The following op-ed piece is an opinion of its writer only, and not necessarily the views of the collective body that make up Team Hellions. Blogged with permission.

I woke up this morning and went to work. I often take a little time in the morning to catch the news on channel 5, to keep up on local and national news. Today was not a good day…

My day began with hearing about a 20 year old giving drugs and alcohol to a four year old; a group of people running a meth lab, arrested, a four year old upstairs while these individuals were apprehended; and a New Hampshire man who started serving a two-to-four year sentence for child pornography. All of this pales in comparison to the events that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton Connecticut today.

Whether it’s every few years or more than once a year, as is the case this year, something happens. Something bad, violent, sadistic, murderous, catastrophic, whatever the fuck words you want to use. We live in a world where violence is embedded in the human psyche, one way or another. We watch it on TV, we read it in books, we do it creatively, some, the very few, do it physically. One thing I’m tired of hearing is “how could anyone do this?” This is a farce, and always has been. We’re taught violence through history, as we’re growing up. Do you honestly think that when one conquered another, they arm wrestled for it or something? We are a society not far gone from World War II, the greatest war and human tragedy in history. Great for it’s death toll and its shocking actions. This happens in the world. Writers kill people in their stories, in a creative fashion. That’s truth. This grace period that the collective conscious shields itself from is complete BULLSHIT. Stuff like this happens every year, daily for some. Wrapping yourself in a cocoon of disbelief does more of a disservice than it does good.

Safety is a thing that we all yearn for, pray for, and think we have. Key word is THINK. We never think it could happen to us, to me, to you, to family, people we love. I recently saw John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted on Katie Couric’s new talk show, and what he said translates into a variety of situations. In short, he said “don’t think it can’t happen to you.” It can. It does. Have you ever heard of Newton, Connecticut before now? Most likely not. How about Aurora, Colorado? Columbine? Statistics are statistics, but these things do happen, and they happen in places that the large majority have never even heard of before. But you do now. People are dangerous. That’s a fact that we like to avoid. Safety is nice…don’t automatically assume that you have it.

So what needs to be done? How can we prevent this? Ignoring the issue doesn’t protect anybody. Assuming that it can’t happen to you doesn’t protect you in these situations. Gun control is going to be an issue here. No doubt about it. Mental health will be another issue. Right now, I don’t have enough facts to say either way. Clearly gun control is a problem in this country. We can duck the issue as much as we want, but the majority of the dead aren’t composed of Republicans or Democrats. They’re children between the ages of 5 and 10. Most of them kindergarteners. I don’t think the solutions are easy or even fully understand what the solutions are yet, but we need to do something, don’t we? Don’t just love your family, friends, children more today, do it every day! I’ll leave you with this video. It’s short, but it makes a great point. Thanks for reading.