Sigh

I first heard about the shooting around noon on Friday when I overheard a coworker telling his cube-neighbor about it. The second words out of his mouth were something about gun control, so I guess it’s never too soon to opine after a tragedy.

The world is very, very dangerous, and it is a miracle that any of us have survived this long. It’s easy to forget that.

It’s human nature to search for answers, but most of the time there aren’t any.

People who are qualified and trained to use weapons should be allowed to use weapons to protect themselves and others from danger. It would be especially great if they could form some sort of organized group or force to coordinate their efforts.

Freedom Isn’t Free. It applies to civilians, too.

The media still lacks basic journalism skills. Yet again, they leaped to vilify someone they found on Facebook. Are you kidding me?

This incident reminds me of my theory that mass communication is generally bad for society. Horrible tragedies have happened repeatedly throughout human history, but in the past, we only heard about them if we happened to live in the immediate vicinity or, in the last two hundred years or so, if we read a newspaper. Now we witness them all the time because we have the unprecedented luxury of being able to see and hear and record everything that happens on every square inch of populated territory.

If the lesson you take from this tragedy is to get to know the introverts in your life better because you fear they are hurting inside and planning a mass murder, you, sir or madam, are an idiot. Read this book.