True Crime Documentary - The Batman Shootings

0:00 315 and 314 for a shooting at Century Theater's.

0:03 14300 East Alameda Avenue.

0:05 They're saying somebody's shooting in the auditorium.

0:09 Just after midnight on July 20th, in a small town in Midwest America, a masked gunman enters a theater showing the premiere of the new Batman film.

0:18 Yeah, all of our people are saying Theater 9, where Batman was playing.

0:22 A local radio station is reporting that some people have been killed, but there has been no official confirmation.

0:29 The details soon become clear and the reality is horrific.

0:35 And here's what we know right now, as you mentioned, the revised number, 12 dead, 50 injured.

0:40 The youngest victim, just three months old. The suspect is in custody right now.

0:45 We know he's a young man, 24 years old.

0:48 Eyewitnesses describe him as armed for battle.

0:51 Armed for battle.

0:54 The accused an academically brilliant college dropout. James Holmes, aged 24, he dyed his hair orange and when arrested tells the police he is the Joker.

1:11 We may never understand what leads anybody to terrorize their fellow human beings like this. Such violence, such evil is senseless.

1:23 I'm Amal Fashinou, and this is me two nights before the Aurora shootings at the London Leicester Square premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, where Batman Christian Bale and Catwoman Anne Hathaway are the stars of the red carpet. Now I've come 5,000 miles to Colorado to meet people who were inside Century 16 when the shooting started.

1:46 God, it was like so much, bloody... It's not like what you see in Hollywood at all.

1:55 I'll hear stories of incredible heroism.

1:58 He completely protected me by telling me what I needed to do and pushing me under that seat further. He knew he was saving my life.

2:06 I want to find out if young Americans think the time has come to tackle gun control. I think guns are great.

2:13 I want a gun.

2:14 I'm gonna go buy one right now, actually.

2:16 And I'll tell the story of how the lives of James Holmes and one of his victims, Jessica Redfield, both 24, collided on a night that saw the deaths of 10 Americans under the age of 30.

2:27 They're saying there's hundreds of people just running around.

2:31 Got a child victim I need to rescue at the back door of Theater 9 now.

3:03 I've arrived in Colorado less than a week after the shootings. Right next to the state capital of Denver is the city of Aurora, population 325,000. Aurora's main feature is the Century 16 Theater, and it's here that the shootings happened. No one really expects to go to a cinema and end up being shot, or, you know, end up having a friend shot or a family member shot. Century 16 is still cordoned off, so relatives and friends have created a makeshift memorial on a patch of land close by.

3:45 It's bare, raw, and the tributes are heartbreaking. I don't know, this kind of reminds me of Princess Diana's memorial. I was really young when that happened, but this kind of brings back memories. It hits me just how young they all are. 27, 24, 23, 18, even six years old. How old are you personally, if you don't mind me asking?

4:12 28.

4:13 28, yeah.

4:14 Because I'm 23 and I kind of just find this just amazing how everyone was so young as well.

4:19 Yeah, yeah, and that's what breaks your heart.

4:22 You've got to keep looking at it.

4:24 Haven't even lived half their life.

4:26 Yeah, and it could have been anyone.

4:27 It could have been you, yeah, like any of me. I think people are very open here and I don't have anything to do with this and, you know, they welcome me and I've been here and I kind of feel like one of them. And I think that a lot of people knew each other, which is unfortunate as well because I guess they knew a lot of the people who have passed away. Did you know anyone here?

4:47 Yeah, I knew AJ.

4:49 Okay, a lot of people seem to know AJ. What was he like as a person?

4:54 He was always happy and smiling, and if he was sad, he'd always be the one.

4:57 To make your day.

4:58 Was he very popular? How do you feel about this?

5:04 Well, I've known him since I was six years old, so.

5:08 I'm really sorry.

5:11 I'm so sorry.

5:12 A lot of these people have lost a lot of loved ones. I've lost people that I loved before, so I can understand what they're going through. And to be honest with you, This is just, it's so much more than a tragedy that I can't even describe what it is. It's something just totally incoherent. And this is just awful. First, let's spin back to 1987. James Holmes is born here in San Diego, Southern California. An exceptionally bright student, he leaves school with top grades.

5:47 All right, our next speaker is James Holmes.

5:50 Aged 18. He's introduced to students at a summer camp.

5:55 In personal life, he enjoys playing soccer and strategy games, and his dream is to own a Slurpee machine.

6:03 These kids have been fun to work with this summer. But he's a serious student. His expertise is neuroscience.

6:10 My mentor, John Jacobson, who works in CNO, is a philosophical type of guy. He's interested in how we perceive reality.

6:18 Describers academically at the top of the top. James Holmes studies neuroscience at the University of California, Riverside. James Holmes wouldn't have known Jessica Redfield, who was taking the first tentative steps on her chosen career. She too was attending a university while at the same time trying to break into her dream career of sports journalism. She'd landed an internship at a cable TV station and was sent out to interview an ice hockey star.

