A harmless diversion, escapist entertainment or whatever you want to call it.   I got home to listen to my agitated (84) mother, driven halfway to angina by the News coverage of the Colorado theater shootings.

Definition of useful news; There is a guy with a gun in his hand coming into the room.

Definition of news sure to be later found to be inaccurate; Man in shooting armed with assault weapons and trained by militia group is associated with the Tea Party radicals.

Colorado shooting investigation unfolds

According to AmmoLand, the theater is a gun-free zone; that is, even legally-concealed firearms are not permitted on the premises. Examiner has confirmed that the theater chain does not allow firearms. The gunman ignored this prohibition, and walked into what was essentially a risk-free environment, set off two smoke and/or teargas bombs to distract the crowd, and opened fire.

Translate this to mean there were no armed citizens to interrupt the gunman and return fire.

He was armed with a 12-gauge Remington Model 870 pump shotgun, an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and two .40-caliber Glock handguns. It is not known how many rounds were fired, and if he used the shotgun, he could easily hit several people with one round.

You want to enact a useful national gun law? Enact a national law that prohibits any company or public building from attempting to deny any local citizen from carrying a firearm in accordance with the local states gun laws.

Do you personally want to do something to prevent a recurrence of this tragedy? Write a letter to any movie theater or movie chain that you patronage informing them that you will not buy a ticket at their theater if they attempt to deny law-abiding members of the public with permits to carry firearms from bringing their weapons into their place of business.

Oh, the Dark Knight Rises, I give it a “B”.