Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Guns and People I've developed a bad habit lately of scanning classrooms and other public areas, imagining what I would do and where I would go in response to a violent act. I remember doing this just a couple of weeks ago in my seminar class and immediately told myself I was being ridiculous, things like that don't really happen.

In the past week and half two violent shootings have occured at schools in my community. On February 5th a 14 year old was shot by a classmate at a local middle school. This is very upper middle class, successful middle school in a community that was rated as the second best place in the country to raise a child last year. Yesterday a biology professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville shot and killed 3 professors and injured 3 others. This shooting hit close to home as many friends have close ties to the campus. Thankfully the professors I know are all safe. Unfortunately many families are destroyed.

Just last June one of the kindest men I ever knew was shot and killed at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Why are things like this happening more and more? Why the uptick in these horrific, violent, public shootings? The killers seem to be taking lives to make a statement. I just don't get it. Does it have something to do with how the media responds to these crimes? Has human life been devalued enough that a murder can seem to become justifiable? Has something in our overall society helped create and nurture these lone wolf killers? Or is it just a coincidence of time and mental illness.

There seems to be little anyone can do to prevent things like this from happening. Some call for more gun control, some call for less restriction on gun carrying. I doubt either of those things will help. Hopefully schools, businesses, etc will make efforts to determine how to identify people leaning toward this type of instability. I've always hated doomsday attitudes and declarations....but the world does seem to be a bit more mad than it used to be.