6:50 And what about players coming in and out throughout the entire season? You get guys that come down from the NHL. You can have guys that are coming in from the Coyotes. How does that change the dynamic of the team?

7:00 The interns' outtakes were posted on YouTube.

7:06 There we go.

7:09 Can we please stick?

7:12 Here at 760 WKR.

7:15 Jessica was determined that one day she would make it to the top, and clearly, She was an instant hit with the hockey team.

7:34 After we modify their perception of time, we completely remove the delay, and this causes the time illusion.

7:40 James Holmes graduates with a bachelor's degree, but finding work is difficult. He gets a part-time job at McDonald's. then moves 1,000 miles east to Denver, Colorado to start a PhD in neuroscience. But he struggles and quits in early June. Out of college, out of a job, and getting deep into prescription drugs, Holmes starts searching the internet for explosives and ammunition. On June 25th, he fills out an application form to join a gun club. I've tracked down the club 30 miles east of town. The owner has agreed to meet me, and for the first time publicly, show me the application form that James Holmes submitted. My name's Amal.

8:27 Amal?

8:28 Glad to meet you, Amal.

8:30 This is the actual application that we received from him, with his name, address, all the general information on it, and his parents' address in San Diego. When I called James Holmes, the problem was is that when I called him, he had this rather guttural, bizarre message on his answering machine that was indistinguishable rambling very weird at best bizarre and so I left the message for him anyway figuring who knows maybe somebody did it and he doesn't know it's there and he didn't call back so I ended up calling the next day and the next day so by the third day my attitude was kind of like you know this is strange and bizarre you're not calling me back you should be you sent me an application

9:12 you know this isn't right so I just simply told the staff look This guy's not scheduled, he's not supposed to be here. If he shows, then please set him aside, put him there, don't process him until I get a chance to talk to him to find out who and what he is.

9:26 Around the same time, just six weeks before the Batman shootings, Jessica Redfield is in Toronto visiting a shopping mall when panic breaks out. One person was killed and seven others injured in a shooting in one of Canada's busiest shopping centers. Ever the journalist, Jessica goes online to tell the world what's happened.

9:47 I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw terror on the bystanders' faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change.

9:57 She said it was definitely a horrific experience. and scary.

10:02 In Aurora, I meet Harmony Johnson, who went to hockey matches with Jessica. She believes that Jessica's escape from the Toronto shooting had given her a fresh perspective.

10:12 She didn't let it affect her. She didn't let, like, her experience... keep her a victim or make her afraid of living life at all.

10:34 A hundred miles east of Denver, high in the Rocky Mountains, I've come to the old mining town of Leadville to check out their annual Boom Day parade. It's a chance to find out if Aurora has changed young Americans' views on guns. The right to bear arms is a key part of the US Constitution. And in Leadville, that's something they take very seriously. But I'm still surprised to find that a street gun display is part of the family entertainment.

11:23 I'm so scared.

11:26 If I was a kid, I would be petrified. They seem pretty relaxed compared to me. In this part of the country, owning and using guns is an important tradition. But do young Americans here feel the same?

11:47 Well, I personally own three guns, and I think it's important to me to have a gun in my house because I'm a single person. I live in Boulder, which is a secure town, but my house has been broken into before.

12:00 I come from a very rural community out in the woods, so I was grown up with guns being a tool for hunting animals and providing food for families. They're part of American culture and have been and continue and will be.

12:13 I want a gun.

12:14 I'm going to go buy one right now, actually.

12:16 Oh, really?

12:17 Yeah, I already own an AR-15.

12:19 But I'm going to go buy another pistol.

12:21 I'm going to go buy a pistol today.

12:23 I think guns are great.

12:25 Everybody has their right to own weapons.

12:28 If they want to have guns, by all means, own them.

12:30 If we're Americans, we should be able to bear arms, or why are you Americans?

12:38 I found just one person here who has reservations about gun ownerships.

12:43 I do think guns are important, but I kind of think that I would be contradictory to most people that you would ask here. I think that they shouldn't be in the home. I think that owning them and allowing them to be everywhere just perpetuates more violence, and I'm not a huge supporter of it.

13:01 Get out of our way!

13:03 We got a delivery to make to the bank, and I'm not going to put up with no shenanigans.

13:08 Back off!

13:09 The Leadville Old West Reenactment Society stages a mock shootout as part of the parade. And people here love it.

13:20 I'll take this from you, sir.

13:23 Well, at the end of the old crown.

13:29 I guess.

13:41 It's all good, clean fun, to the point that guns don't kill people.

13:44 It's the people behind the guns that cause the damage.

13:47 That's it.

13:49 So had the shooting in Aurora only two weeks before changed the views of these young people?

13:55 No, it hasn't. I think that, like I said, with gun safety, it's a big deal. If you own a gun, you should be responsible. There's no way that they can regulate someone who has a problem.

14:06 There are a lot of crazy people in the world doing a lot of crazy things, and so it's hard to single out and say, this is the reason that guns should be banned or outlawed or something like that.

