The Dark Knight Murders

NBC is reporting this horror in Colorado last night:

Fourteen people were killed and at least 50 others wounded early Friday when a gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" near Denver, authorities and witnesses said.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters that 10 people died at the scene and four others died after being taken to local hospitals. At least 50 other people were injured, Oates said, including a six-year-old girl.

Witnesses said tear gas also went off in the theater.

A 24-year-old male suspect was apprehended in the shopping center's parking lot, Oates said.

There are many details yet to emerge. The identify of the alleged shooter, who is now in custody, has not been released. Nor has any information about him been reported. Concern at the moment appropriately is focused on the victims and on their families. As the President said,

"We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded. As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family."

I agree with that.

However, the question that is sure to be next, when the initial shock, horror and grief begin to subside, when the news cycle resumes, is whether the alleged shooter's deranged actions may have been inspired or influenced by comments made by Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday.

Limbaugh tried to walk back these back on Wednesday after an avalanche of negative criticism. The kerfuffle in short, as told by Limbaugh himself, according to the New York Daily News:

"Yesterday on this program, I uttered some words about the Batman movie and the evil villain named Bane," [Limbaugh] said during his radio show Wednesday. "I made some comments about it, it doesn't matter what.

"I have had more reaction to that than anything - including the Fluke thing," he said, referencing the controversy stoked earlier this year after Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" after she testified before House Democrats on birth control health insurance coverage.

"More people are concerned about whatever I might have said or didn't say about a Batman villain than they are about their own jobs," continued Limbaugh.

Batfans took exception to Limbaugh's suggestion that the filmmakers deliberately chose the villain to terrorize Romney's campaign just months before the election.

"Do you know the name of the villain in this movie? Bane,” Limbaugh said during his show. “The villain in the Dark Knight Rises is named Bane. B-A-N-E. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran, and around which there's now this make-believe controversy? Bain.

“The movie has been in the works for a a long time, the release date's been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental, that the name of the really vicious, fire-breathing, four-eyed whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bain.”

Limbaugh's comments were, of course, also widely reported. And as he himself noted, criticized.

Now there's been a mass shooting, more than a dozen murders, at a theater showing the Dark Knight at midnight in Colorado.

Here's the dreadful question: Do these two things have anything to do with each other?