From CNN.com"A former student opened fire in a lecture hall Thursday at Northern Illinois University, shooting 21 people before fatally shooting himself. Seven people died, including the gunman."
I've been struggling with how to react after this news. As a current college student, I realize that it would not have taken much coincidence for my name to be among the seven. And of course, your mind goes through what you would have done in the situation. And the professor teaching was a grad assistant. Several of my colleagues are grad assistants who teach classes as well.
The biggest question everyone is grappling with is why. News has just released the name of the shooter so it's only a matter of time before we have a million reporters digging through this guy's history. But, without specific context, one wonders why anyone would do this. Even if a person decided there was nothing left to live for, what causes that leap to make you want to take as many people with you as possible? Especially incomprehensible is the seemingly random vengeance enacted on complete strangers.
Of course this isn't the first time this has happened. Nor will it be the last. Most alarming is the frequency with which these shootings are occurring, particularly on college campuses. I'm left to wonder why this seems to happen so much more in the US than other areas of the developed world. And as a parent and future teacher, I find myself wary. Increasingly wary.
I'm not sure how my perspective on this will change in the coming days as more information is divulged on this particular scenario. But I know that I'm still in shock over how easily this could have happened to me. And feeling incredibly lucky that it did not...
Until next time.
Ace
