This loss of life is so needless; the boy was only 18 years old, and why did he have to take so many people with him on his suicide mission?

What is going on with our world? There are children fighting against U.S. military personnel in Iraq. Malls are shutting out teenagers because they can“t behave themselves. An astronaut tried to kidnap and kill a woman who was vying for the attention of a man she had her eye on. The streets are unsafe and our children aren“t learning.

The most shocking part of the 1990s was when school shootings started becoming a regular occurrence. I remember the Columbine shooting well. Everyone in my school was scared. A very Joseph McCarty-esque manhunt started.

It was rumored that the administration had made a list of outcasts to keep an eye on in case of a similar incident at our school. Everyone was suddenly frightened of all of the kids they had been ridiculing since we were children. No one knew where to turn.

Over a decade later, we have all adjusted our view of outcasts. We are no longer frightened in schools. Well, not only in schools anyway. Now we are frightened everywhere we go. People who don“t fit the idea of social normality are looked at as a threat, not to our beliefs, but to our lives.

The recent shooting in a mall in Salt Lake City illustrates my point perfectly. This young man started shooting up a mall, killing people he couldn“t possibly have known and wounding many others. The police shot him, saving countless lives. This loss of life is so needless; the boy was only 18 years old, and why did he have to take so many people with him on his suicide mission?

There is no way this young man thought he would get out alive. People who go on these rampages have so much anger for themselves; they take it out on other people. In the end, they are mostly suicidal. They want to die and can“t imagine that they are simply very mentally unhealthy. They blame parents, friends, strangers, and in the end often take their own lives. In unfortunate situations like this one, they take some of these people out with them.

This is not a new occurrence. Charles Whitman shot many innocent people from his post in the 1960s. Post office workers have been known for having high stress levels, and there have been situations in their workplaces where innocent people were killed. Unfortunately for our generation, the public shooting sprees have gotten more prevalent.

I remember how I felt when the school shootings happened. I kept thinking that any of this could happen to me. Now with the recent mall shooting, I“m back to being frightened. I could be on the receiving end of a disgruntled Milwaukee resident at any time.

I walk with pepper spray, take kickboxing and avoid dark streets, but one cannot avoid going into public merely out of a fear of random shootings. I could be an innocent victim. So could you. What has our world come to when a story like this is accepted with only a small amount of surprise? Is this what we have to look forward to?

No one is safe.

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