14:16 Some think the real lesson of Aurora is that people need more guns.

14:21 We should have them for our protection.

14:23 If everybody in the theater had a gun on their person.

14:28 It would have never happened.

14:29 Yeah.

14:49 On July 5th, Jessica Redfield tweets that she is celebrating her first year in Denver.

14:55 Can't believe I moved to Colorado a year ago today. Thanks to everyone who stuck with me along the way. It's been a fun journey so far.

15:03 And on July 16th, she has some personal good news to share.

15:08 It's official.

15:09 I'm going to be a godmother on August 6th at 2 p.m. Poor kid doesn't know what he's in for.

15:15 James Holmes isn't on Twitter or Facebook. Having dropped out of his PhD course, he's looking for sex and speaking to strangers on Adult Friend Finder. It seems he had become obsessed with the Batman films. He dyes his hair orange and appears to be modeling himself on one of the series' key characters, the crazed gunman, the Joker.

15:38 Come on!

15:45 Throughout this summer, James Holmes manages to buy 6,000 rounds of ammunition online. And with no criminal record and a current Colorado driving license, he is able to buy four guns at specialist stores in Aurora, including this one.

16:00 An official Batman hat!

16:11 Around the world, for many young people, premieres of The Dark Knight Rises means Batman fever, costumes, souvenirs, and Batmobiles. In Aurora, I find four people who'd bought tickets for the premiere, a night filled with excitement and anticipation. Kevin Lam, age 18, a computer software design student, goes to the movie with his girlfriend Ariane.

16:39 I'd never been to a movie premiere before, so this was already an amazing thing, going with my girlfriend.

16:46 Jansen Young, age 21, heads to the cinema with her boyfriend, John Blanc, after thinking about staying in for the night.

16:52 That night, he was really tired, and we had almost discussed not going, but then we were like, no, we already got the tickets, let's go. And so we were tired, but we were still excited to see the movie because we'd been excited for it, you know.

17:05 For a while. Tony Hwang. Age 18, a college student. With a group of friends, he arrives early to be sure of a seat.

17:14 It was the Batman premiere and it was just so exciting that night and I really wanted to see it.

17:22 Harmony Johnson, 23, a single mom being treated for cancer. With two friends, she joins a crowd of 200 people.

17:30 We were excited, we were pumped up, everybody was rooting. People had their face painted, people had their hair colored, people were wearing Batman shirts and costumes and just having a great time. I don't know, it was like going to a party.

17:50 Jessica Redfield has her ticket but tweets that she's had a hard time finding someone to go with.

17:55 Never thought I'd have to coerce a guy into seeing the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises with me.

18:01 Her excitement is clear as the pre-film trailers start.

18:04 Movie doesn't start for 20 minutes.

18:08 I remember my friends telling me that this was going to be the best night ever.

18:15 James Holmes leaves his flat for the movie, but keeps music blaring so loudly it disturbs the neighbors. He drives to Century 16 with a car full of guns and ammunition. The midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises is being shown on Screen 9. But so many people have turned up, they decide to show it on screen eight as well. Unusually, James Holmes parks at the back of the multiplex. Inside, he manages to get a front row seat in screen nine.

18:50 Once the film begins, Holmes quietly gets up and heads for the rear emergency exit door. He goes to his car, where he puts on a helmet, gas mask, bulletproof vest and leggings, and then picks up gas canisters, his shotgun, handgun, and a semi-automatic rifle. He returns via the emergency exit door, which he left propped open and heads back to Theater 9.

19:18 Someone walked in the right-hand corner by the screen that threw something up behind us. It landed in, like, the left-back corner, and it smoked the.

19:27 Entire way up there.

19:28 And, like, I watched it, and.

19:30 Then when it went boom, immediately it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not part of this.

19:35 At first I thought it was some kind of joke. And then, like, the smoke canister exploded and smoke was coming out.

19:42 I was in Theater 8 when everything was going on in Theater 9. They were screaming from the right that there was smoke coming over. and I looked over and I thought they don't they don't play dry they don't put dry ice at a movie theater but is it part of the movie?

20:01 And then next I see flashes and I looked into the flashes four shots in I stared in the muzzle, just seeing the flash. I stared at it.

20:13 My friend pushed me down and told me to duck.

20:17 And I did.

20:18 And that's when I realized it wasn't fireworks or anything. It was gunshots.

20:22 And the bullets were actually going through the walls?

20:24 Were actually going through the walls.

20:30 Jansen Young's boyfriend, John Blanc, immediately understands what's happening.

20:35 He pushed me down and said, Jansen, get down and stay down, and pushed me down behind the seats. And I was like, why? And he pushed me down further onto my stomach and pushed me under the seats and said, because there's a man in the movie theater shooting people. And by that point, I could hear multiple gunshots that had gone off.

20:55 Bang, bang, bang.

20:58 And the screams were unreal.

21:02 The person above me was screaming, I've been shot, I've been shot.

