Mass shootings, active shooters, death and injured tolls seem to be all that makes up our news alerts nowadays. Just last week, January 6th, there were alerts and the following of the situation of an active shooter at Fort Lauderdale International Airport. But what scared me most about reading this notification as it popped up on my phone wasn't the fact that more people were losing their lives and being threatened by a danger that now has a strong presence within common public areas. But the fact that I wasn't surprised, the fact that when I read that notification it wasn't my first reaction to gasp or feel scared and anxious for those in the area. My first reaction was the thought, "Another one?" This in itself shows just how violent our society has become.

Six days into 2017 and we already have had a fatal shooting in a public area. And looking back at our past, the violence was constantly present around the world. The Orlando Pulse Night Club Shooting (2016), the mass shooting in San Bernardio, California (2015), the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado (2015), Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon (2015), Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut shooting(2012), shooting at historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina (2015). And those are just a few of the far too many mass shootings we've had in America alone. And I'm not here to rant about how guns kill people because there has to be someone to pull the trigger. I'm just saddened by the fact that our society is now so easy to blink in the face of major violent incidents since they're so common.

It frightens me that when at the movies with my little sister that I take a moment to think about how I would get her out and take care of her in case anything happened like a shooting. It's sad that when a mall and there's a loud bang everyone freezes and looks behind them and prepares to run from a shooter instead of just thinking a little kid popped a balloon. The presence of violence and the way our society has begun to prepare to run for their lives from shooters and bombings makes me sick to my stomach.

I hope that we can all come together in the future and spread love and peace instead of hate and blood. We are meant to live in peace and harmony with each other. We're not made to shoot down our fellow man and to wreck families and end lives. I know that one day we will reach a day of peace and well being around the world, where the news of mass murderers and acts of violence become distant ideas that are no longer present in our society. I just hope that for our sakes, this day comes soon.