Danger Lurks

Trey Smith

Yesterday, in The Lone Wolf, I asked how society can protect itself from singular individuals bent on wreaking death and carnage in the public square.

There is no one specific answer. I happen to think that more stringent gun laws would lessen the numbers of such crimes. While some will argue that a lone wolf who wants to cause death and destruction could just as easily do so with other types of weapons, this is nothing more than a theoretical argument. As it now stands, most such crimes are committed with guns and so we have no way of knowing how these individuals would react if guns weren't so easy to obtain legally.

Another possible strategy is to enhance mental health services -- the exact opposite of what we've been doing in this country for the past generation or two. It's interesting to note that, as mental health services budgets have been cut, cut and then cut some more, the numbers of these types of crimes have increased. If more people with mental illness could receive the services they need, maybe some of the lone wolves out there could be helped before they hatch plans of this nature.

In the end, however, regardless of the strategies employed, we will never remove this danger completely. Since the very beginning of human society, danger has always lurked. It might be in the form of weather. It might be from wild animals. It might be from disease. It might be from war. It might be just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Danger is part of our lives. It has always been that way and my guess is that it always will be that way. There is nothing wrong with trying to lessen or mitigate danger, but we can't escape from it.