21:05 And even still I was thinking, this has got to be a joke.

21:08 Everybody's acting, everybody's in on this and they're getting shot with something they don't think is actually bullets. This has got to be a joke.

21:14 It was a constant, just non-stop firing.

21:19 But then the firing does stop. The gunman's semi-automatic jams.

21:24 And then all of a sudden it was quiet. And we just knew that we had to run during that time because... It seemed like he was reloading.

21:34 I jumped over with a friend. I told him, guys, we got to go.

21:37 Run, run.

21:39 The gunman, it turns out, is no professional. His confusion and delay over changing weapons means many people escaped. but they have witnessed unimaginable horror.

21:49 And I could just feel blood running down from the seat above me.

21:55 My friend.

22:09 Last thing I heard her say, I got shot. And I remember rolling down around on her blood.

22:15 There was a man running like over the seat ceiling. Jesse's been shot. Jesse's been shot. And he stepped on my head on the way out and like pushed my face more into this blood that kept running down. And it was running all over my back.

22:28 I could hear someone breathing.

22:38 On my left side, like labored breaths. And that's when I think I knew that John had been shot.

22:45 People were just dragging and crawling and running and screaming. It was the most horrific thing I'd ever seen.

23:02 There was like so much blood.

23:06 It's not like what you see in Hollywood at all.

23:11 I kind of slid out from under the seats and John was unresponsive. I was like shaking him and saying, John, come on, we got to go.

23:18 But where is the gunman? Afraid he's still at large, Johnson Young hides behind a rubbish bin.

23:24 I heard the police scream freeze to someone. And even then, I didn't feel safe.

23:30 I heard people screaming in the back that they got him back there.

23:33 Yes, we've got rifles, gas masks.

23:35 He's detained right now.

23:37 I've got an open.

23:38 Door going into the theater.

23:40 It was unreal.

23:42 The people that.

23:45 Young people my age. There was kids there my son's age. teenagers and they were shot and they were covered in blood and you don't you don't see that in the movies and we were in the movies i.

24:11 Need a march core behind the theater.

24:13 Table side the suspect in a gas mask okay hold that position hold.

24:18 Your suspect Surrendering without a fight, police discover a young man with dyed orange hair staring blankly, declaring, I am the Joker. Across town, the University of Colorado Hospital goes into its disaster plan. Physician Dr. Camilla Sasson is on duty and tells me how the hospital dealt with the incoming casualties.

24:39 So we saw 23 patients total, and they came in mostly through police cars. And I would say our first 9, 10 patients that we saw were very critically injured. So we had gunshot.

24:49 Wounds to the head, to the chest, to the belly.

24:53 I've been doing this for about 10 years, and there were some of the most horrific wounds I've ever seen. And it takes a lot to do that to an emergency room doctor. So as you can see right here, this is actually the ambulance bay where all of our patients were coming in. So it was just police car after police car that was coming in that night. And we would literally take, bring a stretcher out right up to here, move it out to the little ambulance bay right here, and then take the body out of the back of the police officer's car, put it on the stretcher.

25:20 Myself and Dr. Block would assess the patients right here. Just two of you? Just two of us would actually assess them coming in. We'd look at, see how critically injured they were. And then they would literally go to the left here, which is our resuscitation bay, or to this little sort of mash unit that we had created where all of our very critically ill, but maybe didn't need to be put on a ventilator, patients would stay.

25:39 As an ER doc, I think I'm just sick and tired of taking care of gunshot wound victims. It's just really hard to have to take care of patients time and time again when we know that they weren't doing anything wrong. The fact that we're able to keep 22 of these victims alive, to me, is really a miracle.

25:55 Back in the cinema, it's selfless heroism that saves lives. Four men die because they put their bodies between the gunmen and their girlfriends. One of them is Jonathan Blunk, He completely.

26:08 Protected me by telling me what I needed to do and pushing me under that seat further.

26:12 He knew he was saving my life.

26:14 AJ loved to make people smile. No matter what mood they were in, he would always find a way to do it. He was a really amazing guy.

26:23 Jessica Redfield, age 24, the intern who dreamed of being a national sports broadcaster, dies instantly from gunshot wounds.

26:33 And what about players coming in and out throughout the entire season? You get guys that come down from the NHL.

26:37 You can have guys that are coming in from the Coyotes. How does that change the dynamic.

26:51 Of the team?

26:55 At the University of Denver, there's a memorial to one of their students, Alex Tevez, another of Holmes' victims. I'm here to meet one of Alex's former tutors, Max Wachtel.

27:11 So it's the Neo personality inventory.

27:16 He's a leading forensic psychologist who assesses mental health in cases of serious crime.

27:20 Nice to meet you.

27:22 Hi, nice to meet you too.

27:24 I want to find out what turns a bright college boy like Holmes into a mass murderer.

27:29 A lot of times they tend to have some sort of an undiagnosed mental illness. Usually it is something like depression or bipolar disorder. It doesn't tend to be a psychotic disorder like schizophrenia.

