Free Republic

High box office expectations for The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Warner Bros' Batman franchise, were clouded on Friday by a shooting at a Colorado midnight screening of the film which killed 12 people. The incident, in which a masked gunman opened fire on moviegoers, including children, brings a tragic conclusion to one of Hollywood's most-enduring franchises, as Warner Bros bids to find a new movie franchise capable of matching Batman's box office success. The Time Warner-owned studio has been Hollywood's King of Franchises for years. Over the last decade, it generated worldwide ticket sales of $12 billion...

Sad news for Liberals. Shooter's apartment "massively" booby-trapped; police cannot enter at this point.

While much remains unclear about the shooting – which took place 30 minutes from Columbine High School where 13 people were shot to death in 1999 - it is likely to reinvigorate the debate over gun laws. Here are some highlights from the State Patrol’s primer on the state’s gun laws.

Asking yourself why no concealed carry permit holder was present to stop the shooter? Maybe this is why: Aurora, Co 1. "Dangerous weapon" includes firearm 2. Revocation of license for furnishing a firearm to a minor or someone under the influence. 3. Window displays cannot include firearms with barrels less than 12 inches long. 4. Unlawful to carry concealed "dangerous weapon" 5. Unlawful to discharge firearms, unless by law enforcement on duty or on shooting range. 6. Unlawful to possess firearm while under the influence of intoxicant 7. Unlawful to have loaded firearm in motor vehicle. 8. Unlawful for a...

o—Up to 20 people have been injured in a shooting at a movie theater near Denver, police said. Aurora, Colo. police said there are fatalities but they don't know how many. Police dispatchers said calls about the shooting started coming in about 12:30 a.m. local time Friday from a mall theater that was showing the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises." Police said one person has been arrested, but no other details were available. Police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson said "the scene is still very active and we have little information for release at this time." Swedish Medical Center spokeswoman Nicole...

The star of a pro-Obama super PAC ad is speaking out against ... President Barack Obama. "I could really care less about Obama," Donnie Box says of President Obama, according to In These Times. "I think Obama is a jerk, a pantywaist, a lightweight, a blowhard. He hasn't done a goddamn thing that he said he would do. When he had a Democratic Senate and Democratic Congress, he didn't do a damn thing. He doesn't have the guts to say what’s on his mind." Box, In These Times reports, won't be voting for Obama. Here's the pro-Obama, anti-Bain Capital ad...

The star of a pro-Obama super PAC ad is speaking out against ... President Barack Obama. "I could really care less about Obama," Donnie Box says of President Obama, according to In These Times. "I think Obama is a jerk, a pantywaist, a lightweight, a blowhard. He hasn't done a goddamn thing that he said he would do. When he had a Democratic Senate and Democratic Congress, he didn't do a damn thing. He doesn't have the guts to say what’s on his mind." Box, In These Times reports, won't be voting for Obama. Here's the pro-Obama, anti-Bain Capital ad...

The star of a pro-Obama super PAC ad is speaking out against ... President Barack Obama. "I could really care less about Obama," Donnie Box says of President Obama, according to In These Times. "I think Obama is a jerk, a pantywaist, a lightweight, a blowhard. He hasn't done a goddamn thing that he said he would do. When he had a Democratic Senate and Democratic Congress, he didn't do a damn thing. He doesn't have the guts to say what’s on his mind." Box, In These Times reports, won't be voting for Obama. Here's the pro-Obama, anti-Bain Capital ad...

BOULDER, Utah – A 28-year-old autistic man from Colorado was found emaciated but alive on Thursday after living off mainly frogs and roots while wandering for at least three weeks in the remote Escalante Desert of southern Utah, authorities said. William Martin LaFever of Colorado Springs, Colo., told rescuers that in addition to the bits of food he scavenged, he drank water from the Escalante River while attempting to walk from Boulder, Utah, to Page, Ariz., a distance of approximately 90 miles or more by the route he appeared to be taking. The Garfield County Sheriff's Department estimated he had...

Colorado Springs residents, many of whom have been away from their homes for several days, were allowed to return to what remained of their houses on Sunday. The wildfires, which are being called the most destructive of its kind in Colorado history, forced thousands of people to evacuate the city as it blazed a 17,659 acre trail across the state. At last count, 346 homes and communities were laid to waste as a result. Sadly, sifting through the rubble might be the least of their concerns at the moment. Bears and other wildlife have been spotted in these deserted neighborhoods...

