Their address has been all over Denver TV, and also online. Best, Don Bauder

Their address has been all over Denver TV, and also online. Best, Don Bauder

After the address was posted, the Reader removed it. I wasn't consulted but didn't argue the point. Best, Don Bauder

I agree, the specific address is not relevent and does invade the parents privacy. I feel for the parents, they are going to have a son in prison for the rest of his life. No parent needs that kind of heart ache.

The Reader editors who took out the address would agree with you. The UT has also been criticized by stating the family's location in a way that an alert reader could figure out the address. Given that the address had been used on TV in the morning, was on the Internet, and is listed in the white pages, I felt there was not a problem giving the address, particularly since the house was being guarded conspicuously by neighbors. But I was overruled and never protested a peep. Best, Don Bauder

you're a good man Don.

Not exactly sure what comparisons can be drawn between this guy and Ted Kaczynski. To me, this guy is closer to a Jared Laughner type, and even that is kind of a stretch.

Jared Laughner had previously diagnosed mental problems as I recall, and was definitely giving off strong mental disturbance signals prior to his deadly outburst, and he did not have anything near the intellect as this guy did-as I recall Laughner was in a community college. Regardless, no one does an act like this without some deep rooted mental disorder IMO. You have to have a disorder to do this. Normal people don't do these things.

Again, the address was hardly private this morning. If the Reader redacted it (I haven't looked), the editors must have had a good reason. Best, Don Bauder

My address? Did you mean Holmes's address? Best, Don Bauder

There would be few things more horrible than what these parents are going through. Best, Don Bauder

I am not sure of the relationship that you cite, but some interesting things have come out in recent hours. One is Holmes bought weapons and munitions online for several months before the shooting. He earlier expressed an unusual interest in comic character villains, including those from Batman. The timeline is interesting. He bought munitions online for three months -- right after, possibly, he ran into trouble in graduate school. Allegedly, he left school voluntarily, but the pressures of graduate school can be tough. Best, Don Bauder

According to the Aurora Police Chief, the guns were all purchased locally and legally within the last 2 months. I believe that he bought the AR-15 and one of the Glocks at 2 separate Gander Mountains stores and the other Glock and the Remington shotgun were purchased on separate occasions at a Denver Bass Pro Shops location. The Chief also said that nearly 7,000 rounds and multiple magazines for those weapons were purchased online. In addition, Colorado is apparently one of two states, Arizona being the other, that don't restrict the sales of semi-automatic assault rifles, in this case the AR-15. and they have no gun registration. In fact, in Colorado, As of 2003, it is illegal for any local government or law enforcement agency to "enact an ordinance, regulation or other law that prohibits the sale, purchase or possession of a firearm that a person may lawfully sell, purchase or possess under state or federal law. He also purchased the tactical gear he was wearing online, from a place called TacticalGear.com, based in Missouri and apparently paid extra for expedited 2-day shipping. No confirmation yet on the 2 smoke and or tear gas canisters and where/how he obtained them

I saw the interviews with the Aurora police chief twice. It sickens me that someone can purchase all that ammunition online. On the other hand, I don't like governments prying into citizens' online purchases. Colorado now has experienced Columbine, the shootings at the Bailey high school, and now Aurora, but nobody thinks the state will do anything about the ability to get guns at will. Best, Don Bauder

I have a wide variety of firearms. A few of them are over 100 yrs old. Some are family heirlooms. A couple were WWII issue. Each and everyone of them is in working condition and is fired on a regular basis. They have names like Winchester,Garand, Colt, Riverside Firearms, S&W, Glock, Remington, Mossburg,and Browning.I have shotguns, rifles, high-powered and scoped hunting rifles, revolvers and semi-automatic pistols. None of them are assault rifles. The M-1 is closest, but it doesn't meet the standard. My wife and both daughters all trained in firearms and fire arm safety and the have each fired every one of them. I have never purchased ammunition on line. I want to see the brass and the quality of the load of anything I am going to fire. In the case of a couple of the older guns, they are custom loads that I have made locally. There is absolutely no reason for any private individual to have 6-7000 rounds, BUT it is not illegal. And really, in my opinion, it doesn't make any difference whether or not it can be bought online. there are enough brick and mortar store that one could easily purchase that amount almost anywhere in a few hours. Unless or until there is a national data base on ammunition sales, it will continue to be available. And unless gun laws similar to those in England are enacted, people will still have guns(in the UK in 2009 there were 0.07 recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants, in the US was 3.0, about 40 times higher). I don't think there is even a prayer that will happen and quite honestly, I want to keep my guns.

