Is Nowhere Safe?

Let the questions begin. How can anyone walk into a primary school and kill children and teachers? What was he thinking? Could it have been prevented? Is this a problem of gun control, a lowering of moral standards, a case of undiagnosed or untreated mental illness, or an act of    G-d?  How do we emotionally deal with this? Most critically, why did these innocents have to die?

I don't have any of these answers. All of these questions have been swirling in my brain since I heard about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut this morning. Even more so after the shooting at the Clackamas mall outside Portland, Oregon on Wedndesday. When that happened, I posted a link about the event on Facebook with the comment, "Is nowhere safe?"

After 9/11, anti-terrorism efforts were focused on transportation systems; planes, subways, etc.
There are metal detectors at the entrances of many public buildings. When I go to a Rangers game at the Ballpark in Arlington, I must surrender my purse to be inspected. All of these measures only give us the illusion of security. In most of our daily activities, we are in public settings in which we are unavoidably vulnerable.

Regrettably, we are no longer surprised when we hear about a shooting at a school. From Charles Whitman at the University of Texas to Columbine to Virginia Tech to today's horror, our response to a school shooting is not shock, but, "Oh no, not again." It has become all too commonplace. Today's shooting makes us stop and take notice, but only because of the body count and the age of the victims. Since Columbine, 284 people have been killed in K-12 school shootings. Just this year, there have been 8 other deaths in school-related incidents. Most of them we hear nothing about. This is not a new phenomenon. The earliest known shooting to happen on school property in America was the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, where four Lenape American Indians entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine or ten children.

For many years, I told people that one of my nightmare scenarios was someone coming into a darkened movie theater and opening fire. Then on July 20th of this year that's exactly what happened leaving 12 dead and 58 injured. There have been five other public mass shootings in the U.S. this year. They occurred in a spa, a cafe, a Sikh temple and a sign company resulting in 28 deaths and 9 injuries. I repeat my question, "Is nowhere safe." The answer, sadly, is no.

Once we accept that fact, how do we deal with it?  Do we barricade ourselves and our children in our homes and order everything over the Internet? Do we incarcerate anyone who we think might commit this kind of act? Do we arm ourselves or ban all weapons? Even all of these extreme actions would not keep us safe. Most female murder victims are killed by an intimate partner. Most of the children who are killed, have been murdered by a parent. There is no way to guarantee the safety of yourself or your loved ones.

So, what do I recommend? Cherish those you love. Live your life. Hold your head up. Go to school, to the movies, out to eat, to your house of worship. Take reasonable precautions and then move on. Remember the sentiments that were expressed after the tragedy of 9/11. The only way the forces of evil win is if we allow them to change our way of life.