Fear Factor

My wife has decided to refer to the tragedy at Oakland's Okios University as a "self-esteem shooting." I believe her suggestion is based on the idea that when a personality collapses under great pressure from its own weight, bad things happen. I don't know if we will ever make full sense of what happened on Monday morning, mostly because we are probably just a few hours away from the next incident requiring us to consider all the reasons why these things continue to happen. I won't pretend to understand the motives of One L. Goh, just as I can't understand all the sound and fury that events such as this generate.
I remember when Colorado enacted legislation intended to keep homeowners safe in the event of a home invasion. This became known, colloquially enough, as the "Make My Day" Law, after the terse threat given by Clint Eastwood in a Dirty Harry movie. It should be noted that, at the time Inspector Callahan uttered these words, he was standing in a coffee shop, not his living room. A number of states followed suit, and now you can feel safe in your home because of that fictional San Francisco Police detective.
But what if you're walking down the street? Florida has the answer for that: It's called "Stand Your Ground," and it allows a person to use deadly force without a duty to retreat. If you feel threatened. It's also called "Line In The Sand," and if you like your ordinances with a macho feel, they don't come much better than this.
Not surprisingly, in the wake of the Oakland killings, there has been a renewed cry for those of us on the front lines to start carrying guns. These folks fervently believe that if there had been more citizens carrying weapons at Okios University, lives would have been spared. They would like us to pack heat in the classroom. One of the first things we learn in teacher school is that after biological needs like food and water, human beings need to feel safe in order to learn anything. Apparently having more guns in a room makes some people feel safe.
Me? I believe that a society that has truly evolved will need fewer guns, not more. Amendments to the Constitution have been amended and repealed throughout our history, and I can imagine that there might come a time when we have outlived our need for guns. We solve things with words and actions that don't leave innocent victims dead. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.