They Shoot Llamas, Don’t They?

Just pick up a newspaper, tune into CNN or read the headlines on the Internet and you’ll be certain to learn of another shooting in our country. Maybe it’s just me and my heightened sense of awareness on this issue – since I became a mother, I react much differently to news stories and automatically go to that place which asks, “What would I do if that happened to one of my kids?” – but acts of violence seem to be increasing at an alarming rate among our young people.

As a fellow mom, I think of both the criminals’ and the victims’ mothers as I read these stories. Is there anything they could have done differently when raising their kids that would have ensured an alternate life path for the gunman? What was the last thing those mothers said to their children who lost their lives in such senseless displays of cruelty? What must those mothers be going through now – in either case?

Shootings used to happen in “bad parts” of town or big, remote urban areas. Those locations didn’t make the violence any less tragic, but now it’s hitting close to home – in our schools and public parks and shopping malls. Places we used to feel safe. Places we don’t feel as safe anymore.

There have been several cases in our own state, in our own town over the past few weeks. Victims have ranged from kindergarteners to college students. Some were fortunate to survive the shootings; other innocent youth were killed in the tragedies.

The truth is, we’re raising our children in scary times. It’s difficult to educate your kids on potential dangers without making them completely paranoid and fearful. But when we live in a society where people feel the best way to deal with stress, anger, failure, resentment, humiliation, bitterness or depression is to pick up a gun and shoot someone, we’ve got to caution our children on scenarios our parents never had to envision.

One of our biggest responsibilities as parents is to protect our kids. I just pray that I’ll really be able to carry out that promise.