The homicide rate of gun control countries-like England- is no different than the US on a statistical level, they have less gun violence, but far more knife and other weapon violence.That is one reason I hate seeing the stats on gun violence, because it is meant to imply that there is less killing going on in countries tat have gun control.

I don't disagree with you in the slightest on that point. But I am sure that moviegoers in England don't have many worries about a masked knifeman attacking a crowded theatre, killing 12 and wounding 58. However I would be more worried about having someone pulling a knife on me on a London street than someone pulling a gun.

Again, I would like to see the stats that SurfPup quotes. Are they put out by the NRA? Best, Don Bauder

I have not seen the data you refer to, SurfPup, and until I do see them, I am skeptical. Best, Don Bauder

Remind me never to burgle your house. That's a lot of firepower that you and your family have there. Best, Don Bauder

Generally speaking, burglars strike when they believe no one to be home. Now if you tried to rob me, well that's a completely different thing. Actually, it's not as "bad" as it seems. Some of the weapons are in a glass case in my office. The Winchester and the Colt from the late 1800's, my dad's old Army issue .45 amd M-1, and my first 2 guns, a .22 revolver and a .22 rifle. But all of the ammunition is locked up in a safe that you wouldn't be able to find if you didn't know where it was.And except for a Mossburg and a Glock, all of the others are locked up as well. The Mossberg and Glock are for our protection, we also have one of each at our place in PS. They are both readily accessible, but if you don't know where they are, you won't find them without tearing the house apart. But yeah, we feel relatively secure. I would like to say though, that despite the fact that over the last 35 or so years, we have felt the need to get one of the guns out on 3 or 4 occasions, fortunately we have never actually come close to needing to use it.

OK, then I won't rob you. Nobody should be afraid of an M-1 if I am the one holding it. I couldn't hit you at 5 feet, as I proved in the Army more than 50 years ago. Best, Don Bauder

Actually, at such close range, a shotgun is a better bet for you. At 2-3 meters with 00 buck, you're probably talkin about maybe a 4-5 inch or so spread and those 9 pellets are gonna leave one big hole in someone. With a Glock , I'm sure you would be able to hit the target from that range and all you'd have to do is keep firing. It's hard for most people to rapidly sight and fire on a close target with a long gun.

My father used to hunt ducks and pheasant with a shotgun. I felt so sorry for those beautiful birds when he brought them home. And I hated picking the shot out of the birds when we ate them. It wasn't like eating pheasant under glass at an upscale restaurant. Best, Don Bauder

Just having the firearm displayed and ready to use would stop 99.9% of all perps.....I have been at home during a "hot" burglary, and I wished I had a firearm then.

Who says a firearm would thwart 99.9% of perps? The NRA? Best, Don Bauder

If you were being , or about to be assaulted/robbed/harmed, you don't think brandishing a deadly weapon like a firearm would not end the action dead in it's tracks 99% of the time?????? I think it would.

Many years ago, probably 1978 of 1979, a friend of ours was home alone when someone broke into her home during the middle of the night. Her husband was out of town and when he was gone, she always kept their shotgun underneath her side of the bed. As I remember the story, for what ever reason, she had woken up and hadn't gotten back to sleep yet when she heard glass breaking. Long story short, she locked the bedroom door, called the cops and grabbed the shotgun. At some point the guy tried to open the bedroom door and she basically yelled something to the affect that she had already called the cops, that she had a shotgun pointed at the door and if he tried to come in she would fire. When we got there a couple of hours later to bring her back to our house, I looked at the door and it had a hole that I could put my fist thru and not touch the wood. She said that the guy had yelled something at her and tried kick the door in. She fired 1 barrel of 00 buck from across the bedroom, maybe 12 ft or so. There were 3 or 4 pellets in the plaster in the hallway and the cops found the guy at the hospital, the rest were in his shoulder/arm area. She told us later that the cops told her this guys was a career criminal who had lots of busts for different stuff. I think she said the cops told her that the guy didn't think anybody was home because there was no car in the carport and that he didn't believe she actually had a gun.. The ironic part, at least to us was that they have always had more guns than we do. They both are still expert marksmen. They used to hunt, they target shoot, they used to combat shoot and her husband taught a firearms safety class for a long time. The guy just picked the wrong house.