27:45 And why is it that they're often young men?

27:48 I think as a society in the U.S., males are trained to be unemotional and to deal with any sort of problems on their own without talking about it. That ends up a lot of times leading to anger, frustration, rage, thoughts of vengeance.

28:10 And is there anything different or special in James Holmes' profile that would make him likely to be a killer one day?

28:17 You know, honestly, no. Everything that we know about him so far is that he was kind of a normal kid, maybe a little bit quirky. I think he was smart. He may have had a little bit of trouble relating to other people because of that. But nothing out of the ordinary. It seems like the kind of picture you would see taken from a webcam.

28:40 Max also gives me his take on the few pictures we have of James Holmes.

28:45 In retrospect, you see the cocky expression, the red hair. It seems like a fairly normal kind of picture, though, that you would see on Facebook or Twitter, I think. This picture, he's got that raised eyebrow. He's got the smirk on his face and that very intense stare. I have to wonder what's going through his mind there. This was a picture from an adult website he had joined that he photoshopped this woman licking him. And it's certainly a fairly disturbing image. He's got that intense look on his face again. In court, the crazy hair, the jail scrubs.

29:24 just kind of blankly staring. His demeanor in court would be referred to as having flat affect or flat emotion, meaning just nothing there.

29:33 Emotionless.

29:34 Emotionless.

29:35 You do see this presentation in some people who have mental illness. I think a lot of people are concerned that he's faking this, and that's certainly possible.

29:47 In custody, Holmes apparently confesses to a scheme that bears the hallmarks of his comic villain hero, the Joker. He's booby-trapped his apartment with 10 gallons of petrol and 30 grenades, Police also find a Batman mask. It's much easier to buy guns in the US than it is back home. But I want to find out just how easy. Jake Myers runs Rocky Mountain Guns and Ammo, not a place used by Holmes.

30:32 Hi, how's it going?

30:33 Good, thank you.

30:34 Nice to meet you. My name's Amal.

30:35 I'm Jake.

30:36 How's it going?

30:37 If Barack Obama is looking for votes, he won't find them here.

30:41 This one here holds 15 rounds of ammunition. A lot of people like this for carry and conceal purposes because it's really lightweight. It's made of basically plastic.

30:49 Aurora has had an effect here, but not quite what I was expecting. Jake told me that in the days after the shooting, sales had tripled.

30:57 The first couple days, I did see a real big influx in gun sales, but what I mostly saw was people wanting to take classes and learn how to use a firearm or protect themselves. The day after the shooting, actually, we had about 20 people lined up outside waiting to take classes.

31:13 So if I wanted to buy a gun, how easy would it be? Jake, today I've brought my passport, and I kind of wanted to know if I could just come here and buy a gun.

31:21 You wouldn't be able to use just your passport. You'd have to have some sort of state identification card, either ID or driver's license.

31:28 So if I was American and I had a driver's license, I could just come into the store?

31:33 Yeah, you'd have to have a driver's license or identification card from this state.

31:37 Okay.

31:38 And it's basically, in this state, we do what's called an insta-check.

31:42 Okay.

31:43 It takes anywhere between about five minutes to an hour to do a background check.

31:46 Okay, okay.

31:47 They do a federal background check on you to make sure you have no felonies, you're not running from the military or something like that. And then they send me back either an approval or a denial. And if you get approved, you walk out of the store that day with a firearm.

32:07 But I find that not everyone in this state loves guns. In April 1999, a school just 20 miles from Aurora would become forever linked with gun crime. Its name? Columbine. Twelve students and one teacher were killed when two high school seniors carried out a carefully planned attack. It was captured on the school's CCTV.

32:38 Jefferson County 9-1-1.

32:40 Yes, I am a teacher at Columbine High School.

32:42 There is a student here with a gun.

32:44 The school is in a panic, and I.

32:47 Am in the library.

32:48 The student's down under the table, kid!

32:51 Kid's under the table!

32:54 Who is the.

32:55 Student, ma'am?

32:56 I do not know who the student is.

32:57 Okay.

32:58 I saw a student outside.

32:59 I was in a hurry.

33:01 I was in a hurry.

33:09 I want to hear from young people who had picked up their lives after such a terrible experience.

33:14 Hi, Lindsay.

33:15 Hi, Mom.

33:16 Nice to meet you.

33:17 Lindsay Benj survived the Columbine massacre, but two of her close friends, Daniel Mouser and Rachel Scott, weren't so lucky.

33:25 The worst was finding out, you know, that you had the friends who passed away, for me personally, Dan and Rachel, specifically.

33:35 And then.

33:36 kind of going through that, you know, there's that whole denial phase where it just doesn't make sense and you can't wrap your mind around it and then you're just angry and frustrated and you're going through all the stages of grief but you don't know how to handle it and I think at that age you shouldn't know how to handle it.

33:56 What do you think about what's just happened a week ago in Aurora? I mean, it seems to me pretty similar.

