I don't know how many of you worry, in light of Colorado:

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-kozak ... 89914.html

I cried when hearing about this, and reading this article and the linked article within. Of course, I have no idea what the specific circumstances of these kids and parents were, and am not assuming there is any connection to autism...but as someone who has dealt with a fear of violence, my heart goes out to this mother.

Wow, this is the first time I've heard of this incident... That's terrible. The suspect's mother's heart must be breaking.

I hope I'm not really using it as an excuse to skip a matinee today, but I skipped a matinee today. I guess it's because of the shooting. (I'm also expecting delivery of an electric bass from Fedex so that's probably the main reason). Still, it's a shame this nut had this massacre planned for 6 months and no one saw it coming. Makes you wonder how many unhinged people there are in the world.

I've just read the news article and my heart goes out to the mother.

She was the first person I thought about. When my coworker asked if I had heard about the story, the first thing out of my mouth was "that man has a mother somewhere."

The whole thing is beyond tragic. Sometimes I really just don't get the human race.

I have felt really sad for his mom as well. Who knows what details will come out about his life, but no matter what, at one point he was her baby, and I am sure she felt she did the best she could in raising him.

Don't get me wrong, my heart goes out to these victims and their families, but for some reason I just feel sorry for his family, and I just would really like to know more about him and what caused him to do this.

I actually take a different approach based on her comment "You have the right person."

This suggests to me she had a feeling that he was going to do something. I feel this and the Gabby Giffords shooting were both preventable if the parents had taken action.

For those that don't know, it was reported the mom and the town sheriff had been hiding the fact that the shooter was crazy/dangerous to avoid scandal.

Of course, we must moderate and remember hindsight is always 20/20 but still I need to know more about why she said that before I can really feel for her.

That being said - what could she have done, even if she openly acknowledged that possibility? I agree that we don't have much information, but the truth of the matter is that families are very rarely able to intervene in a situation involving an adult, and often not even when there's a teen involved. Many parents here, including myself, have described kids that have committed or threatened violence, and the large majority, probably all of them, will grow up to be contributing citizens who harm no one as adults. How does a parent determine the difference?

Even given that the population of mentally unstable persons is smaller than the general public, the percentage of those who are mentally ill committing these kinds of violent acts is still incredibly small...and of those, the ones whose families are at fault, I would judge a still smaller percentage (one thing I recall from past large-scale shootings: most often, the family worked with the police to solve the crime and either didn't see it coming, or were unable to predict the specifics or prevent it from happening.)

Current US Laws lean towards freedom of the individual - until someone has actually committed a crime and the crime has been reported, it is very, very difficult to get authorities to intervene - and sometimes, even then. See this article for an example: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/magaz ... wanted=all

So, I feel for this family. I feel for the victims.

So sad for all involved....

I think this so called man is an evil monster. I have no pity for him and hardly any for his family. They are all alive while so many families are shattered. My heart breaks for the familes trapped in that theater, knowing they were going to die. I live through 9/11 and the constant terror threats. I think there is a special place in hell for people who do these horrible wicked things. This beast isn't crazy, he is a methodical killer and deserves to put underground somewhere for the rest of his life.

I just read an update that the mom wanted to clarify that when they called her at 5:45 am, and asked if she was Arlene Holmes and did she have a son named James Holmes, she said "You have the right person" She was referring to herself. Then her lawyers said that his parents do not plan to talk about their son or their relationship with him.

I think as a parent, it would be hard to not know something was going on with your child. But what they might be able to do about it is another matter.

I thought it was going to be something like that. Or that they asked her, do you have a son who is a neuroscience major living in Colorado?

It would be consistant with our sh***y main stream media to misconstrue a quote like that.

You want to see something misconstrued, check this out:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/joe-scarborough-james-holmes-autism_n_1694599.html

Not really, there are many many mothers out there that deserve our sympathy but I would like a little information on this first.

It says in the article that the man making this speculation has a son with AS. What in the world is he doing? Why would he make this speculation without any hard evidence? It just makes people who are uninformed make the wrong connections about AS.

It seems to me that it just as easily if not more likely could be Bipolar with psychotic features, schizophrenia, or antisocial personality disorder.

Careless comments like these made without regard to the possible consequences really aggravate me.