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Colorado

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Rocknrule

(5,697 posts)
Wed Aug 15, 2012, 10:52 AM Aug 2012

Is there a "curse" on Colorado? [View all]

Everyone knows that America has a problem with gun violence and mass murders, but Colorado in particular has become the epicenter of it. In addition to the Columbine massacre, arguably the most famous and iconic mass shooting of all time, the state has weathered a rash of spree killings on top of it - at Platte Canyon High School, at the YWAM and New Life churches, at Deer Creek Middle School, and most recently, at the Aurora Mall - not to mention the Sikh shooter in Wisconsin, who had Colorado ties. Over the past 15 years, there has been a rampage in Colorado on average once every 2.5 years, more than any other state has experienced. Every 2.5 years, the bullets fly in Colorado, the world watches in horror, and the nation asks in vain, "why?" But after five major shootings in 15 years, the nation's collective "why?" has turned into "Colorado again?" The Denver metro area is now home to a higher concentration of mass murderers than any other highly populated area in the nation, and frankly I find that terrifying.

Equally disturbing is how calculating, heavily armed, ambitious, absurdly prepared, and over-the-top psychotic Colorado's killers are. The Virginia Tech shooter, lethal as he was, was only armed with a pair of low-powered pistols and a few hundred rounds of ammo. The Columbine gunmen, by contrast, had far more exotic weapons: sawed-off shotguns, a TEC-DC9 assault pistol, and bombs of all shapes and sizes practically spilling out of every orifice. Had everything gone as planned, the death toll at Columbine could have been in the hundreds, if not thousands. Similarly, the YWAM/New Life and Aurora shooters stockpiled thousands of rounds of ammunition, automatic rifles, and both had bombs in their homes. Like their precursors at Columbine, they both intended to kill hundreds and carry out the deadliest rampage in U.S. history, but fortunately did not succeed. Anders Breivik, the Complete Monster from Norway, currently holds the worldwide record for most kills in a shooting spree, but any one of Colorado's gunmen easily could have outdone him. That’s the key distinguishing trait of Colorado gunmen – while most spree shooters are armed with a .22 pistol, a few extra rounds, and go into it wearing jeans and a T-shirt, Colorado shooters build bombs, booby-trap their cars and homes, and wield obscene amounts of firepower and heavy assault weapons. Shooters here for some reason are compelled to go the extra mile.

The question now is, why Colorado? How could a state with so much going for it, so much natural beauty, such good weather, so many friendly and healthy people, be home to so much evil and violence? It used to be that Colorado was synonymous with skiing, outdoor activities, and sunshine, but now, to most of the world, Colorado is synonymous with tragedy and mass murder. Does God hate Colorado? Is it something in the air (or lack thereof)? Are we raising monsters here? Is the entire state a giant Indian burial ground? Is there a curse on Colorado? Is it on some convergence of time and space that draws in heavily armed sociopaths like the Bermuda Triangle to lost ships? I wouldn't be concerned if this was going on in California or New York, because more people obviously equals more crime. Colorado is not a heavily populated state, which makes me think that our person-to-monster ratio is far above the national average. I love living here and I am saddened and angry that my state is slowly transforming into the Middle East. Coloradans are a proud and wonderful people and we don't deserve to be repeatedly victimized like this. Chicago politicians have acknowledged that their city has a higher murder rate than even Baghdad and have taken steps to make changes. Maybe Colorado's leaders should follow suit, recognize that their state has a mass murder epidemic, and do something about it.

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