34:04 Yeah, I mean, it's... surreal. It's almost unfathomable that it keeps happening. It's like somebody keeps hitting the rewind button and all of a sudden you're seeing shots of memorials and shots of family members trying to find, you know, their loved ones and it's just, it's absolutely devastating.

34:27 Why do you think it is?

34:28 Why here?

34:29 Why again?

34:30 I think because it can. Everybody wants to pinpoint one specific reason why. And there's never just one single reason. You know, guns are far too accessible in the States. And unfortunately, it's become such a polarizing subject that anytime somebody wants to have a reasonable, rational conversation about gun control...

34:56 It's like people stick their fingers in their ears and they don't want to hear it.

35:03 I've come to see the memorial near the school. It's now a tragic symbol of how little America has moved on the guns issue in the last decade. I don't really know if America's learning a lesson or not in regards to guns. If you see this and then you see Aurora and you see all the suffering and how everyone is distraught, it's just not right. It's just not fair.

35:32 And I don't really know to what extent America will ever change or is going to change. I really don't know. Daniel Mouser's father, Tom, has spent the last decade campaigning for tighter gun laws in memory of his son. He's been shocked by the level of opposition and abuse he's faced.

35:58 I ask people to think how they would feel if it happened to their child. You have to imagine that. Otherwise, you won't really see what the impact of guns is. In terms of being part of our culture, I think there is a sense of, you know, that sense of having a right to bear arms. But it can't be an absolute right. There have to be restrictions. We have to keep guns away from people who shouldn't have guns.

36:27 We shouldn't be giving this kind of firepower to people who are mentally disturbed.

36:32 How difficult has it been to campaign?

36:34 It is very difficult. We're fighting a lobby, the gun lobby, that is so powerful. It's one of the top two lobbies, strongest lobbies, in Washington, D.C.

36:45 What kind of responses have you had from the more extreme gun campaigners?

36:50 It's been difficult at times. You find yourself in America when you are a gun control advocate, you find out quickly, especially a very public one like me, that you'll face some pretty strong and nasty opposition. I've had people write to me and say, you're campaigning against guns on the grave and the corpse of your son. That's the kind of thing they say. I mean, it's despicable stuff, but you know, I can't let that get to me. I can't let them intimidate me. I have to keep doing what I'm doing.

37:39 I find it confusing that despite so many gun deaths in America, More than 31,000 in 2009 alone, guns seem more popular than ever. So I've come back to Lead Valley Gun Club, the place James Holmes tried to join, to speak to the owner, a man who trains people how to fire guns properly.

37:59 This is just a representation of some of the firearms that are available in the United States.

38:03 This is the closest I've ever been to guns and firearms, but there's more to come. Glenn believes the only way I can really start to understand guns is to fire one. A.

38:14 22 Western style of the original Western revolvers, but this is a. 22, one of the firearms you will be firing. This is a. 38 caliber revolver, which is a double-action revolver, which is mainly the firearm that was used by most police officers and people in law enforcement all the way up until probably the mid to late 80s.

38:33 So if you just put that in and then fired, it would literally.

38:37 If it.

38:37 Had ammo in it, yes, you'd put it in and be able to pull the trigger. Mm-hmm. Any firearm, no matter how small it is, has the capability. And then the last one here, this is a 9mm pistol that's available. This is the other firearm you'll be firing today that's made by Smith & Wesson. There's basically three safety rules that you follow at all times. The first one is always keep a gun pointed in a safe direction.

39:04 You never.

39:05 Never allow the muzzle to point to anything that you do not want destroyed. Number two rule is always keep the finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire. And then always keep the gun unloaded until ready for use is the third main safety rule.

39:17 Well, I think I'm ready.

39:18 All right.

39:20 It'll be a lot of fun.

39:21 You'll find out after you fire it. It's a lot of fun.

39:25 This club is for responsible gun owners and used by many young, experienced shooters.

39:30 Usually we go up to the mountains where there's a national forest where you're able to shoot as long as you're away from the road with a proper backstop behind you. It's just a pure competition sport for me. It's just like with any other sport, basketball, football, it's just something you want to get good at. So this gun right here is mine. This is a Sig Sawyer 516. It's a AR-15, which is the civilian version of the M16.

39:54 Since this is my rifle, I know it very well. In light of those tragedies, I mean, I have many friends my age, so the younger generation, as far as how they feel about it, they definitely want to protect themselves more. So if they're in that situation late at night at a movie theater or something like that happens, where usually their defense is off, they'd like to be able to protect themselves. And a lot of people my age have gone to get... concealed carry permits so they can carry handguns or become more familiar with weapons so they just feel confident with them.

40:24 Go ahead, just stay up on top. Go ahead.

40:28 Confidence is one thing I don't feel as I prepare to fire a gun for the first time. But I am confident I am in safe hands.

40:37 We're going to start with the 22. Full arm length out.

40:42 Push it all the way out.

40:43 See your sights now? Align that sight.

40:46 Yeah.

40:47 So it's on the thing.

40:48 Okay.

