Two mass shootings occurred this summer, shocking the entire Nation. July 20 in Aurora, Colo., James Holmes, 24, opened fire at a midnight showing of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ killing 12 people and wounding 58 others. He is currently awaiting trial on 142 criminal counts, including murder and attempted murder.

Junior chemistry student, Sean Reinsalu, said that he found out about the Dark Knight shooting through online and television news outlets. He had gone to see the movie at midnight and at first “couldn’t believe [the news.]”

“It kind of freaked me out to go to the movie theaters, to think that [shootings] can happen in the most unsuspecting places,” Reinsalu said. After initial reports released that Holmes had been dressed as one of Batman’s most famous nemesis, the Joker, Reinsalu was “shocked that there was someone out there who was trying to act out a scenario through a movie character.”

Only a few weeks later, Wade Michael Page, 40, entered a Sikh temple Aug. 5, in Oak Creek, Wis., and went on shooting rampage. Page killed six people and left three others wounded, including Police Lt. Brian Murphy, 51, who was shot nine times. Page died after he shot himself in the head.

Unlike much of the Nation, Rebecca Carvalho, a freshman music student, had not heard of the Dark Knight shooting. She had, however, driven past the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin shortly after the shooting had taken place. “I was on my way to choir practice,” Carvalho said. “There was an enormous amount of streets blocked off, we didn’t know what was going on. She quickly learned about the shooting and wondered “why people act that way. It just seems so strange in my mind.”
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