TIME Cover: .223-Caliber Aurora, Gun Control Parting Shot

Oops, for a second I thought it was the Freedom Tower.

Props to TIME for the “wait a minute.” With eyeballs turning to the Olympics for the next two weeks effectively knocking the Dark Knight massacre out of the news cycle, this cover and photo-illustration serves as a last word on Aurora, a lamentation, front-and-center, that gun control — including automatic weapon control — has become a losing cause.

The TIME write-up states that:

Bartholomew Cooke is “a talented young photographer who specializes in capturing the power of inanimate objects.”

Understated, iconic, alight and ominous at the same time, perhaps there is actually a larger life for Mr. Cooke’s photo-illustration. In recognition of the political reality, maybe it could serve as a warning sign outside schools, supermarkets, hospitals, movie theaters.

(photo-illustration: Bartholomew Cooke for TIME)