This thing that happened

Pretty much everything that needs be said about the theater shooting in Aurora, CO has already been said by others -- and in some cases, said better than I could. Still, I feel the need to say something. So:

As a gun owner, I find the mass shooting in Colorado to be monstrous, abominable and inexcusable. My thoughts, prayers, and sympathies are with the victims and their families.

However, I have less than zero empathy for the shooter, because I am actively hoping someone beats him to death in jail tonight. If that makes me callous, I'm okay with that. I'm not going to waste my sympathy on the damned; I'm going to save it for the deserving.

If someone you know was killed in Colorado, all I can do is tell you that I'm terribly sorry, give you a virtual hug, and hope that this eulogy poem will help make things a tiny bit better. 

For my thoughts on generalized human-on-human violence, see this post which I wrote in the wake of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting.

As for me, I'm going to try not to dwell on the evils of the world and concentrate on the good. Today is my mom's birthday, and we took her to the pistol range where she used her Crimson Trace lasergrips for the first time. She had a blast and showed incredible improvement; the full writeup will be the subject of next week's Monday Gunday post.

After that, we stopped by the gun store and she bought the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 380. We're both looking forward to another range trip to test it out.

This weekend, I'm going to do some product testing. I've received a number of small camping/survival stoves, and I'm going to set them up, start a bunch of fires, and see how well they all boil water and fry eggs. I may even do something silly like put a stove inside of a stove and see how well that works.

And when that's done, I'm going to go see The Dark Knight Rises. Because fuck you, death.