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July 21, 2012 | | ‘NICE AND QUIET’ There are few if any explanations of the character or motivations of the man who murdered 12 people in a Colorado movie theater, but the discussion should be about whether the NRA is also culpable, writes The Daily Beast’s Michael Daly. COLORADO The apartment of James Holmes, suspected of killing 12 and wounding scores more in Friday morning’s movie theater massacre, was rigged with complicated explosive traps, police said. Saturday morning, officers planned to send in a robot to detonate them. Chris Henderson, Aurora, Colo.’s deputy fire chief, told Reuters that Holmes's living room was filled with tripwires connected to plastic bottles filled with an "unknown liquid." Other authorities said that speakers in the apartment were set up to blast loud music, so as to lure police in. "If he was shot and killed, it is without a doubt that these ... booby traps were there to murder and inflict casualties upon first responders," a source said. Meanwhile, new details on Holmes's background have painted him as a smart but socially awkward student with an interest in movies and the media who graduated college with a degree in neuroscience. Holmes allegedly dressed up as Batman franchise character the Joker before entering the Aurora theater with an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, and a Glock .40, and opened fire. DEMANDS Every time there’s a senseless shooting, politicians piously declare we should ensure it never happens again. But we live in shoot-’em-up America now, warns The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky. BURN RATE Last month, the president spent twice as much as his opponent on the trail—but the Republican challenger far outraised him. In June, Obama and the DNC spent $70.8 million, much of it on anti-Bain ads, while Romney and the RNC spent $38.8 million, more than double their previous month’s expenditures. But the Republicans have improved their fundraising numbers among small-scale donors, which now make up a third of their cash flow. And the big money keeps rolling in, including a $10 million donation from Sheldon Adelson to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. BOMBING Violence struck in Pakistan on Saturday, as a bomb exploded in a military compound and rebels raided a coast-guard post with rocket-propelled grenades. The compound bombing, which killed 9 and wounded 20, may have been a mistake, officials told reporters. "We are not sure if a suicide bomber hit the compound or if some militants were assembling a bomb and it accidentally went off," a local government official said. It is not clear if the coast-guard attack was coordinated with the bombing. In southwest Pakistan, men in pickup trucks and motorcycles drove into the outpost firing grenades and assault rifles, killing six. Though the culprits are unknown, much of recent violence has come from ethnic Baluch separatists and local militants allied with al Qaeda and the Taliban. | | 
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