Evil Answered at the Cross

The news hit the airwaves like a sudden onslaught, and the truth began to sink in. It has happened again. This time, 71 people shot while attending the midnight premier of the last in the Batman sequence, "The Dark Knight Rises." According to press reports, a 24-year-old man burst into the crowded theater, wearing a gas mask and carrying an arsenal. After deploying what is believed to be tear gas, he opened fire with a shotgun, a rifle and two handguns. At least 12 people are dead, and dozens are injured, many critically.

More than 100 police officers responded to the scene in Aurora, just a few miles from Columbine High School, where in 1999 two high school students killed 12 fellow students and one teacher in a rampage that also injured 21 other students. That school massacre became a milestone in the nation's legacy of violence. Now, yet another Denver suburb joins that tragic list.