AWESOME gun defense story-I love those stories. I am pro gun, I don't own one and esentally never has but for a 2 year period in the ealry 1980's but I think anyone with aclean record should have the option.

If somebody were to pull a gun on me, and I pulled one back, I think the crook would pull the trigger on his gun and blow me away. Best, Don Bauder

You never point a gun at someone unless you're willing to pull the trigger. And if you're pulling the trigger, you are trying to put your target down. The idea is to not let someone pull a gun on you. If someone has a gun on you, you assume that he know how to use it and that he will use it and your scenario would not be the wisest thing to do. In this case however, Margie assume when the guy tried to come thru the door, he was coming after her, so she fired. The guys wasn't armed, but she didn't know that, so she stayed where she was until the cops showed up. He ended up in jail for a few years, I guess, and there were no charges files against her.The guy didn't believe she had a gun, and that when she said she'd shoot, she meant it. Like I said, the guy picked the wrong house to break into. If the guy had waited 1 more night to break in, there would have been no one home. The driveway was empty because her car was in the shop, so the next day she was coming coming to spend the weekend with us. Like I said, wrong house, wrong time. Now if that had happened today, the guy probably would have hacked into their home network, seen from the electrical usage that some one was home earlier, seen that someone had activated the alarm earlier in the evening, seen that there was video surveillance, seen from their facebook page that they are gun enthusiasts and then probably have decided that breaking into that house, yeah not so much of a good idea. Technology, a crooks new best friend. LOL!!!

I can't bring it up but I will take your word for it. Best, Don Bauder

It is just the inmate search for the county, and James Holmes, if you plug his name in, is there and it shows his charges and no bail status.

He killed a 6 year old girl. Killing a child is far worse than killing na adult, they have not had a chance to live yet. Death penalty for this guy.

I agree he deserves the death penalty. But he also has to be insane to have done this. So can he get life imprisonment for insanity? I don't know Colorado law on this point. Best, Don Bauder

Anyone that does this kind of act is unstable mentally/insane. The problem is the insanity defense fails about 99% of the time it is invoked, even if accurate. The insanity defenses were gutted after Ronnie Rayguns perp, John Hinckley, essentially beat that rap on an insanity plea.

Holmes will apparently get a public defender. That attorney's job will be to get him life instead of the death penalty. Best, Don Bauder

Don, if this is not a death penalty case then there never will be one, and the ONLY way he will get any reduction in sentence is if he pleads to all charges and the DA offers life, or he gets the insantiy defense to work, but the insanity defense NEVER-EVER works.

Even adjusted for population, there would have to be one helluva lot of knife murders to make your original thesis stand up. The Brits are known for using poisons such as arsenic. Best, Don Bauder

i concede I was wrong on the overall murder rate-it is lower in the UK, but the fact remains most of their murders are the result of non firearms, which would tend to be knives.

I am not sure I agree that these other British murders have to be with knives. Best, Don Bauder

636 deaths were recorded as homicides in England and Wales for the period between April 2010 and March 2011. The most common method of killing continues to be by sharp instrument. In 2010/11, there were 232 victims killed in this way, accounting for 36 per cent of all homicides. The second most common method of killing in 2010/11 was hitting or kicking, accounting for 122 homicides. However, while hitting and kicking was the second most common method overall, for female victims, it was strangulation or asphyxiation (39 homicides in 2010/11). In 2010/11, there were 60 shooting homicides recorded. This is an increase of 19 on the previous year and includes the 12 victims of the Cumbria shootings on 2 June 2010. A couple of interesting reports, should you care to read them: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb0212/hosb0212?view=Binary

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb0812/hosb0812?view=Binary

I am not dissuaded. Of course the most common homicide weapon for Brits is a knife, since guns are very difficult to get. But adjusted for population, Britain has a lower murder rate than the U.S. That's the point I have been trying to make. Best, Don Bauder

Yes, if you read the reports referenced above, they bare out 3 statistics: Killing by sharp instrument is the leading method of homicide in Great Britain, the overall homicide rate is lower in Great Britain than in the US and that the firearm homicide rate is higher in the US than in Great Britain. And that was MY original point in my July 21, 2012 @ 10:42 a.m. comment. Time to move along people.

