Exactly. This has nothing to do with texting. It has to do with taking the law into your own hands and making a fool of yourself.
Actually, it has to do with both.
'Rude' met 'Crazy.' As usually works out, Rude lost first, Crazy lost right after.
I am not condoning the shooters' actions in any way, but according to the news story I read this AM, the shooter asked the victim to stop texting because it was distracting. The victim refused to do so. The shooter then left the theater and returned, at which point the victim asked if the shooter had reported to the theater manager. Then the argument ensued. Then the shooting occurred.
Again, NOT justifying, but look at what happened.
Someone was doing something that was annoying someone else - something that common courtesy (and endless reminders in the theater) say you don't do.
The annoyed party requested that the annoying activity end.
At this point,
the victim had a choice. He could either do as asked (and as courtesy dictates) or he could 'stand on his right' to continue being annoying. He apparently chose the latter.
The annoyed party took the matter up with the management.
The victim apparently took umbrage for being called out on his rude behavior, and an argument ensured.
The annoyed party escalated in an unpredicted and deadly fashion, and violence ensued. As is typical with violent confrontation, the person willing to 'go there' fastest came out on top.
Unreasonable behavior in return for unreasonable behavior. Both failures of judgement. Not something that Rude should have died for, but Rude misjudged the potential danger of Crazy.
Rude met Crazy and died. Now Crazy goes to jail for having been pushed beyond his irrationally-low limits by Rude.
Evolution in action.
When you decide to be rude to someone you don't know, you take the chance that they are also bat-guano insane, and armed, and will kill you for it. It's not likely
but it is always possible.
People used to know this almost instinctively; "manners" developed as a formal way of preventing escalation when dealing with strangers who may just be bat-guano insane and able to make something of it.
Most people in American society today seem to have come to the incorrect assumption that they are absolutely safe from violent reactions by crazy strangers, and so do not need to practice what used to be called 'common courtesy' or 'good manners' or 'being a gentleman.'
This is a false premise. It's usually true, but not always true. Courteous public behavior is a self-defense skill first and foremost. That's why it exists.
Had the man with the phone simply practiced a little common courtesy, accepted that what he was doing was both annoying someone and against the usual standards of theater behavior, and turned off his phone, his daughter would still have a father today.
Instead, he chose to stand on his privilege to be annoying, and possibly (we'll never know, as he's dead) decided that the 71-year-old 'grumpy old man' that complained to him was no threat to that privilege.
Bad choice.
ADDED: Here's the news story I referenced
http://abcnews.go.com/US/texting-triggers-fatal-movie-theater-shooting/story?id=21517988
Police said that Reeves asked Chad and Nichole Oulson several times to stop, and then Reeves left the theater. When Reeves returned, Chad Oulson asked Reeves if he reported his phone use to the theater managers, police said. That prompted an argument which ended when Reeves pulled out a gun and shot Oulson in the chest, police said.
...
Sheriff Nocco said Reeves asked Oulson to stop texting. When he didn't, Reeves went to the lobby to complain.
When he returned to his seat, an argument ensued and then turned physical. Reeves pulled a .380 pistol and shot Oulson, Nocco said. Witnesses told deputies Oulson had just texted his 3-year-old daughter.
Oulson's wife had put her hand in front of her husband and was shot in the hand.
