“Violence is committed by people that act like people, not by fictional monsters." I read that quote in a book a few months ago; I’ll mention the title later. Last week, I stumbled upon Stephen King’s new book On Writing, and a profound sentence jumped out at me. King said the opposite, that good writing is bad writing. It “usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do- to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street.” Although King was referring to writing, I felt he described humanity perfectly. I connected those two quotes and realized people are as close to being evil as they are to being good.

A evil person is person, and the heinous criminals we call monsters act like people because they are. How odd. I didn’t think about these quotes again until, I heard about mass shooting in Las Vegas. The shooting massacre shocked many Americans, but not me and not to Gavin Debecker author of the quote in my opening sentence and also not to the Americans who experience violence daily. Gavin DeBecker is the one of the nation’s leading experts on protecting public figures and he works in the prediction and prevention of violence. He also wrote the book The Gift of Fear: Survival Signs That Protect us from Violence. It is a must read. In 2015, there were 372 mass shootings in the US, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870. This year, the mass shooting at Mandalay Concert is the deadliest mass shooting to ever be recorded.

I thought it would stop after Sandy Hook, I then thought it was stop after Orlando, but I now see… things will never stop. Many people are looking for answers, some people call it a conspiracy theory, some people call it terrorism, and others call it mental disease, but what should we call it? It is called normal. Wait. Hold up Vianka, what the heck are you talking about. Leave your emotions at the front door and think please. Allow me to explain, Gavin DeBecker stated, “The solution to violence in America is the acceptance of reality.” The reality is, violence in America is inevitable. Violence isn’t the buggy man hiding underneath your queen mattress at night nor is it the wicked monster hidden in your closet. Violence is the current state of America, and before you say they took God out of School and blah, blah let’s remember that blacks were getting hung by nooses and Native Americans were slaughtered when God was in this country. So, bear me the excuse. Crime is everywhere. While violence has never stopped, mass shootings have become a phenomena - it is nostalgic fiction.

We don’t understand the true nature of violence so we coddle the idea of violence. We believe in conspiracy theories, we blame the victims of domestic disputes. We justify the raping of women by predatory men while turning a blind eye away from child abuse. The rose colored glasses we are wearing are great though. We don’t believe that people can just kill people. The world is too beautiful for such travesty. Mass shooters aren’t random and the shooters do not snap.

In reality, mass shooters are cold blooded. They aren’t killing people in a blind rage, or in passion like a wild manic. They calculate- premediate and devise plans to carry out fantasies of power and dominance. We live in the world of fear. We fear random acts of violence, but that fear is unwarranted and misplaced. Fear is a survival mechanism; it is supposed to save us when our life is on the line. Our survival instincts will tell us what to do if we listen to it and understand the nature of violence.

But how can we listen to our instincts when they have been muffled with junk? Human violence has been proven to rarely be random.

There are always signs (predictions)- red flags, that we usually wave off without thinking. We don’t notice until it’s too late. We know when people seem off, we know when a person is funny acting. But, we have been taught to mind our business. We don’t think twice when something is unusual. I bet the people that worked in the hotel, thought that Stephen Paddock was strange, but didn’t say anything. People are mad that the media characterizes these murders as lone wolfs. But it is true. DeBecker goes further. All mass shooters and violent people share the same traits. They are the type of people that are outcast, lack empathy; they never had the type of power they craved in society. They are in the “rock bottom” of their lives. The fantasy is to hurt innocent people seems random and irrational. But to them, their fantasy makes perfect sense. If they do carry out their fantasy, they can reach their goal of power and control.

Ask a friend of the murderer (shooter) what the shooter was like, they will say, “he was a nice person.” The friend usually says something like “I never thought he could have done this- I am in complete shock.” Nice does not equate to good. As DeBecker reiterates in his book, “niceness does not equal goodness. Niceness is a decision, a strategy of social interaction; it is not a character trait. People seeking to control others almost always present the image of a nice person in the beginning” before they show who you they are.

Often times, your survival instincts will let you know when a person is violent. It is your job to listen and act. We can split people into two different categories, those who act on violent thoughts and those who don’t. We share a commonality with criminals. Everyone is capable of murder, everyone is capable of criminal activity, but not everyone is able to commit murder. Because the majority of people have empathy, hope, and compassion- a conscious we don’t act on our impulses. Humanity is the good, bad, and the ugly. People do bad things: People do good things. The truth is violence is part of humanity. People have evil in them and good in them, our power is to choose. Our thoughts can be criminal. They can be innocent, childlike, lovable, and strong. And on the flipside, our thoughts can be dark, twisted, and evil. But thoughts do not have power until we make the choice to act on them. Once we realize that then maybe we can understand how violence work. But in America, people are so quick to distance themselves from an evil which is the reality. Evil will touch everyone at least once that is the nature of humanity and the world. Once we accept the true state of America, then we will be able to combat violence. We will able to discuss gun control, police brutality, rape, and crime amicably. Until then more innocent lives will be harmed.