Our Violent Society

We do not live in a perfect world. Crime is inevitable and thefts and burglaries are a common act in any society. However, since December 2012 and the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, more violence has appeared and active shooters in both large and small scales have been happening.

But why do these tragedies keep happening? It’s unfortunate that our society has become accustomed to these type of mass shootings.

Specifically, here in California and even more recently in Orange County, violent crimes have been occurring.

One of the more recent and local violent acts is Chris Dorner’s revengeful plot to kill police officers he blamed for his discharge from the Navy Reserve. This led him to murder an officer’s daughter and her fiancé in a parking garage in Irvine.

In Tustin, a 20 year old man named Ali Syed, shot at various people on the streets and on the freeway, stole two cars, and killed three people in the process. Also, the week after the Sandy Hook shooting, a man shot a bullet in the parking lot at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, there were no incidents but it certainly caused a stir.

Mass shootings is not a new concept. However, because many of these are happening in California, there has clearly been a shift for the worst in our society.

Since the Sandy Hook shootings, it has become like a domino effect. A lot of students on campus that come from out of state or even out of Orange County, express their concern that it is not as safe as it used to be. Sophomore Johana Jimenez says she carries pepper spray whenever she heads out.

Growing up for most of my life in Tustin, I know that it has been a safe community and shootings are out of the ordinary. As a society we are losing the sense of community because it seems that any place we go we must always be alert and look for anything that may seem odd.

Our society has changed and even if we have not been directly involved with a shooting or know someone who has lost their life in these situations, we all have to do something different in our day to day, regardless if we notice, to protect ourselves in case this happens to us.

It is terrible that there is this hovering state of fear over us whenever we walk out the door because we cannot control what one individual will do in a moment of rage. It is hard accepting this reality but as a community we must now grow to create a sense of safety we used to have.