Photo: Stockbyte

Gun sales, background check approvals, and requests for concealed-weapons training have spiked in the days following the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, CO that left 12 people dead and 58 injured. The primary reason is fear; fear that this could happen again, and fear that politicians will tighten gun laws.

According to the Associated Press, summer months are usually a slow time for gun sales. However, in Colorado alone, nearly 3,000 background checks were approved by the state in the three days after the massacre. The same can be said for other states as well, including Connecticut and Florida.

Apparently, this follows a pattern established by prior mass shootings, like the one in Tucson, AZ that left six dead and a number of people injured, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

“Gun dealers, in fact, owe a lot to Mr. Obama,” writes the Christian Science Monitor. “Before his election in 2008, gun sales spiked in anticipation that he would promote a gun-control agenda – even though he did not campaign on the issue and the Supreme Court had just handed down its landmark Heller ruling, which asserted an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

The shooting in Aurora has reignited the gun law debate among politicians and pundits. Mitt Romney has said that more restrictive gun laws “won’t make all bad things go away.” Fox News has the following headline: “Colorado shooting a reminder that psychiatry, not gun laws, needs fixing.” New York’s Mayor Bloomberg has called on both candidates to address the issue. And Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg (NJ) is preparing legislation that will curtail the number rounds in a gun’s magazine.

Meanwhile, even as the number of gun owners has declined in the U.S., there are still somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 million to 300 million of them in the hands of citizens, nearly one for every person in the country. It appears that even though there are fewer individuals buying guns, the ones who are buying are purchasing more of them.

Sally Ride Photo: NASA

-Sally Ride the first American woman in space, died yesterday at the age of 61 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Ride made history in 1983 when she traveled aboard the space shuttle Challenger. She was also one of the first six women to be named to NASA’s astronaut corps. A Stanford graduate, she held three degrees in physics, including a Ph.D. and a Bachelor’s in English. She was also the founder of Sally Ride Science, an organization in San Diego that creates science programs for tweens, especially young girls, and Girl Scouts’ Camp CEO, a group that brings minority girls and professional women together.

Separately but related, pancreatic cancer has a very high mortality rate; 75 percent of patients die within a year and 94 percent within five years. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network has more information about this deadly disease.

-Warner Brothers, the studio behind The Dark Knight Rises, will donate a “substantial” though undisclosed amount of money to the victims of the Friday morning mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, CO. Though the studio has canceled premiere events and made changes with regards to its other film Gangster Squad, the backlash against Hollywood has been limited. “Many agree that you simply can’t hold the art form itself responsible in the shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 others injured,” the AP writes.

-The alleged gunman in that mass shooting, James Holmes, appeared in court yesterday looking dazed and confused. At times seeming to doze off briefly, Holmes didn’t say a word during the appearance in which Judge William Sylvester ordered the suspect to be held without bond. Colorado law enforcement says Holmes isn’t cooperating with the investigation. He’s being held in solitary confinement.

-The recession is wreaking havoc on school districts across the country. According to The New York Times, foreclosures and other economic problems are driving parents and their kids out of places like Detroit, Cleveland, and San Bernadino, CA. There’s also greater competition from charter schools, which have seen their enrollment numbers go through the roof. Funding for schools is based on the number of students attending. The decline in the student population has led to school closures, layoffs and has put educational programs in jeopardy.

-Good news? Mariah Carey is going to be a judge on American Idol. She’s getting an eye-popping $18 million for the one-year contract. In return, the show hopes that her star power will revive ratings.

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures, Ron Phillips / AP

The mass killing at a movie theater in Aurora, CO Friday morning prompted many movie studios to agree to keep mum about weekend box office earnings until after the weekend was over. Nonetheless, the numbers still managed to “leak” to the press.

According to outlets like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter, The Dark Knight Rises opened with about $160 million in ticket sales, making it the biggest 2D opening for a film in history. Even with those blockbuster numbers, the movie fell below the $180 million to $200 million expectations. Many suspect that the Aurora massacre kept people away from this movie and other family movies like Ice Age: Continental Drift, which saw steep dips in their box office returns.

In addition to the box office blackout, Dark Knight distributor Warner Brothers cancelled a number of global premieres in the wake of the shooting. And the film company has also asked that certain ads not run for a while.

“[T]he money at stake was too big for moviedom to ignore, and studio officials with access to box-office numbers provided them to The New York Times. Those officials, in private, spent the weekend seemingly marveling at the ability of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ to maintain much of its momentum in the wake of the killings,” the Times writes.

Because of the shooting, entertainment analysts expressed surprise at the strong showing for the film.

Movie theaters beefed up security over the weekend, and some put rules in place with regards to costumes. Still, experts think audiences and movie companies will move on from the shooting with minimal long-term impact.

Another Warner Brothers film, Gangster Squad, may also be affected by the tragedy. The movie has a movie-theater shootout scene that could be edited. The trailer was yanked from theaters on Friday. Others say the opening date (September 7) could be changed.

Photo: Stockbyte

-A dozen people were killed in a shooting at a Colorado movie theater during a showing of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises early this morning. Another 38 people were injured, including a three-month-old baby. The gunman, 24-year-old James Holmes, reportedly wore a gas mask into the Aurora theater and threw gas canisters before opening fire. He was arrested in the parking lot of the theater with four guns. President Obama has released a statement expressing “shock and sadness” over the news. A Paris premiere screening of the film has been cancelled as a result. This is an ongoing story.

-On a much different note, Viacom and DirecTV have reached a programming fee agreement, ending a 10-day blackout that deprived the satellite company’s 20 million customers of stations like BET, MTV and Nickelodeon. DirecTV will not be required to carry Epix. Separately, Dish customers haven’t had access to AMC for about a month, meaning they’re missing Breaking Bad. Dang.

-SmartMoney.com gives its picks for the best credit card for travelers.

-Mitt Romney’s wife Ann has stirred up some controversy over an interview with GMA in which she defended her hubby’s refusal to make several years worth of tax returns available by saying, “Because there are so many things that will be open again for more attack… and that’s really, that’s just the answer. And we’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life.” You people?!

-Presidential campaign fundraising has exceeded $1 billion. That includes spending by the candidates, the parties, and their Super PACs. Spending could reach $3 billion. President Obama is frantically trying to raise money, warning his supporters that he could be outspent by his opponent.