three years ago brought a chainsaw, 10 pipe bombs and a knife to campus in an attempt to kill his teachers. Alexander Youshock was last year of attempted murder for the Aug. 24, 2009, incident, in which teachers tackled him, preventing anyone from being injured.
These tragedies can be felt all over the country. In the wake of the latest shooting, safety of theaters, malls and schools and their low level of security may be questioned and criticized.
Let’s start the discussion here.
Do you feel safe at the Century at Tanforan? Or should there be increased security? Does the theater need an armed security or metal detectors? Will dress-up at the theater be forbidden, because it apparently allowed the Colorado gunman to enter with a handgun, a rifle, a gas canister and a gas mask?
In the long-term, should gun control laws be reevaluated to better regulate the purchasing of weapons? What do you think this morning in light of the Aurora tragedy?
San Bruno Patch will continue to update this article as more information becomes available.
Laura Dudnick contributed to this report.
