Midnight movie openings with people attending in costumes have become a bit of a tradition throughout the country. But in the wake of the tragedy in Colorado, some movie theaters are moving to ban costumes. But are costumes really a problem?

After hearing about the news of the shooting at the midnight release of The Dark Knight Rises, I was saddened and horrified. My husband and I both attend midnight showings of new movies often. We actually made a deal that if he got to see The Avengers at midnight, I'd get to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at its opening. Like with other movie openings, I was planning on wearing a costume because I love dressing up.

Dressing in costumes is such a harmless activity that I was also really sad to see that AMC has banned costumes. And it looks like other movie theaters chains are considering following suit. Costumes aren't the problem and they didn't cause this tragedy to take place. All the costume ban does is make things a little less fun.

Now, I do think a ban of masks and prop weapons may be a good idea as well as tighter security at movie theaters. But mostly I think this costume ban is a knee jerk reaction on the part of the movie theaters in the wake of the shooting.

Update: AMC posted the following statement on their Facebook page:

Contrary to media reports, costumes are not banned, but we will not admit guests with face-concealing masks and we will not allow fake weapons in the buildings. We want all our guests to feel comfortable at our theatres and we will be closely monitoring.

I think this is a good policy to have and hopefully any other movie theaters considering to ban costumes will follow suit.