I have watched the NRA and gun control advocates debate these points for years. I have also seen the bumper stickers, "If Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Would Have Guns." And then there are the blatantly redneck bumper stickers boasting that the family is protected by an automatic rifle, etc. Sorry, SurfPup, but I believe the arguments of those wanting gun control are the logical ones. But the NRA people have captured public opinion. Best, Don Bauder

Your link is from a 2003 article and many of it's citations are from the '90's. Are they still relevant??

SurfPup will get back to us on that point. Best, Don Bauder

The link had various dates on it form various studies, but that was the most recent I could find, I thought it was interesting because it included so many countries....they had the guy on Piers Morgan last night that wrote the book "More Guns= Less Crime" and he said Britain had a LOWER murder rate before gun control, it went up after gun control.

I would question the title of that guy's book. But suppose Britain had a lower murder rate before gun control. First, let's see how he calculates that. My guess is that there is some statistical prestidigitation involved. But for fun, give the guy his point: then how does he explain that Britain has a much lower murder rate? Best, Don Bauder

And there was an actor some years ago named John Holmes. Is that his.....oh, never mind!

Ya know, that idea occurred to me also. But as I contemplated it, I realized that the Jr. Holmes would have to have been conceived in a hospital bed at the V.A.. so yeah, not so much. Never mind.

I suppose somebody will come out with a song named "Holmes, Holmes on the Range." This is getting ridiculous. Best, Don Bauder

Back in the 1940s, there was a major league baseball player named Tommy Holmes. Best, Don Bauder

I have no idea and won't ask. Holmes is a popular name. Best, Don Bauder

John Holmes is the KING of names in the porn industry....I felt sorry for Johhny Holmes and his deformity...........

You mean John Holmes was the king, since he's been dead for almost 25 yrs.If one were to ruminate on who could be considered the king since then, I guess the name Alden Brown might be near the top of the list. Some my know him better as Peter North.

Yes, I agree that someone who has been dead for 25 years is not likely to be king of the porn industry. In fact, I don't think a person dead that long would be king of any industry, although some corpses do vote regularly in cities such as Chicago. Best, Don Bauder

Since I don't watch porn, I have no idea who John Holmes is, and why he is the king of that industry. Best, Don Bauder

Don Bauder, if you grew up in L.A., you didn't need to watch porn to know who John Holmes was. He also had a couple of stories written about him in Rolling Stone and was supposedly the "inspiration" for Mark Wahlberg's character in Boogie Nights. He was also involved in a highly publicized robbery and murder nicknamed the Wonderland Murders, which was the basis for the movie Wonderland.

One has to be pretty old like me, or a student of history, to know Porfirio Rubirosa. He was a Latin American lover, well endowed and mellifluous of manner, who married rich ladies and lived off of them. He was famous in his day -- back in the 1940s, if I remember correctly. Best, Don Bauder

Rumour is that he tried to do a Tommy Lee, and ended up dieing when he crashed his Ferrari.

That's a tale I don't remember about Rubirosa. I do know he married several rich movie actresses and heiresses who obviously loved his bedroom skills. Best, Don Bauder

Would that be the Ferrari reference or the Tommy Lee reference? LOL

Both. I know that a Ferrari is a car, but never heard that Rubirosa crashed one. I have no idea who Tommy Lee is. Best, Don Bauder

According to his bio, after a night of partying in Paris, he died when he crashed his Ferrari 250GT into a tree. Tommy Lee is the drummer in Mötley Crüe. He was also married to Pamela Anderson, she of Playboy and Baywatch fame and like Porfirio Rubirosa, Tommy Lee is apparently also well endowed They made a homemade sex tape while on vacation, which was stolen and leaked to the internet. In one portion of the tape Lee and Anderson are driving to Lake Mead when Lee decides to drive with no hands. You can use your imagination as to what he used to steer his truck.