More senseless killings from deranged individuals this weekend. We want answers. We want solutions. We want to figure out what can be done to stop it.
The problem is that there is no one answer.
When someone gets it in their head that the only way for them to do something of significance is to kill innocent people, it doesn’t matter what they use as a weapon. Sure it could be a gun – but it could just as easily be a sword, a bat or a vehicle.
The solution is not to ban the gun, the sword, the bat or the car they choose to use.
The solution is to pay closer attention to the behavior of those around us – both in person and on social media.
The solution is to try and understand what it is that makes someone snap and go off the deep end to a place most of us cannot fathom or even begin to remotely understand.
The solution is to provide help to those who need it as soon as possible.
People can be in various types of pain – emotional pain, mental anguish, physical trauma. Most of us cannot relate to the type of deep, troubling thoughts that may run through the minds of these people. We all have problems, we all have issues, we all have the stresses that life places on us for one reason or another. However, no one has the right to take another life for no reason – no one.
Don’t think it’s not your problem – it is ALL of our problem because it could happen to anyone at any time. If the tragedies we have witnessed over and over have taught us anything, it is that no matter where you are and what you are doing, you have an individual responsibility to pay attention to the people, places and objects around you so you are prepared to move, to act and to survive the unthinkable.
You are NOT being paranoid when you ask “What if ____ happens when I’m at _______?” You are being prepared and enabling yourself with a potential solution that you can have at the ready when the unspeakable occurs to you or around you.
Seconds count – in less than 30 seconds 20 people lost their lives yesterday. Yes, it could have been worse, but no one should have died. Sometimes there really is nothing you can do if you are minding your own business and a bullet comes through the wall and kills you. But there are typically signs that we need to pay closer attention to in our very distracted society.
Stay safe my friends…
–Pete Canavan