40:48 Now cock your hand.

40:49 Use this thumb.

40:49 Cock that hammer. Keep your finger back. Add pressure to the trigger and it'll go off. Don't squeeze it. Just start adding pressure. Let the gun surprise you. Steady, even pressure.

41:02 Okay.

41:02 Wow.

41:04 All right. Okay.

41:08 It's so heavy.

41:09 I like shaking.

41:10 Go ahead.

41:12 Steady.

41:13 That's it.

41:15 All right.

41:15 Range is hot.

41:17 The Second Amendment in the Constitution is for a civilian's right to spare arms. And as far as that, we've had guns since our nation's birth, since the American Revolution. We're trained in them since then. So civilians definitely, as part of the Constitution, have a right to do that.

41:37 Next for me, the more powerful 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic.

41:42 Now you're going to have a long, hard squeeze on this one the first time around.

41:45 Do I press hard?

41:46 Well, just start pressing. You'll feel it. Just keep adding pressure. It'll start to pull the trigger in a minute. Don't rush it.

41:53 Just keep pulling.

41:54 You almost had it.

41:56 Oh, my God.

41:57 It's a hard pull on this one the first time around.

42:00 Pull real hard.

42:03 Whoa.

42:04 Okay.

42:05 Whoa.

42:06 Now, figure out the trigger guard.

42:08 All right.

42:10 Whoa.

42:10 All right.

42:12 Whoa.

42:15 That's it. That's better, you hit a bullseye on that one.

42:20 No, that's where it's supposed to go.

42:23 That's better.

42:25 I guess it gives me a sense of power because I know what it can do. It's a different experience, may I say.

42:31 See where the holes are?

42:41 All of them in the center.

42:43 See the difference in size. These are the ones I fired. That's the 9mm you shot.

42:47 Tiny.

42:47 There's the. 22 and quite a bit of difference in size between the two of them.

42:52 I can fit my pinky finger in there.

42:55 People have talked about tightening gun laws. What's your view on this?

43:01 My view on that is pretty simple. We had a shooting here a while back, and the kids that did it broke 22 gun laws in order to be able to get the firearms to do it. So 23 is going to stop them?

43:15 I think this has changed my view slightly, although I still firmly believe that there should be more gun laws enforced to prevent things like Columbine and like what's happened in Aurora. But I do understand where they're coming from, that this is part of their culture. Guns are part of American society. And I think that a lot of Americans feel safer having a gun, being able to protect themselves.

43:38 It's not the gun laws or the guns that caused the problem to begin with. It's the nut behind it that uses it. Police can't be every place. They never are. They were at that theater prior to the shooting and left because there was no problems.

44:01 Two days after the shootings, President Obama visits the hospital where some of the victims are being treated. He's photographed with eyewitness Stephanie Davis. She's saved the life of her friend, Ali Young, who'd been hit in the neck by Holmes. With the presidential elections only a few months away, I wonder how big a role the gun debate is playing on the campaign trail.

44:29 Answer?

44:30 Next to none. I've been having a look at several newspapers and I've looked online as well. All the politicians seem to have other things to speak about. We have Mitt Romney speaking about Israel. There's a lot about Obama here trying to intensify a campaign, heading into the final stretch. None of them really mention gun control or guns, which I find really surprising, especially at this time and after what's just happened in Aurora. But I still think politicians should be talking about guns.

45:03 The emergency services called after a gunman started shooting at the congregation.

45:08 A week into my trip, there's news of another massacre. Over 700 miles away in Milwaukee, once again, I am forced to question my views. I've just been watching BBC World News where seven people have been killed in Wisconsin in a Sikh temple. I've been here for seven days now in Aurora, and this is the second massacre killing that's been going on. Clearly there must be something wrong in the U.S. in regards to gun control. And I'm pretty surprised that no one's really speaking about it. So why is it that gun control seems to be the one issue politicians won't touch?

45:47 That would be political suicide. In the U.S., in an election year, when you're running for president.

45:56 You don't.

45:56 Say anything bad about guns. If Mitt Romney suggested some sort of gun control, he would no longer be the Republican nominee. I mean, the people would freak out and he would be gone. President Obama I don't think would get as much political fallout from it directly, but a lot of Obama's political supporters in more conservative states, more conservative districts, there's absolutely no way that they would get reelected if he were to say something about that.

46:25 So maybe we just have to press the politicians. A few days later, it looks like I might get a chance. With tight security, President Obama makes a second visit to Denver. I decided this was one party I couldn't miss. Like all American political rallies these days, the audience is made up of hand-picked supporters.

46:50 As many of you know, I was in Aurora to meet those who lost loved ones during that terrible shooting. Unfortunately, since that time, we've had another tragedy in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where six members of our community were killed as they entered into a house of worship. And so I think we can all acknowledge we've got to put an end to this kind of senseless violence.

