It has been all to common to turn on the TV or look on the internet and see breaking news reporting another shooting. But these shootings have always been far away.
But today the breaking news concerned a shooting in my community at the Mall that I shop in sometimes.
Columbia is not the type of community where you would expect that this type of shooting would occur. It is fairly affluent suburban community halfway between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Columbia, Maryland is different from most suburbs.
The late James W. Rouse’s vision for Columbia was for a safe, open community devoid of the racial, social and economic problems that plagued so many other places.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
James Rouse envisioned a community that would be ethnically, racially, and religiously diverse. And this diversity continues today. According to The Washington Post:
Just over half of Columbia residents are white, a quarter are black, 11 percent are Asian and about 8 percent are Hispanic or Latino. About 18 percent of residents were born in another country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
There are interfaith centers where people of various religions share a common space.
Columbia is a Democratic area in a Democratic State. Unlike some other places in the country, there is not a strong gun culture here.
And there is a low crime rate here. The Baltimore Sun reported that in 2012:
Homicides investigated by Howard police remained at four cases for the third year in a row.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/...
Yet today our community was touched by violence as the shooting at the local mall made national news. And it has been reported that two local mall employees are dead as a result.
And despite these types of shootings in communities throughout this nation, we still don't have national gun control.
I hope that the shooting today will be the last one of its type reported. But sadly I suspect that it will not.
This madness has to stop.