The FBI has issued a warning regarding the potential for violence at theaters showing the upcoming movie “Joker,’ coming years after a mass shooting during a “Batman” movie in Colorado in 2012. According to multiple sources, authorities are concerned about the film’s plot inspiring someone to commit a mass shooting.
In the alert to law enforcement and the military, the FBI encouraged people to “identify two escape routes” in theaters and “run, hide, fight” if in an active shooting situation. Family members whose children were killed or traumatized by the Century 16 Theater massacre in Aurora have written a letter in which they asked the film’s studio Warner Bros. to “actively lobby for gun reform.”
“Joker” has been the subject of much debate since it premiered late last month at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the top prize. The film is a character study of how Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill aspiring stand-up comedian and clown-for-hire, becomes the classic Batman nemesis.
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