COMMENTARY | Could Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, a former New Mexico governor, play a spoiler role in the 2012 election, especially out west? Most polls aren't even giving him the benefit of the doubt, failing to include him as an option. But those polls that do include Johnson find him doing surprisingly well. He could tip the balance in several western swing states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. And with every state mattering, that could be the difference in a close race in 2012. A poll by the group "We Ask America" released on June 26 in Colorado...

It was a standing room only crowd at the Community Center in De Beque Thursday night as nervous residents learned how to protect their property from the advancing Pine Ridge wildfire.

This is the Waldo Canyon fire. Winds grew to 65mph this afternoon and the fire went over the fire-breaks. The Air Force Academy and surrounding neighborhood have been evacuated. Interstare I-25 has been closed north of Colorado SPrings in order to allow local people use the highway to evacuate.

The 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia has emerged as the world's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade in Europe, and it further has become entrenched in Australia, Canada and the United States with surprisingly little push back from law enforcement in those countries. Indeed, Nicola Gratteri, a top anti-Mafia prosecutor in Italy warns that "this mafia is quickly spreading in the United States, particularly in Florida and New York" as reported by Beatrice Borromeo for The Daily Beast: Gratteri's latest operations have led to the sentencing of 34 'Ndrangheta members and have uncovered a...

Additional crews were arriving Saturday at a wildfire in northern Colorado that has scorched about 85 square miles and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. ( snip) Meanwhile in New Mexico, questions were being raised about whether bureaucratic red tape prevented firefighters from saving more homes affected by the Little Bear Fire after federal officials released transcripts of the firefighters' response.

A special category of tuition created this month for illegal immigrants at a public university in Colorado violates both federal and state law, Judicial Watch points out in a letter to the school’s Board of Trustees. Therefore JW is calling for the immediate rescinding of the measure, which enables certain unlawfully present aliens to attend the taxpayer-funded school, Metropolitan State College of Denver, without having to pay full non-resident tuition. “In approving this new category of tuition, the College recognized that these students would otherwise be required to pay full non-resident tuition because of their inability to demonstrate lawful presence...

Editor’s note: This is the Herald’s weekly roundup of campaign news. DENVER – Both presidential campaigns confirmed this week something that Colorado TV viewers already suspected: This is one of a handful of states that will determine who will be the next president. The campaigns named their battlegrounds in messages to supporters this week, and Colorado was one of five states on both lists. The other four are Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Virginia. In addition, President Barack Obama is targeting North Carolina, Wisconsin and New Hampshire, and presumed Republican candidate Mitt Romney is focused on Arizona and Nevada. With 538...

GREELEY, Colo. – A Colorado woman has filed a lawsuit after agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the ATF, entered her home without a warrant and threatened her and her 8-year old-son while looking for a previous tenant who had left the address more than a year earlier. According to the filing from Linda Griego, it was on June 15, 2010, when officers with the ATF – as part of the Regional Anti-Gang Enforcement Task Force – violently entered her home without a warrant, handcuffed and pointed guns at her and her son, Colby Frias. “They...

Police in Aurora, Colo., searching for suspected bank robbers stopped every car at an intersection, handcuffed all the adults and searched the cars, one of which they believed was carrying the suspect. Police said they had received what they called a “reliable” tip that the culprit in an armed robbery at a Wells Fargo bank committed earlier was stopped at the red light. “We didn’t have a description, didn’t know race or gender or anything, so a split-second decision was made to stop all the cars at that intersection, and search for the armed robber,” Aurora police Officer Frank Fania...

Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama hasn't exactly been a friend to marijuana users. Sure, he has acknowledged smoking pot as a young man, but he has disappointed marijuana advocates by opposing its legalization, regulation and taxation like alcohol. And the Justice Department's occasional crackdown under his administration on medical marijuana dispensaries, which 17 states and the District of Columbia allow, has angered others. So now, with Obama facing a stiff challenge from Republican Mitt Romney in the November 6 election, it's ironic that his chances of winning the key state of Colorado could hinge on marijuana legalization, supported by a...