Mass shootings are horrific. They are without question some of the scariest things you'll ever read or hear about. It is heartbreaking beyond words to think about the people who are the victims in these tragic events. While talking about the latest mass shooting my friend mentioned that he was afraid to go to concerts. I understand that, but I'm not sure it's a rational fear. He said the same kind of thing right after that horrible movie theatre shooting in Colorado.
Again, I can't stress this enough-mass shootings are awful. My heart breaks for the victims and you can guarantee this-Hell exists and those who perpetrate such evil are turning crispy brown right now.
But they are also very rare.
You probably won't win the lottery, get bitten by a shark, or die in a plane crash, and you probably won't die in a mass shooting either. You'll die of course, all humans are mortal-but you'll die of old age, heart disease, cancer or a stroke. It's morbid but it's true. People who die of those things don't make the news. News has got to be news. Plane crashes are news because they don't happen much. Same with mass shootings.
There are lots of things to be afraid of. Some rational, some not so rational. While it's easy for me to tell my friend that fear of mass shootings is irrational-I'm not sure it'll help.
I think the greatest problem here is that in many cases, the goal of these disturbed people is to instill fear in others. To cause cause doubt, to distance ourselves from others. When allow these terrible things to disrupt our faith and love for others, the bad guys win. When things are bad to remind us of the importance of being good. Of caring for others more. It's sad to see how many tragedies would be prevented if we just loved others more. It's also sad to realize that there are a lot more good things happening than bad, but the good is not as sensational, so it does not get reported. If we only heard and read the news, the world would seem like a terrible place. But it is not! There are a look more people helping others than there are killing others.
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