Every time the news comes on it seems like there has been another tragic school shooting. The frequency in which these events have been occurring is nothing short of terrifying. Who’s next? Should I fear for my life every time I enter a classroom? Are we truly safe anywhere? These questions flood my brain every time I see or hear about some sick person who walked onto a college or high school campus and decided to take innocent lives. What is so wrong with us that we feel it is ok to kill our peers? Virginia Tech was unique in the fact that the school failed to have an efficient system of notification in effect to alert students to danger. The most recent however, Northern Illinois University was seemingly unstoppable. A student walked into a lecture hall, opened fire and killed 5 students and injured 16 others before killing himself. One of those injured later died bringing the death toll to 7 including the killer. No one knows why. What on earth could have driven this man to walk into a geology class and open fire? It’s terrifying to think of how easy it is for someone to walk into any classroom on a college campus armed. This event follows attacks in Louisiana, Tennessee, California and as already mentioned, Virginia Tech. This doesn’t even take into consideration high school shootings or mall shootings within the past 6months-year. Shouldn’t we be able to walk in public places without fearing for our lives? Poor innocent people are having their lives stripped from them. It’s so overwhelming and scary to think about. To imagine being afraid on a daily basis of walking to the grocery store, I can’t even imagine living in a war torn country and fearing being bombed on a daily basis… But that’s what we are, we are a war torn country, a country fighting itself. We are a country plagued by crime and terror.
In the last year my university has looked into methods of quickly alerting students to dangers on campus and taking control of a situation. While I feel happy that my university has taken an active and quick approach to the issue, I still can’t say that I feel safe when there have been so many attacks that came without any possible warning. I have spoken with many of my peers at other schools around the country and all seem to agree with me about this lack of a feeling of safety. What really troubles me though is the fact that killers find it so easy to become killers. How can anyone with a good and right conscious take a life? I think the issue is so much larger than school and public shootings. I think the real issue is the de-evolution of humanity. The real question then becomes what can be done?
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School shootings are really not such a big deal. You're far more likely to be hurt or die from many other types of violence.
what gets me though is the growing frequency of these events. I may be more likely now to be attacked walking to my car but roughly 5 shootings just in the past 2 months? the lack of concern for these events is what really troubles me. I keep seeing all these comments about how we as individuals should not worry because we are more likely to be attacked in other ways. But SOMEONE will be a victim of a school shooting and that's not ok... if it's not me it's someone else and it kills me to see innocent people having their lives stripped from them. I think I'll blog about this too, but I don't remember who said it but it was that our crime and violence levels are back to a "tolerable" level. when should these things EVER be tolerable?
~*Emilee