This Was No Joke

There's a way of life that looks harmless enough;

look again - it leads straight to hell.

Proverbs 14:12

By now there is almost no one in the world, I am sure, who does not know about the massacre that occurred at a Colorado movie theater on July 20.  Mass murder in ordinary places horrifies us all and leaves us feeling tremendously vulnerable.

James Holmes appeared to live a charmed life.  He was a quiet, polite, clean-cut, responsible 24-year-old man.  In 2010, he graduated with top honors from the University of California-Riverside with a degree in neuroscience.  In 2011, he enrolled in the doctoral program in neuroscience at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora.  It has been reported that he was top-shelf academically, and was on a full scholarship that included a $20,000+ stipend for living expenses.  He did not appear to have much use for social media - no Facebook or Twitter connections, but was reportedly an avid video game player - particularly games of extreme violence.  He was described by his apartment neighbors as "nerdish" and a "book worm."

For some reason, life altered for Mr. Holmes this spring.  He and a girlfriend broke up, he dropped out of his doctoral program in June with no explanation given to the university, and over the last four months received a large quantity of goods (at home and at work) through delivery and the mail - likely purchased on the internet - including four weapons and 6,000 rounds of ammunition.  Sometime during this period, he rigged his apartment with 30 homemade grenades and over 10 gallons of gasoline. He also dyed his hair orangish-red. Then on July 20, he dressed meticulously in black, donning a ballistic helmet, a ballistic vest, protective leggings, throat and groin protectors, and a gas mask, released smoke or tear-gas into a crowded theater, and emptied seemingly endless rounds of ammunition into the audience, killing 12 people and wounding 58, several of whom are still in critical condition.

If you had passed James on the street near the University School of Medicine, you would probably have thought he was just another student, if you noticed him at all.  He would have appeared to be "harmless enough."  His mind, however, had crossed a line from which there was no return.  He then walked into an ordinary place of entertainment and turned it into a living hell.