47:16 A worthwhile aim, but he doesn't say anything about guns. It's almost as though guns didn't play any part in the Aurora killings. This is a pretty staged managed affair. And try as I might, I don't get a chance to question the top man. Yeah, unfortunately, we won't be able to get a word with him, but I would have loved to ask him what he thinks about guns and gun control and if anything's going to change or if anything's going.

47:53 To be done.

47:53 I mean, he did mention Aurora and Wisconsin, but, you know, he never mentioned what's going to happen with the guns.

48:10 The politicians may not want to talk about guns, But the authorities have responded, and this is how.

48:16 If you were ever to find yourself in the middle of an active shooter event, your survival may depend on whether or not you have a plan.

48:24 This safety video from the City of Houston Mayor's Office advises the public on how to deal with an armed intruder.

48:31 There are three things you could do that make a difference.

48:35 Run.

48:36 Hide.

48:38 Fight.

48:39 In Texas, they clearly think a gunman on the loose is a possibility worth planning for.

48:44 Encourage others to leave with you, but don't let them slow you down with indecision.

48:50 They're clearly stating that, you know, the right to bear arms is something that they're going to keep in the United States. Therefore, we should do other things in order to stay protected. But guns are going to be there anyway, so we better do something in order to save your life, which is either run, hide or fight. Earlier this week, there's more confirmed. that getting caught up in a shooting is a real possibility. Three people are shot dead on a university campus 100 miles north of Houston.

49:40 People versus James Holmes, 12CR1522, appearances please.

49:46 Whilst I'm in Denver, James Holmes makes his second appearance in court. If he's found guilty, what should happen to him? Some people have called for capital punishment. Colorado is one of the US states where the death penalty is still legal, actually, although the last person who was sentenced was 15 years ago.

50:19 I'm heading out of Denver, 100 miles northeast of the city, to see the place where many of the state's serious offenders are held. This is Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado's biggest high security prison. It's a sobering sight. There's three men in that maximum security prison on death row. Could James Holmes be joining them? If convicted, could he be sentenced to death? It's a chilling thought. If James Holmes does get sentenced, he might be facing the lethal injection. And is that something that survivors of the dreadful night in Aurora believe should happen?

51:12 Nope.

51:14 Not that I'm against the death penalty, but let's not make life easy for this man. He hasn't made life easy for very many people. Honestly, I would put him in general population in jail and say fend for yourself, figure it out.

51:28 I heard a lot of people say that they'd prefer it if he suffered in jail, rot in a hole in a cell. My personal perspective is... To be honest, I don't know what to do.

51:42 It really all comes down to how much damage he's caused and how much punishment he should get. But for me, I think he should definitely get the death penalty.

52:02 I don't know. I have a couple of little things going on in my head. Part of me wonders if he wanted to.

52:11 Be dead, he'd.

52:14 Have shot himself. So part of me says I want him to fry. just because I know that's not what he wants. But the other part of me hopes and prays that God fill his heart with a bunch of guilt and that he has to wake up in a 4x4 cell every day and deal with himself and live with it. I think the death penalty is an easy way out. It's like going to sleep before surgery.

52:40 It's peaceful.

52:41 He doesn't deserve a peaceful death.

52:44 And that's how I feel.

52:46 My friends didn't get one.

52:49 Why should he? In the days after the shootings, the people of Aurora come together to offer prayers for the 12 lives that have been lost.

53:06 Tonight we come together to pray and to be with one another. Some of us are survivors, family members, or friends of those who suffered through this senseless and evil act of violence.

53:27 It's the first step toward rebuilding a community that has been shattered by that terrible night. But it will be a long road.

53:34 I'm going to do this and I'm going to get through this. But it's going to be hard forever. I'm going to be reminded of this.

53:49 I'm slowly getting better by the days, but I know it will come back and haunt me for the rest of my life.

53:59 Others are still coming to terms, not just with the horror of what they saw, but also with the feelings of guilt that they survived and some of their friends didn't.

54:10 I feel a little bit bad for not helping people in there, but.

54:15 I was scared. I was scared. I've been in Colorado for two weeks, but my journey is now coming to an end. Before I leave for London, I want to take one last look at the memorial and pay my last respects to the 12 people who died. It's also a chance to reflect on what my journey has taught me. Well, guns are something that, you know, Americans and people in Colorado believe are part of their right, and they have the right to bear arms. So it's something that they're not going to let go so easily. It's something ingrained in their culture. I don't think politicians are willing to even start with this conversation. You know, it's something that they've completely blanked. But attitudes for me have to change

55:45 in the people. I've realized here, I mean, it's almost something like America equals guns, and in order to take that away, it's no longer America, they feel, so it's gonna be very, very hard. I don't think it will change. My big fear is that Aurora will change nothing, that in a year's time, I'll be back, maybe in another state or another city, reporting on another massacre.

56:34 The people we lost in Aurora loved, and they were loved. They were mothers and fathers. They were husbands and wives, sisters and brothers. sons and daughters, friends and neighbors. They had hopes for the future, and they had dreams that were not yet fulfilled. Life is very fragile. Our time here is limited, and it is precious.