Post by warrior1972 on Jan 15, 2014 4:22:27 GMT -8
CNN) -- A moviegoer asks another man to stop texting during the previews. Words are exchanged. One man leaves the theater. He returns and shoots to death the man who was texting, authorities say.
Sensational crimes always resonate with the public, but a shooting during a Monday matinee showing of "Lone Survivor" in the Tampa, Florida, area, has drawn more attention than usual -- generating more than 21,000 comments on CNN.com and another 1,000 comments on CNN's Facebook page.
Jeffrey Merin, a clinical psychologist in Tampa, said the shooting involving a retired police officer and a man texting his daughter from a movie house touched on issues that strike strong chords with ordinary Americans: gun ownership and the notion of weapons in public spaces, the shattering of the secure and protected cocoon of the moviegoing experience, the increasing scarcity of places considered safe, the growing intolerance of annoyances such as public texting and cell phone use.
Theaters in particular were one of the last safe escapes from reality, Merin said.
"We don't have the ability to go someplace and be as safe as we once did," he said. "There is no escape. There is nothing more that creates fear and anxiety and panic -- two things: a lack of predictability and a lack of control. If there is not an ability to escape an area, that's a lack of control, and you certainly can't predict what's going to happen inside."
Monday's shooting in Florida ended with a 43-year-old man shot dead amid the theater seats, apparently for texting his daughter from his cell, and a 71-year-old retired police officer in custody.
At the least, the latest violence brought back memories of the July 20, 2012, shooting spree in a Colorado movie theater that took the lives of 12 people and wounded dozens more at the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."
"People are in a very small contained area that they have no control, no escape," Merin told CNN. "It's a familiar place where a lot of people go all the time that creates a sense of helplessness in that they are captive to what might be going on. The association of the theater brings back memories of Aurora."
The latest crime, however, also resonates for other reasons.
www.cnn.com/2014/01/14/us/florida-theater-shooting-reaction/index.html
Sensational crimes always resonate with the public, but a shooting during a Monday matinee showing of "Lone Survivor" in the Tampa, Florida, area, has drawn more attention than usual -- generating more than 21,000 comments on CNN.com and another 1,000 comments on CNN's Facebook page.
Jeffrey Merin, a clinical psychologist in Tampa, said the shooting involving a retired police officer and a man texting his daughter from a movie house touched on issues that strike strong chords with ordinary Americans: gun ownership and the notion of weapons in public spaces, the shattering of the secure and protected cocoon of the moviegoing experience, the increasing scarcity of places considered safe, the growing intolerance of annoyances such as public texting and cell phone use.
Theaters in particular were one of the last safe escapes from reality, Merin said.
"We don't have the ability to go someplace and be as safe as we once did," he said. "There is no escape. There is nothing more that creates fear and anxiety and panic -- two things: a lack of predictability and a lack of control. If there is not an ability to escape an area, that's a lack of control, and you certainly can't predict what's going to happen inside."
Monday's shooting in Florida ended with a 43-year-old man shot dead amid the theater seats, apparently for texting his daughter from his cell, and a 71-year-old retired police officer in custody.
At the least, the latest violence brought back memories of the July 20, 2012, shooting spree in a Colorado movie theater that took the lives of 12 people and wounded dozens more at the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."
"People are in a very small contained area that they have no control, no escape," Merin told CNN. "It's a familiar place where a lot of people go all the time that creates a sense of helplessness in that they are captive to what might be going on. The association of the theater brings back memories of Aurora."
The latest crime, however, also resonates for other reasons.
www.cnn.com/2014/01/14/us/florida-theater-shooting-reaction/index.html
