A Plea for Aurora Shooting Victims

How many people cringed when they read this headline in USA Today?

“Civil Lawsuits Inevitable in Colorado Shootings, Lawyers Say”

The article begins, “The search for someone — besides shooting suspect James Holmes — to hold responsible for the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shootings almost inevitably will lead to civil lawsuits by victims and their families, lawyers say.”

The piece names a list of possible targets with deep pockets — from the theater chain to the University of Colorado to Warner Brothers — and teases out some of the ways that trial lawyers for the victims might begin to argue the case.

Look, I understand that the shooting represents a hell of a lot of pain and a serious hardship for a great number of people. But can we not do this, just this once?

From everything I’ve read, the only person really to blame for this crime is the person who actually committed it. So why not throw the full weight of the law at him and let the rest of us work together in a non-adversarial way to meet the needs of the victims?

Local hospitals are already pitching in to a certain extent, and so is Warner Brothers. Other charitable efforts have pitched in and could be ramped up substantially. I’d certainly contribute to a Stick-it-to-the-Joker fund.

So, I suspect, would thousands of my fellow Americans at the very least. It would be a chance to overcome evil with good, not lawsuits.